Hi All For the past few years I tried using most of the Anti-VIRUS (AV) mentioned in this thread. When I had the opportunity to have multiple systems at office, I would try and use different AV packages on each of them in doubt that if one of them are ineffective against any of the VIRUS the other one might be useful. And then one day I tried using an AV which I am using currently and it has blown me away by its simplicity and functionality. What is a VIRUS? You need to know about a VIRUS before even shopping for an AV. A software VIRUS is not synonymous with the virus in medical world except for the destructive act it creates. The word VIRUS in software field is an acronym of Vital Information Resources Under Seige. What is an Anti-VIRUS(AV) ? An Anti-VIRUS (AV) is a software which screens and cleans the VIRUS. Each of the VIRUS's have a unique code called signature of the VIRUS. The more number of Signatures an AV has in its database, better will be the detection rate. But here comes the most important part, cleaning the virus is where different AV companies use different algorithms. Some might even corrupt the files during cleaning process which might be of critical for your system's operation. What I use and Why ? The AV I referred to in the earlier part of this post is Microsoft Security Essentials(MSE). Here comes the why part... The interface is simple and non-complicated, even a novice can understand. It has all the security features a home-PC or a personal Laptop PC needs. You can Schedule scans, choose different action on different alert levels, exclude files and processes from scanning, Send file samples to Microsoft for new and unknown threats...to name a few. One of the deciding factors for me to stick with MSE is that it takes the least resource possible from your system in terms of memory and processing power when other AVs are really resource hungry and slow down your system terribly (especially the norton) and it is integrated tightly with the OS. Who better knows the Operating System than the one who created it. Microsoft as the creator of the OS are the best people to address the security issues the OS faces and I can vouch for this citing various occasions when other AV corrupted files while cleaning the VIRUS, MSE did the cleaning with no damage to the files. Most of it all, its FREE if you have a licensed version of Windows. What for you ? But that's just me, If you want to go for an AV package I suggest you Ignore all the fancy jargon the AV is making and check for the number of VIRUS it will not only detect but also clean. If you can try before you buy check and see whether it affects the performance of your system by taking lot of resources. Hope this helps...:bangcomp: P.S. - You can do no bigger harm than installing two different AV packages in a system.
There is a workaround if your OS is a pirated one. Let us not get into that discussion and save that for forums where they discuss about that. Otherwise you are correct, you need a Genuine OS...
I use Quick heal. Settled on it after trying most free AV's. Its been almost 2 years and I haven't faced any problems
Looking for free? Go for AVG antivirus. It's a simple free antivirus, meeting all basic needs. If you want complete internet security suite, I suggest go for Quick Heal. It's not free and you can buy it from nearby computer store.