Thank you for being a valued part of the CNET community. As of December 1, 2020, the forums are in read-only format. In early 2021, CNET Forums will no longer be available. We are grateful for the participation and advice you have provided to one another over the years.

Thanks,

CNET Support

General discussion

Which antivirus utility protects your computer?

Jan 14, 2005 4:01AM PST

Which antivirus utility protects your computer?

AVG Anti-Virus (love or hate it?)
Kaspersky Anti-Virus (love or hate it?)
McAfee VirusScan (love or hate it?)
Norton AntiVirus (love or hate it?)
Panda Titanium Antivirus (love or hate it?)
Trend Micro PC-cillin (love or hate it?)
Other (what is it?)
I don't need no stinkin' antivirus app. (really, why not?)

Discussion is locked

- Collapse -
Without a antivirus utility at present!!!
Nov 27, 2005 5:28AM PST

When I was running w/Windows 98 I had Norton Anti-Virus...........When I changed to XP-Pro I could not remove the Norton completely and therefore I cannot install a utility on my present system. Believe me, I have tried..................Going to stay without one until THAT DAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

- Collapse -
AVG antivirus , for me the best
Nov 27, 2005 6:41AM PST

Up to now, AVG killed all the viruses my computer had catch, so I don?t need no other one.

- Collapse -
Love my Norton
Nov 27, 2005 6:47AM PST

I bonded with all my Norton software. I was never able to bond with any of the others that I tried. Norton works flawlessly for me and my pc and i love the password manager (was very skeptical about even trying that!)My system is pretty well guarded (no problems since I took this pc out of the box 3 years ago...yes, i've upgraded my memory and video card since then and have wi-fi, etc). It's an entry level (mostly) Dell and the Norton Internet Security/AntiVirus seams with the MS Firewall. They never fight. We are just a happy cyberfamily now. melissa~

- Collapse -
Beware of Kaspersky Anti-Virus
Nov 27, 2005 4:47PM PST

I downloaded the free trial version a few weeks ago and it totally messed up my laptop. It was constantly using 100% of the CPU, obviously slowing it right down. And when iam actually starting up the laptop instead of taking 2-3 minutes it takes 10-15, since i unistalled it its been fine. the only plus points of the software is that it had detected two viruses that AVG hadnt, but there werent major threats. another problem was the length of time it took to scan. my laptop only has 24GB and it took me 2-3 hours to do a full scan, very irratating, especially because this also slowed down my system.
a note to those who want to try it, BEWARE IF YOU START GETTING PROBLEMS AFTER DOWNLOADING IT REMOVE IT A.S.A.P!!!

- Collapse -
antivirus
Nov 27, 2005 7:34PM PST

i have looked at all of the antivirus utility's use here have used them all and the only one (AT the time)
that didn't miss a virus was Kaspersky which found my
puter still full if viruses,also i have a friend that was having serious problems and she had Norton Pro and i told her to try the trial version of Kaspersky
and it found over 30 viruses runnig through her system,nuff said!!!!!!!!!

- Collapse -
Answer to 'How do I protect my computer'
Nov 27, 2005 9:19PM PST

I protect my pc with OS firewall, as well as a PC dedicated firewall, and finally, a router with firewall capabilities. And, finally, I don't put anything on a pc that I don't want the world to know about. The only safe pc is one that is unplugged.

- Collapse -
Avast!
Nov 28, 2005 3:17AM PST

NT

- Collapse -
Norman NVC
Nov 28, 2005 8:24PM PST

I use Norman NVC and Adaware. I do not know why this firm never is mentioned among the leading virus software. It works very good.

- Collapse -
Norton AV
Nov 29, 2005 2:47AM PST

I changed to Norton about 3 years ago from McAfee based on my local tech repair person's recommendation. "All the pros use Norton"? Well........not true, obviously. I have Norton's "utility" pkg. and it is good for trouble shooting system "bugs" but customer service can be a challenge. I have gone around in circles with their site to try and get some straight answers to questions, had to remove it once due to a problem with e mail program, being hearing impaired, I have difficulty understanding strong accents from phone support people but they have helped me register again several times after my 2 year old laptop "fried" twice within 30 days. Ouch!

Anyway, I would like to know the bottom line of this poll? Who is considered the best for PC owners? Most people simply want a basic trouble free program to stop all the weird tech nuts out for revenge to the World for whatever perceived reason.

- Collapse -
AVG is Great !!
Nov 29, 2005 11:21AM PST

I've been using AVG for several months now. I've used Norton, F-Secure, & McAfee. Norton is expensive and way overrated, it didn't update automatically like it was supposed too and caused all kinds of problems on my machine. I was offered F-Secure free through my Broadband service, that was a disaster, I had to uninstall and reinstall several times,because it would freeze up and wouldn't update. Then I got 2 viruses while using it. As for McAfee, I just didn't like it at all. AVG is the best in my book, easy interface,regular updating, and no problems at all with it on my machine, and best of all, no viruses. I've recommended it to several people, and put it on several machines for family members and friends, all have had great results with it. It's the best free anti-virus out there in my opinion.

- Collapse -
AVG ANTI VIRUS
Nov 29, 2005 5:09PM PST

I use AVG and i have to say that it is the best!
i used macfree but i hated it and so did my beloved pc, it nearly wrecked my pc!
i could not uninstall the thing and i had to manually remove it by going into safe mode and then i could not do system restore but luckily i had saved my registry so i had to import the registry - i know what i mean!
dont use macfree it makes you machine slow right down like a sloth!

- Collapse -
I do not like PC - cillian
Nov 30, 2005 8:37AM PST

First off, the software is too expensive and only allows one user license. This program is also not as user friendly as other virus scans I have used in the past. The firewall feature is confusing, the spyware scan offers too little information and is down right annoying since you have to delete each detected item individually although there maybe dozens.

- Collapse -
Will let you know when I find one that is user friendly
Dec 4, 2005 7:06PM PST

I have been dealing with McAfee since buying my computer in early 2001. After the virus protection that came with that purchase expired I purchased McAfee Internet Security ver. 5.0. When that expired I began getting annoying and frequent pop-ups telling me to update my service. I went and purchased McAfee internetsecuritysuite 2005 ver. 7.0. After I installed it the pop-ups continued. McAfee support failed to provide the correct means of stopping them. I finally stumbled across something that looked promising in my Add/Remove and got rid of the pop-ups.
My ver. 7.0 was due to expire March 29, 2006 but something went wrong. It somehow expired a few weeks ago. I had to Add/Remove expunge all of it from my computer before I could get my internet service to be allowed to operate. Of course I could not get to McAfee's internet support site without doing this.
McAfee's Customer Support responded that I should go to its Technical Support. McAfee's Technical Support did not even verify that their response matched my computer's operating system. I have still not re-installed the software because McAfee has yet to respond to my response to their response to being informed that their first Technical Support response was useless to me. So if you have not learned to operate 4 networked computers and are concerned about more than virus problems, try to find something user friendly.

- Collapse -
RE: AVG, what's not to love?
Dec 6, 2005 1:25AM PST

After running several av's I have found that AVG is tops!
I "infected" the same machine with 8 virus all 8 were found in a matter of seconds using AVG. Norton only found 3, McCaffe only found 5...that is just sad. the high points are that AVG sits in the background and uses minimal system recs, the others really bog a system down.
I highly recommed AVG, and will only use AVG from now on.
It is free, but I have purchased it, and it is REALLY worth it!!! the pro version is feature packed and easy to use! The test system was a Compac Presario 5000 running XP Professional with Office 20003.

- Collapse -
CROSSWORD PUZZLE...
Jan 7, 2006 10:23AM PST

Ok Ok... Here we go...
(Teacher) What is a six letter word for virus?

(Little Johnny)Uuhhh... Inn..... Oooh... Ahrrr... Tuh Tuh Teeee... wait a minute; Hmmmm, lemme see.....

Well, while little Johnny struggles, you figure out the rest, and get a good anti-virus software; Or else the above named worm will eat your memory up!

- Collapse -
Trend Micro PC-cillin
Feb 4, 2006 9:33AM PST

Trend Micro PC-cillin - has been the best I have had in 10 years. Norton kept hanging up on both laptop and desktop. Glad I took norton off both my computers.

- Collapse -
I hate Panda Titanium Antivirus 2006
Feb 8, 2006 10:12AM PST

Panda Titanium Antivirus protects my mother's computer, which I am currently using, and I hate it. It does too good a job and I can't figure out how to stop it doing very anoying things like deleting attatchments that I want, and marking messages about my paypal account as [PHISHING]:

Michael.

- Collapse -
Thumbs Down on the Movers & Shakers!
Mar 18, 2006 3:53PM PST

Been through the NAV nightmares - everything stated here i.e., missed viruses, terrible support, system resource hog, locking the computer, .dll file problems, renewal issues, there's a few more but you get my drift. Why is this even considered one of the top guns??? Makes me wary of polls and reviews. Went through McAfee trials, arrghh is all I've got to say. Panda Titanium was the interim lifesaver for me although a little pricey. Then suddenly, I was notified that PAVT 2004 is no longer supported and BOOM - everything started going to hell. It wouldn't accept payment for subscription renewal. The latest version download disabled my net connection. ISP guy came to the house - couldn't figure out the problem. I got a new modem and netcard, reinstalled PAV and still wouldn't work. This is when I found out about Panda's non-existent customer support - nothing for the renewal problems, nothing for the net connection problems. Now I am searching for a new AV and after reading 400+ posts here, I'm still not sure what to do next. Time for some free stuff maybe . . .

- Collapse -
depends on which puter on the network
May 31, 2006 2:31PM PDT

all the win98 boxes use avg, and the xp boxes use mcaffee cause mcaffee dont work on win98 here

- Collapse -
(NT) (NT) Avast! Antivirus
Apr 30, 2010 7:53AM PDT
- Collapse -
Anti virus
Apr 30, 2010 4:30PM PDT

Anti virus is important to protect your important project data. I am also looking for any good anti-virus for my computer.

- Collapse -
answer
Jul 17, 2011 8:41PM PDT

I don't use an antivirus, hate it. Doesn't seem to offer much protection that browsing trusted websites, not to mencion that when it does find a virus, to get rid of it sometimes the antivirus has to delete some important files which makes your system not work like it should be.