IT Question. Wife's netbook came with a 30 day trial of McAfee.

[FSogol]

I've never liked McAfee and use AVG for my virus scanning. However, AVG gives you a lot of nag screens which will frustrate my wife.

So, I'm asking for a recommendation: Should I load Avast or use Microsoft Security Essentials.
(Note: I'm assuming Microsoft security Essentials includes a virus scan program, please let me know if I am mistaken.)

The netbook is running Windows 7 Pro.

What sez DU?

[nadinbrzezinski]

1. Mine came with it as well

and just chose to pay for it. Essentially the ever so popular if you load a new anti virus after taking the other one off, at times they still have issues.

[notesdev]

2. Avast

not even a close contest IMO

[Posteritatis]

25. Agreed (nt)

[AlabamaLibrul]

3. Avast. MS has been behind the curve for 20 years now, and are constantly releasing

URGENT OMG HURRY UP AND DOWNLOAD THIS SECURITY PATCH HOTFIX to prove it.

[Dappleganger]

15. Time to take a new look at MSE...

I am NOT a MS lover (am a Mac person, but we have several windows computers in the house), but the current version of MSE is surprisingly lean-running (not a memory hog) and effective.

[AlabamaLibrul]

18. I don't have to take a look at it.

I don't run Windows, and I don't deal with anyone else's computers anymore.

Yes, that's being a total snob about it, but such is life. I'd still recommend Avast over anything any day of the week pretty much forever, barring its discontinuance / it totally falls behind.

[Dappleganger]

28. Well, then you've effectively shut down the discussion.

Can't argue with a closed mind.

[Gamow]

19. +1... I am an IT pro (network admin). MSE is the best solution for Win 7 right now.

Free, lightweight and just as effective as for-pay software.

[Dappleganger]

33. That's what I suspected...

we used to use Avast as recently as 2 years ago, but it has just become so bloated that we finally dumped the software. I know quite a few IT/CE folks who recommended MSE last year for home use and we agree.

[Dont_Bogart_the_Pretzel]

42. Wait... Avast bloated?!? McAfee and Norton are known as bloated.

The Avast I downloaded is free and is not in any way bloated. Also it caught stuff AVG, McAfee and Norton missed.

[Dennis Donovan]

4. Screw McAfee - go with ESET

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CCEQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.eset.com%2F&ei=95srTYy_HoWclgfT1t3TAQ&usg=AFQjCNESWBxYzdJj86h9y-DsHZ-H0r80Aw&sig2=bKSODZwjI5Y_W8ZsjTV6pQ

[DeadEyeDyck]

11. ESET is one of the best

It is also very light-weight in that is places the least amount of load on the CPU.

DO NOT RUN NORTON unless you have a spare mainframe to run your virus spy-checker.

[tridim]

5. AVG free version installed here, no nag screens.

Well, maybe once a month, but that's it.

[Shagbark Hickory]

26. Are you kidding me!!?? AVG is nag screen city! I hate it.

Its not user friendly either.

[FSogol]

29. I Agree. AVG has gotten worse over the years. n/t

[tridim]

36. True, but there are fixes. See my post below.

I never even have to think about it, it has been installed on my systems for years. It runs like a dream.

[tridim]

30. Not kidding. Only thing I have turned off is "link scanner"

Now that I think about it I did remove one AVG service manually after installation, per instructions on a tech forum. Maybe that was the key? Do a search for "HD thrashing" and "AVG", you'll find it.

[Trekologer]

6. McAfee is boated garbage

McAfee sucks up your system resources and, on a netbook, those are likely to be fairly tight. I use Microsoft Security Essentials, which is an anti-virus utility. It doesn't hog the system at all.

[Betty88]

24. +1

The first thing I did when I got my netbook was to delete McAfee. Once I deleted that the netbook worked so much better it was crazy. I use MSE on it and my desktop and have not had any issues.

[Dappleganger]

7. This year I would recommend MSE...

over any other (including Avast) for free programs. Right now it seems to be the leanest-running, most effective free tool out there. You still need a firewall, though.

[FSogol]

38. Huh? Doesn't Windows come with a friewall these days? n/t

[DURHAM D]

8. Running Microsoft Security Essentials currently.

Grab it - its free. And yes it scans.

Got tried of McAfee reminders, etc.

[Upton]

9. I've got MSE on one of my laptops..

works great..

[ohheckyeah]

10. I like McAfee

and just bought a 3 computer license for it for a little over $14 from Buy.com. I ran a security test with Shield's Up and got a great report that my computer is extremely safe.

My sister just got a whole pile of key loggers and viruses using AVG.

[Stinky The Clown]

12. I liked ESET. Effective. Small footprint. Low overhead. Nearly 100% background.

www.eset.com

[Seedersandleechers]

13. Get a Mac

And don't worry about antivirus programs. It's built into the OS.

[AlabamaLibrul]

14. That wasn't the question posed in the OP and it's a bit late now

although a great option along with Linux.

[Cleita]

17. Took the words out of my mouth.

Since I got my Mac I haven't had to worry about Norton, McAfee or any of the others. I never have gotten a virus or other internet problem with it either.

[Dappleganger]

37. One of many reasons why I use a Mac

Never have to add software to protect it from the internet.

[Jamastiene]

16. Avira is good.

It does have one nag screen when you first boot up, but it works and it is free.

[CreekDog]

20. Microsoft Security Essentials

Avast is vast enough to be annoying.

AVG also causes slowdowns and the constant prompts to update are annoying.

MSE seems to be as good without the attendant reminders. It also seems to have a negligible effect on the computer speed.

[somone]

21. No fan of M$, but have to say MSE (the new version)

[Xithras]

22. MSE is highly recommended.

Many techies respond with an almost knee-jerk dislike for it because it's from MS, and because it offers very few options for "power users", but it's easily among the best free products available for home users who simply want an AV solution that they can install and forget about. It also has one of the fastest and least resource hungry scanning engines available right now. It matches the detection performance of products like Avast and AVG, while running circles around them performance-wise.

If you're going to run Windows, and you don't want to pay for anti-virus, it's the way to go right now. I've removed AVG from my Windows 7 vm's in favor of MSE and have had NO complaints.

[notadmblnd]

23. My ISP provides Nortons as part of my internet package.

Check with yours, maybe they have one for users to d/l?

[GreenPartyVoter]

27. My tech hubby says the newest Norton Anti-Virus or Internet Security would

be good. They take up less system resources, which is better for something like a Netbook.

[Hugabear]

34. I'm using Norton Internet Security 2010 as well

I was using Microsoft Security Essentials before I got my new computer, which came with a trial version of NIS. I hadn't been a big fan of Norton, but this newest one is actually pretty good, rated near the top by many analysts.

[Arkana]

31. Avast, Avast, Avast.

McAfee is the textbook definition of a ripoff--and yet it's still better than Norton Security Suite.

[Old and In the Way]

32. I run a pay version of Avast on my business computer, but I recommend MSE

Loaded it on my laptop and my daughter's a few months ago...runs great, updates regularly, seems to have a very low resource load. Kind of makes sense, given it integrates with the MS operating system. I don't know why they just didn't release Windows 7 with this fully operational.

[FSogol]

35. Thanks for the opinions everyone. n/t

[IDemo]

39. I'm running Avast and MSE, probably no need to

I'm with you on McAfee.

[Statistical]

40. Avast is better IMHO but if you want a "set it and forget it" solution you can't beast MSFT SE. n/t

[Matariki]

41. I've been very happy with Webroot

which won awards this year for best anti-virus.

[Anakin Skywalker]

43. D.U. says you use LINUX instead!

[jwirr]

44. I liked it when I had it - but I am no pro.

[walldude]

45. Go where the gamers go...

Bit Defender.

I have heard that F-Secure is also really good.

[frylock]

46. kaspersky..

well worth the money. you may even be able to find it for free, after rebates.

[Swamp Rat]

47. Wipe the drive, partition the HD, re-install Windows 7 on a partition and Ubuntu 10.10 on the other

IF, you have enough HD space.

I really like this set-up, though I am currently running XP instead of Windows 7 on the 1st partition. (if you have Windows 32 bit, make sure to use the 32 bit Ubuntu, same for any other Linux distribution)

Try starting with this Ubuntu distro:

http://hacktolive.org/wiki/Super_OS

Burn the ISO to disc and/or install on a USB drive (i.e., for netbooks). Use the Ubuntu (SuperOS) install disc to format and partition the HD.

Or, use the official Ubuntu 10.10 distro, which lacks some movie and sound codecs (I've been using the SuperOS distros with great success for over a year).

http://www.ubuntu.com