antivirus, need one that's not guff

[karbon]

So my mother has kindly told her friend i'll "setup" her daughters new laptop for her.

It's some toshiba monstrosity made of more plastic than Jackie Stallone and running as bad as Fred Flintstones car already and it's only been out the box 5 minutes.

I've been somewhat absent from the world of keeping Windows ticking over and as such have no idea what to use thesedays. I have however noticed that AVG seem to want to sell you anything and everything as soon as you think about installing the free version, which isn't something I want to do.

I'm sure someone else out there has stepped up to the plate and produced a decent AV program that isn't pushy with adverts, keeps systems relatively clean and won't install all the porns for a 7 year old to start browsing.

FANKS

[Nutcase]

I have started getting the odd ad from AVG but it's only about 1 a week - I can put up with that for a free and half decent AV program :)

[Feek]

Avast! ?

[divine]

AntiVir by Avira, just disable the registry key that makes the pop ups appear and you'll only ever know it's there when a little box appears in the corner to tell you it's updated or it detects something nasty.

[Stan_Lite]

Avast! ?

Seconded.

Install the free version. After a couple of months you'll have to register for a free licence key and then you won't hear a thing from it for another year when you need to renew the licence. No nagging and no ads. Damn good AV as well - been using it for years.

[Zico]

If they bank with Barclays then you get a 3 user licence for Kaspersky Internet Security Suite and HSBC supply McAfee (if I remember correctly).

[Knipples]

Another vote for Avast here.

[Aboobie]

After flitting with aVast and Avira I've come back to Microsoft Security Essentials.

http://www.microsoft.com/security_essentials/

[Joe 90]

I just recently ditched McAfee for Avast Internet Security on our home PC & my machine. £45 a year for 3 licenses - we were paying £45 a year for McAfee so I'm currently impressed without being bothered about the expense.

[Lozza]

Avast free here at home, but a couple of the PC's at work are using Microsoft Security Essentials which seems to be doing it's job.

[Aboobie]

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/12/02/avg_auto_immune_update/

An update from AVG on Wednesday night rendered 64 bit Windows 7 systems unstable after it was applied.

I'd not go with AVG if I was you.

[Davey_Pitch]

Definitely Avast for me, best AV I've ever used and I've tried a lot of them over the years. Does the job with no input bar a yearly registration of the program, with no annoying ads or anything like that. Awesome.

[Joe 90]

its not been mentioned but I'd vote against Sophos.

Its on my work PC & every time I run Ccleaner it seems to have created the worlds biggest temp files in its auto update dir!

[Streeteh]

I've had a pretty good time with Microsoft Security Essentials. Has caught plenty of nasties, been using it for over a year now and nothing has ever got past.

[Justsomebloke]

Definitely Avast for me, best AV I've ever used and I've tried a lot of them over the years. Does the job with no input bar a yearly registration of the program, with no annoying ads or anything like that. Awesome.

^^ Saves me typing. :cool:

[Robert]

Kaspersky.

[kaiowas]

its not been mentioned but I'd vote against Sophos.

Seconded, we use it at work and I swear it's half the reason most of the machines run like treacle.

I'm another 'Avast free' user at home.

[Glaucus]

Just get MSE
http://www.microsoft.com/security_essentials/default.aspx

[Knipples]

Just to say i've just had my "your license is about to expire" reminder from Avast, and when I clicked on it to renew it, I didn't have to copy and paste the code like I have in previous years from the email they sent me, I just filled in the form on the website and that renewed it. Bargain!