What Virus Scanning Software would you recommend?

[Esoomspark]

I'm getting a new PC and I have a horrible tendency to shit up computers in less than a month because of the things I download.

Any suggestions?

 

[evilneko]

I would recommend trying them all. Not all at the same time of course. There's the big three free ones (AVG, Avast, Avira), lesser-known freebies (ClamAV, PCTools), and trial versions of pretty much every paid one. Try them for a day, a week, something. What is most important is to use one. An antivirus that you end up disabling because it bogs down your system or interferes with something... is useless, no matter how good at catching nasties it might be.

There's also the alternative of executable whitelisting, which IMO is a much better solution than antivirus. There are no freebies that I know of. (Well, there's one, but it sucks) Faronics Anti-Execute is probably the best deal going on this front.

 

[Pfheonix]

Avast! Antivirus doesn't do anything bad to me. Try it. If you don't like it, AVG isn't bad. I hear Avira has a problem with advertisements since it wants you to go premium though.

 

[ohnoitsabear]

I've been using Microsoft Security Essentials. It's free, it doesn't bog down your system (I'm typing this while running a scan right now) and because it's made by Microsoft, you know it won't accidentally delete any essential system files.

 

[Noetherian]

If you're willing to pay, Kaspersky is pretty powerful. It came highly recommended by my "IT Guy" friend, and I haven't had any issues.

 

[Palfreyfish]

I've been using Microsoft Security Essentials. It's free, it doesn't bog down your system (I'm typing this while running a scan right now) and because it's made by Microsoft, you know it won't accidentally delete any essential system files.

Seconded for MSE. MSE and Malwarebytes Anti Malware, along with a little common sense are enough to protect your PC from viruses and so on. Set up a scan in each every two weeks, but alternate the weeks and you'll be fine. And by common sense I mean not downloading any toolbars, downloading from trusted websites, checking the comments section before downloading from an untrusted website, not opening obvious scam emails etc.

An example
Week 1: MBAM Scan
Week 2: MSE Scan
Week 3: MBAM Scan
Week 4: MSE Scan
and so on and so forth.

 

[Vegosiux]

Avast! Antivirus doesn't do anything bad to me. Try it. If you don't like it, AVG isn't bad. I hear Avira has a problem with advertisements since it wants you to go premium though.

I'm using it myself, Avast I mean, and the only complaint I have is the occasional false positive. A bit of a hassle, it can be, but usually solved quickly.

 

[TheRundownRabbit]

If you got in the budget. Webroot works really well and scans are really fast.

 

[number2301]

Microsoft security essentials is all you need nowadays. Everything else is a waste of time. Well that and a little common sense as listed above.

 

[JesterRaiin]

Any suggestions?

Comodo Internet Security.
- Free
- Fast
- Efficient
- Low resource consumption
- Protects vs viruses, rootkits, malware, also firewall and sandboxing

 

[MammothBlade]

I'll probably get some flak for this, but you can't go wrong with Norton 360. Been virus free for a long time.

 

[gazumped]

I've only tried Kaspersky and Norton, never had a virus with either of them but Kaspersky's a lot quieter. Norton is like an insecure child going HEY LOOK AT ALL THE GOOD WORK I DID TODAY HEY HEY PAY ATTENTION TO ME HEYYYYY.

Now I always use Kaspersky.

I don't download from dodgy sites, though, so I guess it's not been tested to the max. Also my computer programmer friend recommends Malwarebytes AntiMalware, although as I understand it that's more of a manual scanner for if you're worried something's got onto your computer, rather than one that just runs in the background keeping you protected.