Good antispyware, antiviral, and antimalware progr

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Throckmorton

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I used to run free editions of AVG and Spybot S&D until a friend told me that AVG was loaded with malware.

I have tried a trial of TrendMicro but can't vouch for whether or not it is any good. It certainly seems to slow down my PC fairly dramatically when I run scans though. I am running an Intel Core 2 CPU 6700 @ 2.66 GHz with 2.75 GB of RAM.

Can anyone recommend some good inexpensive programs. My operating system is Windows XP Professional SP2.


Also, what would you recommend for a linux/fedora laptop?

Thanks,
Throckmorton
 
Have your friend quantify malware. I use AVG 8.0 free on three computers and can find no evidence of malware. Nor can spybot or ad-aware. I have the full paid version with all the whisltes and bells on one computer and I don't like it. It slows the computer down a tad too much for my liking
 
AVG doesn't contain malware, it is a decent product and its free what more could you ask for? I personally like CA Anti-Virus, because it doesn't use much of your computer's resources. For work I have to use Symantec Anti-Virus to connect to the network, so that is what I currently use.

As for your linux laptop, you don't need anti-virus software. There is an add-on for firefox you can use called AdBlock and a lot of people seem to like it. The linux kernel is rather secure, unlike windows.
 
There are so many good free programs out there so that is all I use.

In order of preference:

Antivirus: Avira Antivir PE, Avast, AVG

Antispyware: SUPERantispyware Free, A-Squared 3.5 Free, Spyware Terminator.

Other Programs: Threatfire, Comodo or PCtools free firewalls.
 
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Hey Throck. As a computer tech, I actually side with the others. However, although AVG does not have malware, I prefer Avast over it. If you were to use a paid version of internet security software, I heartily recommend Kaspersky Internet Security. It does use some system resources, but far less than Norton or Mcafee, and will give you better overall protection than free programs. If you use your machine for business at all, I would stick with Kaspersky. It's what I use in most of my client's comps.

Good luck.
 
I use for my XP system:

Antivirus: Antivir which is free

Antispyware: Superantispyware, Malwarebytes Antimalaware,both are free

Virtual system protection:Returnil free
The virtual system protection you should read up on.It's a awsome piece of software everyone should have.
 
ESET NOD32 Anti-virus .... the master at resource utilization, but not free. You can download a trial for 30 days, however.

SuperAntiSpyware, but I purchased the "lifetime" update for $19.95 ... that is a heck of a deal.
 
I've had great luck with Avast! as well. It's extremely reliable and doesn't hog a lot of resources. Highly recommended.

Joel
 
As a former CA user, I switched to Avast! and am very pleased with it. I also use Superantispyware. A year or so ago I ran a-squared for a while, but had a couple of incidents of false-positives (which a2 corrected within a day or two), which almost resulted in "removal" of some essential files. Also, definitely take a look at av-comparatives.org for their ratings.

Another pretty good spyware tool is to get an old copy of the Ewido Micro Scan program (on demand type). When I run it, it still downloads current datafiles (from AVG) and seems pretty thorough. It doesn't require installation, so it's good for portable devices.
 
I put AVG on my cousin's computer with no issues so far. I got it from download.com, which is a trustworthy site.

I have been using SpyBot for a couple years now and love it. Every PC can benefit from this program. I put it on my laptop when it was new (2006) and I have never had a problem with any unwanted programs getting on the computer. You still need a good antivirus program, but SpyBot seems to find a lot of things that the antivirus programs don't look for. It's a great program, and it's 100% free.
 
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