Times pass and things change. I can remember when you need 2 computer in one, one to run Norton and another for you to do whatever you need. 

But now Norton seem to be one of the best out there. Before i go and throw give them my hard earned money, I would like to hear from peeps experience which security suites worth it.

I am on Windows 7. I was running a trial version of Norton 2009 (that came with the Notebook) but it was expiring so, I decide to give a try to Panda (It was free for 24 hours on the 22), it really slowed down my gaming and even browsing.

So ??? 

Thanx.

AVG free is all that you need.

I download sooooooooo much stuff from various nefarious resources... catch my drift?

Never a virus.  Not one.

I even download keygens that i KNOW have viruses, trusting that AVG Free will take care of it, and it has.

I've used it for as long as I can remember.

If what you are looking for is just an anti-virsus app i would recommend AVAST or AVG - theyre are both very easy on the computer and theyre free. They are prolly not as good as Norton or Panda, but if u dont go to sites like "www.mysexyfemaleejaclatingdadwithastrapon.com u shouldnt really be too worried about viruses

I'm using the Microsoft Security Essentials that they offer free.

Installed it earlier in the week when I updated to Windows 7; it seems to be working quite happily and isn't a noticeable drain on the old system resources.

It's obviously too early for me to recommend it but as I'm not a frequent visitor to the dark side of teh intarwebz, I doubt I'll have to worry about accidentally acquiring a virus or anything.

Last time I uninstalled Norton's it also uninstalled my operating systems ability to access the internet.

But yes, AVG is a great program.

Seriously dude... sooooooooo much downloading.  An unholy amount, really. 

If that doesn't show how great AVG is, I don't know what is.

Sure, it's free, but don't let that fool you.  And if you feel better with software the costs money, they do have a version you can pay for.

Originally posted by madeux

I even download keygens that i KNOW have viruses, trusting that AVG Free will take care of it, and it has.

If you ran the Keygen, then AVG didn't do anything. If AVG didn't allow you to run the keygen, then it worked. If it was a keygen and it sent something to someone else, you're not going to know about it. It's not going to go "HEY, Sending your stuff now! kthnxbai!" it's just going to do it in the background and probably a hidden taste that can't be picked up by task manager or netstat.

Either way, most keygens usually don't have viruses in them. Very good crackers usually make them and believe it or not, alot of them get paid very well for what they do because they save companies money and don't care about your passwords and CC numbers and such.

I've always taken the approach of, if you need antivirus you're f'd anyway. Because AntiVirus really doesn't do a whole lot. Millions of different viruses are made everyday and only a few make it on to the antivirus lists. AntiVirus software is the biggest, longest running scam of computer history.

I recommend Avast free edition, with sound disabled and manual updating. 

Originally posted by heremypet

I recommend Avast free edition, with sound disabled and manual updating. 

I agree with this, i payed 60 bucks for bit defender and it just screwed me over most of the time, ever since i got avast i havent had one problem and it catches everything. Get avast, malewarebytes and superantispyware and your all good.

AVG antivirus  (love it)

Ccleaner  for cleaning up temp files and crap (even has a decent registry cleaner)

Ad-aware (anti-spyware)

Defraggler (great defrag'n app)

Malwarebytes (anti-spyware/malware)

Spybot search and destry (anti-spyware)

ALL FREE.  

I can't remember the last time I paid for any of this type of stuff. 

You guys mean to say theres a darker side to the internet than this site?

I use Avast as well. Never had any issues.

Small footprint, non invasive, and best of all will catch viruses while you are still downloading the file and let you know.

One interesting site to check out with regards to how different programs compare to each other.  Includes free and pay-for versions programs.

www.av-comparatives.org/

Lots of reports and information there with loads of detail.

An AV program will only report on what it knows, which is hard-coded in the definitions list.  Heuristics does work to a point, but still has a lot of holes unless you crank it so high that it thinks everything exhibits "virus-like" tendencies.  One could have any AV program installed on their machine and still have virus/trojan infections and not even know about it simply because the program can't see them to tell you about it.  If you download and run a file that has a virus and heuristics doesn't "sense" it and it's not listed in the definition list, then you get infected.