What antivirus program are you using?

[moonbounce]

I was using Microsoft Security Essentials and have now switched to AVG.

For some reason MSE would not let me update, so I thought maybe I have a virus. I have read that a virus or malware will deactivate the program that is used to destroy them.

I did a lot of research before I downloaded AVG free and AVG came in third behind the paid version of Norton and Bitdefender but even so, it got lot of glowing reviews. It was mentioned how AVG had fallen out of favour in the past and how they have changed the program to get their reputation back.

Once downloaded I ran virus scan and it found a virus and a trojan horse, MSE didn't find anything. Also did a disk check of my harddrive and my backup harddrive and shut off programs that I don't use but that were using resources.

Moonbounce

[wtp]

different anti-virus programs see things differently
i use mse and it sees any java run program as a problem
must have something to do with recent java problems
yes a virus could have wiped out the update, i have that problem too after getting rid of a virus
i am waiting to restore xp os soon

[Ronaldski]

Check in the control panel for Windows Firewall to see if MSE was blocked.
Also manually go to updates, Microsoft Update

[moonbounce]

Originally Posted by Ronaldski

Check in the control panel for Windows Firewall to see if MSE was blocked.
Also manually go to updates, Microsoft Update

I don't use Windows firewall, I use Comodo ( another excellent program) and I couldn't see anything that was blocking the update file. Manually updating produced the same results, nothing.

Java from what I read is not to be trusted unless you download the most recent version from JAVA.COM.

I had uninstalled the Java program before this all started so I can't say that it was to blame, in fact I thought that maybe not having Java on my computer was causing the problem so I downloaded the newest version but the problem persisted.

Anyways I don't have MSE anymore as I also read that it was falling behind the rest of the antivirus pack.

[questnz]

Many options, many answers. After some 24 years in IT industry the subject is still very murky?. It depends which reviews you read, yep reviews. Currently Norton 360, Bitdefender, Kaspersky and F-Secure are on top of the reviews. The ratings is changing every 6 months. As I am using different H Disks with different configurations for my work. Two weeks ago after reading Bitdefender reviews I installed latest 2013 security on one of the test disks, it found some stuff as I expected (my disks scanned weekly). But hey, we just renew our business licenses for ESET. Updated to the latest and scanned one of the test disks again with ESET. It found 6 extra Adware and Scripts Bitdefender missed. Go figure !!!. The best, depends what wrote the article and who pay for advertising.
Read some AV reviews and comparatives. For last 5-6 years we been using ESET as not only it is easy to configure, auto update but have smallest footprint on the memory usage. Some of the very good rated security software are known resource hogging.
Do your homework, AVG, Avira, Avast have good reviews and they FREE to download. This make them best for "value for money" category.
ps If I recall correctly MSE don't scan or filter emails, this would exclude me to even consider using it.
Also I like statements like "I am using XYZ and never have any viruses" correct, no you don't, because until you scan HD with other reputable piece of software you never know how many pieces of junk your XYZ security missed! Don't relay on one product, beside ESET we using Malwarebytes, SpyBot, Superantispyware and CCleaner (remnance removals) ESET alone not the best for Malware removal.
http://www.pcworld.com/article/20259...ly-tested.html

[trsundstrom]

Wirelessly posted (Moto Droid Bionic: Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; U; Android 4.0.4; en-us; DROID BIONIC Build/6.7.2-223_DBN_M4-23) AppleWebKit/534.30 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile Safari/534.30)

I like Panda AV as it is a cloud-centric solution. Unlike the common popular apps, there aren't any update files to bog down the PC. HTH

[troymail]

I run Kaspersky on my XP Home desktop machine and McAfee on my Win7 laptop -- I tried switching from McAfee to Kaspersky completely but Kaspersky seemed to cause problems on my Win7 laptop so I went back to McAfee.

[wtp]

RONALDSKI thanks but i have tried a lot of things
when i transfere some programs will reinstall xp
i am missing some registry keys it seems

[mdulrich]

I've been very happy with Trend Micro products over the years. Their Titanium Internet Security 2013 product is also top rated in the PC World review mentioned above.

Mike

[questnz]

Interesting reading is it, all from "reputable" sources.

2013 Antivirus Software Head-to-Head Comparison
AV-TEST - The Independent IT-Security Institute: Home User
Virus Bulletin : VB100 results summary
AV-Comparatives - Independent Tests of Anti-Virus Software
AV-Test News | VentureBeat

[moonbounce]

Questnz you make some really good points, I also use MalwareBytes and CC Cleaner. Some of the material I read came from Maximum PC and PCWorld and some reading was done from articles on the internet. As I am no IT professional I have to rely on everyone else's research. But Maximum PC and PC World did give kudos to AVG free. But like you say "who is paying for the advertisments". I also run the paid version of Hot Shot VPN. I will keep with AVG for a while until something better comes up, more reading lol.

AVG for 2012 gets PC Mags' Editors Choice award for free antivirus, and really that is what I expect from an antivirus program, MalwareBytes will have to take care of malware and rootkits.

Moonbounce

[k3cfc]

I use GFI'S VIPRE. used to be sunbelt software. it updates silently runs in the background scans every night. but the best thing is it will not allow any threat to open. and if you have a problem there is online chat.30 day free try out. i installed win 7 ultra 3 yrs ago and never had to do another install.

K3CFC

[W5JER]

I use Kaspersky.

[lgentle]

System Center 2012 Endpoint Protection (client only).

[KD2DLL]

I have used Norton 360 for the last 4 years and it has not failed me yet. Seems to do the job for me.

[ridgescan]

Originally Posted by KD2DLL

I have used Norton 360 for the last 4 years and it has not failed me yet. Seems to do the job for me.

it sure does the job very well but it takes up way too much space to run. I can load it free from xfinity but when I do my machine slows down significantly. I wouldnt mind running 360 otherwise.

[zl2taw]

I run Avast & Malwarebytes to look after my network here and have done for quite a few years

they seem to do a decent job

[sylkwood]

Norton 360 runs well on a reasonable spec machine. Has intercepted some nasty stuff before it has got onto my computer. Runs in background so doesn't affect any gaming. I've been using it for a couple of years at least.

[vividvisions]

I use Malwarebytes mostly but rarely get any viruses. If I do it is usually harmless but I trust malwarebytes will pick anything serious up.

[moonbounce]

My MSE and MalwareBytes didn't find a the trojanhorse Dropper.Generic7 but AVG did.