[kwkarth]

I've run across many PC's that were infected with hundreds of viri, yet were actively running AVG.  It's worse than worthless in my experience.  I use PCTools Spyware Doctor for all of my clients.  It cleans them up and keeps them clean.

 

[sanakaku]

Got AVG it works good what are you talking about?. i got it off demonoid 

 

[atbglenn]

I use the free version of Avast on my PC's. I find it works much better than AVG. 

 

[necropimp]

4 YEAR NECROPOST
 
 
also Microsoft Security Essentials is the current best free anti virus on windows

 

[MCC]

Microsoft Security Essentials gets the vote from me. I previously used Avira but a few months ago I found an obvious virus email in my spambox and had Avira scan it manually. It found NOTHING.
 
I uploaded it to virustotal and MSE was one of the few that identified it. Unfortunately MSE has a bad DPC latency bug that can cause music, video, and the entire machine to stutter if you have lots of network connections. The fix is to disable realtime scanning and manually scan files downloaded from the internet.

 

[Landis]

My company has an annual product fair, they throw tons of software at us and a lot of anti-virus programs. Despite receiving copies of Webroot, Norton, Kaspersky, McAfee and other such programs, I purchase copies of NOD32 as it has been my trusted anti-virus and internet security program for the better half of a decade. Great program, highly efficient and I'd say the best proactive defense on the market. I'd also recommend Panda and Kaspersky for the mainstream buyer, but there are many great lesser known products that can lend a buttload of help to an already functioning antivirus, like Ad-Aware or, as Kwkarth noted, PC Tools' Spyware Doctor.

 

[revolink24]

I also vote for MSE. It stays out of your face most of the time, which I like.

 

[EnOYiN]

4 years. Wow.
 
Anyways, I prefer to use brains. It's the best thing ever. It's free and it will allow you to stay virus and spyware-free for years. Try it!

 

[revolink24]

Thats what half my clients say when I tell them they have a virus after 3 seconds of scanning.

 

[MCC]

Quote:

4 years. Wow.
 
Anyways, I prefer to use brains. It's the best thing ever. It's free and it will allow you to stay virus and spyware-free for years. Try it!

Until someone plugs a flash drive into your computer that is. I have autorun disabled but files from even trusted sources are presumed virus-laden until proven otherwise.

 

[Landis]

Quote:

4 years. Wow.
 
Anyways, I prefer to use brains. It's the best thing ever. It's free and it will allow you to stay virus and spyware-free for years. Try it!

You'd be surprised how viruses and spyware act. Chances are even if you browsed only this webpage for years on end without ever cleaning or formatting your computer, you may have some spyware or viruses. Heck, there was that ad that was giving the forums problems just before the transition from the old forums to the new ones and it was setting off what appeared to be genuine virus alerts, although I'm not sure if it was ever deduced whether or not it was a real threat, but to those without protection, it could most certainly pose a threat.
 
You ever check your email? Browse media or shopping websites? Get a trial version of one of those spyware programs noted above and give your computer a cleansing every once in a while if you aren't going to run continual proactive defense. Also CCleaner is an excellent program and it's completely free (clears unneeded information, registry fix and errors), not virus defense, but can be useful for cleaning up where a virus or spyware has been.

 

[EnOYiN]

More wow. I didn't actually mean that so seriously as it was taken. My apologies. I run AVG free edition aside from brains. I'm also running firefox with noscript and adblock +. The only virus or spyware which is to be seen on my computer is Windows itself and steam. Other than that I've got a clean image of my hard drive and I make backups very regularly. I'm in IT for a quite a while now and I think I know quite well how virusses and spyware work. Aside from all the virusscanners I've got a very neat firewall. That said, I still think brains are BY FAR the best measure against virusses and spyware. It's my very own heuristic virusscanner and it catches most things.
 
Also, as a sidenote. I never clean my registry because I prefer just running my image again or reïnstalling Windows altogether. The first obviously happens more often than the latter.
 
I'll refrain from trying to make jokes for today since those clearly don't get across with just plain text.

 

[floydenheimer]

MSE is hard to beat. Avira is good too, if you disable the popup ads. Throw in Adblock (Firefox), Adthwart (Chrome), or Simple Adblock (IE), Spybot and Spywareblaster immunization databases, Malwarebytes and Superantispyware for scanning and removal and you're pretty darn secure.

 

[gilency]

I had problems with Panda. I had to reformat my drive once because of viruses Panda did not detect.
Avast has worked pretty well so far.

 

[acidbasement]

I use AVG because it's the only free AV program recognized by my old job's internet portal for some reason.  I'll probably switch to Avast at some point but have been to lazy to do so thus far.
 
In general, if I ever suspect that I have a virus that my current AV program can't get rid of, I use TrendMicro's free online tool HouseCall and it usually works without the hassle of installing a new program.
 
edit: woops, damn necropost got me again!