Most resource and cost free Antivirus?

[J.D]

Say Norton or Avast and I kill you.

I need a free antivirus program that doesn't use many resources. Norton is just pure flax and Avast uses a ton of resources. Suggestions?

 

[Hermaphroditus]

AVG Free?

A good one that's not too expensive is Spyware Doctor.

And hey, what's wrong with Norton, my uncle works (and codes) for Symantec and says that the newer versions being released are going to be a lot better.

 

[zeturi]

I use spybot search and destroy. Other than that, I run ccleaner once a month.

 

[grossaffe]

linux

 

[epicelite]

OSX

 

[Bibin]

SpyBot S&D is great.

 

[Mako321]

SpyBot S&D is great.

My parents use it, it's awesome.

 

[grossaffe]

okay, real response time. When I run windows, these are some of my choice programs:
Spybot S&D
AVG
lavasoft Ad-aware

when trying to remove a particularly nasty virus:
Malware bytes
Super Anti-spy
Smit Fraud Fix

 

[Zero]

AVG or Avira +
Spybot and ad-aware

and install Hijackthis in case you get a really bad infection so you can get some help online.

 

[J.D]

SpyBot S&D is great.

I'll go with you on this one Bibin.

 

[J.D]

Actually nvm, I'll stick with Avast. I'll take a resource-heavy Antivirus program over a one that is less effective.

 

[samjc3]

use AVG free. its just dandy (im personally a nixfag, but yeah)

on my windows 7 box, i have avg 9. its just great. never have any problems. course, i rarely download anything, and a dont browse the dirty parts of the web, so it cuts down my exposure a ton.

 

[alex88]

i'll stick to kaspersky. it's easy to use and has a strong defense against threats.

 

[XCVG]

I use AVG, but I tend to stay in the safer areas of the web.

 

[Twilight Wolf]

I'm currently using Microsoft Security Essentials. Does a pretty good job.

I used to use AVG, but it sorta screwed with my games...

Then I went to Avast. That sucked. I had no control over what it did, and it would give me "access is denied" messages when I tried to end the process. Sega, I'm the administrator and this is my computer, you don't tell me what I can and can't do!

I uninstalled it, but it was a Sega to do. When I used the built-in uninstaller, it left lots of little pieces behind that I couldn't get rid of on my own, probably because I couldn't shut it down or just plain end the process and uninstall it properly. So I had to reinstall the whole thing, remove it from my startup programs so it wouldn't run when I turned my computer on, then use Revo Uninstaller to get rid of it all, and it still managed to leave pieces behind. Two months after the fact I was still finding folders labeled "Avast" on my hard drive; I'm pretty sure new ones were generated as time went on, too, not sure how... Reinstalling 7 was the only way I could get rid of it all. I'm never using that one again. o_o

After that, I went to Avira... not sure what I didn't like about that one, but I know I had reason to uninstall it. I think it didn't play nice with some of my programs.

Then I tried Microsoft Security Essentials. It's not bad. Unobtrusive, easy-to-use, free. I'm satisfied with it. That, along with sensible browsing practices and not downloading everything I come across keeps my system pretty safe.

 

[Ampersand]

Avast isn't THAT resource heavy.

 

[Twilight Wolf]

Never said it was. I just disliked how much control it had that I couldn't influence. :/

 

[Zero]

I think he was talking to J.D.

 

[Tibia]

I like AVG a lot. I've got it on all the computers in the office, and I've never had an issue. Admittedly, I don't do much gaming on the PC, so I really can't say what effect AVG has on that.

 

[Ampersand]

Yeah, there's a lot you can't do with Avast, however I've never had trouble with permissions or games.