Been antivirus (and virus) free for the last couple of years. - I'd soon notice if something was up, and could probably nuke it myself if needs be. There's been maybe twice when I needed to be absolutely sure if windows was acting up, or if it was malware etc, so I've run Spybot with nothing found. (The joys of using a router!) If I had a decent dual-core system, I might consider running a resident AV, but considering I've only just replaced my old AthlonXP system with a socket 754 setup, that ain't gonna be soon...
If you don't do anything dodgy on your PC you should be fine tho. Install proper firewall and be carefull Doing online scan [Kaspersky is good] every few months should should give you more answers whether was worth it.
in my opinion, no you dont need antivirus. common sense is prevalent in any case. If you dont at all feel comfortable with the diea of re-installing windows at any time, then dont take the risk, but i personally prefer having the extra few seconds on start up and the knowledge that the only overheads on my system are the programs I have decided to run. Re-imaging my PC takes a couple of hours, and whether i have viruses or not, i rebuild my PC every couple of months just to keep performance at its top level. i'm one of those people that gets annoyed with having to use MSCONFIG just to stop things like QTTASK and Neroupdate check etc from installing themselves and running on every boot. Its bad practice that pretty much every program these days has some sort of system tray icon that starts up when your PC does, yet you rarely use the program, but give it CPU cycles regardless every time you switch your PC on. Anyone else like me who noticed recently that i tend to update quicktime more than actually use it? FFS, get it right, leave me a lone and if i WANT itunes, i'll ask for it, i don't so why on earth does it install when all i want is a bloomin video codec? Quicktime alternative it is then.
Good post LordLuciendar! Although the tone might have distracted some readers from the valid points you made I would advise using AntiVirus software, and certainly if on XP also upgrading the firewall. I'd suggest either Norton Internet Security 2009 (out soon) or Kaspersky Internet Security 2009. Kaspersky is available for 3 licenses free of charge for a year if you with Barclays online banking (I know business get it, not sure if personal accounts do to). I'm currently using Kaspersky 2009 and Norton 2007. I've used Norton for 8+ years now, and agree it does slow things down a little, but not as bad as many might have one beleive. For my intensive photo processing work their is no slow down compaing my machine with and without anti virus software. And if using IE set your Internet Options Security and Privacy options to the higher settings for safety.
need to perhaps re-word my suggestion on this issue... There are two types of people in this regard, and so two sets of reccomendations. If you know what you're doing, then Antivirus is Non-essential If you DON'T know what you're doing, or have doubts when downloading links, or visit a lot of dodgy sites, then install it and sleep sound. i think thats basically what most are saying here, and as above, in reality, in this day and age, Adaware and Antispyware are far more useful than Antivirus.
Same here pretty much, I have played with AVG, Adaware, Spybot etc in the past, but for the most part i just rely on knowing my PC well (what should and shouldn't be in the process' list etc) Can't say I have had much in the way of problems with virus' etc. (Famous last words?) Ultimnately the choice is up to the owner / main user of the PC, if anything goes wrong they will have to deal with the consequences.
interesting discussion i've started lol, i did decide to uninstall avg yesterday, i ran a scan just before but as i guessed it came back with no problems.. if however i start a thread asking about advice after getting a virus feel free to say i told you so lol.. i'll keep running adaware every month tho
I personally run no antivirus and have never had a problem... but look what happened last week !!!!... Last week my wife gave me her laptop (no antivirus installed) and told me it had been infected. I thought it was going to be an easy thing to remove... Hmmm.. boy was I wrong. This virus had been installed after she accidentally clicked 'close' on a pop up from some nefarious website no doubt. The close button was fake obviously (rather than clicking the x top right), and it then installed itself all over her system. Whatever the virus was doing, it was sucking bandwidth from our ADSL connection, and also running the Hard drive into an early grave. It claimed to be an Anti Virus product itself, XP Anti Virus or something like that, but was just a fake. Typically I had given my wife Admin rights so she wouldnt keep pestering me when she had wanted to install something. DOH! First of all I disabled the running processes, and then the dodgy entries in startup/ms config. Then I restarted to a more pleasant XP. However, when I searched for removal instructions in google, everytime I clicked on web pages that seemed to mention the virus, the web browser was redirected elsewhere!!!! Everytime I tried to download an anti virus tool like Nod or AVG, the bloody virus stopped the download mid way through! I downloaded the anti virus software onto a USB key elsewhere and tried to install it that way. No deal.. The virus shut down the installation before it could finish... Some of the removal instructions up on the web are also clearly fake too. You just dont know who to trust and what to believe. Parts of the OS had also been modified. I couldnt even remove the Virus's wall paper it had plastered up, as the option in display properties was no longer there. Hmmm..! So having spent a couple of hours trying to kill it and failing..... I have a rule which says if I have to spend more time 'fixing' something, than it takes to rebuild it, then I will rebuild. The wife also didnt trust my ability to totally remove the damn virus, fearing it had somehow installed a trojan back door/key logger that we would be unable to detect and remove. She had a point. So I wiped the PC and reinstalled Windows XP on it. Took me a few hours to get everything back to normal for her, and we wrote off her lost files that she had not backed up recently. Now she runs a limited user account with AVG running constantly in the background ! Lesson learnt for me. I would not however touch Mcaffe or Norton products at all though from past experience. And she will not click on dodgy looking adverts from now on that appear in web browsers (hopefully) !!!
I've been using eset nod32 for as long as i can remember and it doesn't noticeably impact on system performance like norton etc will, give it a look. You'd be surprised at all the (admittedly minor) stuff it can pick up, and it's certainly easier to get rid of a major issue with it already installed than trying to install an AV later, and you'll probably be too late anyway.
I've got Nod32, and that's because I do those things that run the risk of me getting a virus. If you don't get something free and let that be that. I wouldn't leave my system with no protection whatsoever though.
I haven't ran a virus check for atleast 6 months.. I just ran MBAM, and it found nothing. The thing is, I don't know if this is a good thing. What if there is stuff it can't find?
All i've got is Kaspersky AntiVirus (whatever the new version is, my key lasts for 2 years), the Windows Defender (is this thing any good? it never bugs me so thats one good thing) and my routers firewall. I have UAC turned off, windows firewall turned off. I have Windows Defender to automatically scan when it wants. (doesnt seem to hog my 4gb of ram). Kaspersky scan automatically once a week while I am not at home. I also have windows defrag my hard drives once a week. Only way I ever get anything is if a click on random things cuz I know Kaspersky will catch it.
Yes, it's a good idea. Even if you're very careful about your browsing. Because things install themselves without asking you. If it's windows vista, then no, you probably don't need an antivirus IF uac is enabled. You wouldn't **** a whore without a condom, even if you knew you could pull out, would you?
be as careful as you want. someone at work opened an e-mail from "UPS". he got a virus. We ended up rebooting the PC. better safe than sorry, especially when safe is free. (Avast for the cheesecake) i just feel sorry for the mac fanboys who proudly live without AV software. one day they may just get twated with a mac specific virus which may or may not have originated from me being malicious. i'd do it just to prove a point.
I use trend micro and i wouldn't trade it for anything, u don't need to go to a suspicious website to get a virus, spyware, adware, or malware as mentioned u could just as easy get it from a trusted site. performance gains from not having AV are not significant enough to warrant not using one, especially a free one. TRend micro runs quietly in my background and i'm none the wiser when surfing or playing online games even on an old single core processor to the thread writer u already have it just keep it surfing the web unprotected and even putting your personal info in on websites is not a good idea, don't tell me you're gonna bang a random person and not use a condom
AVG Free with daily scan disabled, Spybot S&D and Windows Defender. Running an Internet enabled machine without antivirus is a no-no. It's like the starship Enterprise operating without sensors. Just because they can't see any Klingon Birds of Prey, doesn't mean the Klingons aren’t there.
SmitFraud... Download the SmitFraud Fix here You won't be able to get to it from an infected computer, you'll have to transfer it by USB key. Run AVG Free Scan in CLI (in safe mode) when you're done to mop up the mess. You'll probably need to run Hijack This too, for good measure run CCleaner to wipe temp. files and then delete extraneous folders in prog. files and root. Make sure you disable hidden files AND hidden system files before you search to delete. This is a very common, very nasty set of viruses. I clean it out about twice a day on a slow day. Sometimes you have to reformat in the end, but this is how you combat it (and almost every other virus out there too). Ed. Just a sidenote, but AVG Anti-Virus 8.0 or Internet Security 8.0 (the pay versions) when up to date will stop this, very few other programs will. Norton and McAfee don't even see it, I haven't tested NOD32 or Avast...
I run Spybot, or really Teatimer which coms with it, in conjunction with a good router and have never hand a problem. Biggest headache is the process of updating and running Spybot every 6 months or so and all it ever finds are a couple of cookies that I'm not too worried about. On the other hand, a full wipe and re-install of my machine is a minor inconvienience, not the end of the world. In fact, I need to do that this month when we get broadband because something has been causing BSODs and it's easier to re-install than mess around with diagnosing.
