I'm looking into getting a new anti virus program. Right now I have an old version of Nortons. Anyone have any suggestions of one I should switch to or get.. I've been using Nortons for a good while, but the onlything I dont liek about it is having to pay for a new subscribtions for it to get updates every year :(

Avast! or AVG. Personally I use Avast, but I know a lot of people who swear by AVG. Both are free for personal use.

I'm also for AVG and Avast. Have used both and they seem to do an excellent job.

Avast was wierd it never seemed to find anything and I dont think you can force it to really scan.

do they have a trial or x amounts of scan, befor it asks you to update t the retail version?

I think they both have premium versions, but no they don't force you to upgrade after a certain amount of time. AVG will show a link in the program window for the paid version, but it's not bothersome.

Avast requires you to register (free) and they give you a Key to continue use. I think you have to re-register every year, probably so that they can try to sell you the retail version at that time.

I'm also for AVG and Avast. Have used both and they seem to do an excellent job.

I quit Norton and went with AVG. I was a bit pissed when I found I had to jump through hoops and download a special program from Norton to be able to remove all of the crap they had floating around my hard drive.

I have left it on my second pute, but have nor renewed, and just hit the no on the daily request to upgrade. I have Trend AV and AdWare Alert on the secondary pute, so the Norton is just taking up space, but I have about 300 gigs available still so not worried yet.

I'm using Avira and pretty happy with it. Its the only anti virus I've used in years that has found something. I have used AVG, Norton, Mcaffee, and Avast. Its free, when it updates it pops open a window that you can just click to close, that offers you the pay version. Really no fuss.

I use AVG and have had no issues with it.
I even use it at work b/c I hate the CA eTrust shit we have.

Really, unless you're prone to opening .EXEs from untrusted sources often, anti-virus software is just a performance tax with very little benefit other than a false sense of security.

I used to think that but I some how contracted a trogan on a PC that I use only for forum browsing. I don't use email; I use mozilla on it; and all I do is forum troll or look up quests/content while I'm playing games. I have no clue how I got the damn thing :(

Are you sure someone else didn't use your computer? That's what it usually is if you're careful yourself.

I take the same stance as Sanchek towards virus protection software. Even if you do get a virus, trend micro's housecall can clean it up in no time. The virus software needs to be updated almost hourly for you to be able to prevent them, better to just have a backup of important files and retroactively fix it if you have any problems.

Really, unless you're prone to opening .EXEs from untrusted sources often, anti-virus software is just a performance tax with very little benefit other than a false sense of security.

I had that same stance until recently I was on a work machine, googling around for the solution to an issue a client was having. I was using Firefox. I clicked on a link and the page started loading then seemed to lock up. I gave it a feew seconds, then hit the X to close. Nothing. I killed it via Task Manager. As soon as I did, I got a pop-up from Symantec (what we use at work) warning me about a downloader that it had cleaned. I rand a full system scan and it found a couple more things. I rebooted and went home. When I came back in, I found the computer locked up at applying computer settings.

I was able to get into safe mode and ran SD Fix. Found and cleaned some stuff, but still couldn't get into windows.

Booted to UBCD4Win and ran one of the AV's in there that was able to download a new def file. That cleaned up some more stuff.

Booted back into windows. This time, it loaded, but didn't run explore.exe. I gave it the 3 finger salute and was able to get Task Manager up. I selected start new task and navigated to where I had copied ComboFix to the drive. I ran that. That manage to clean / fix enough that I was able to get back in to the system and run some more adware / spyware / av programs. Symantec doesn't work anymore, since apparently the virus had attacked it.

In the end, the system works again, but the moral of the story is: you are never "safe".

The link I clicked on was one of the top few results for the problem I was searching. It was a direct click from Google, not one I found from a page from google. I generally practice safe browsing habits, especially at work. No one else uses this computer.

That said, Symantec was installed and updated on this system, yet it still got nuked. So maybe you're just as well off without AV software ; p

If you want something that doesn't bog your system down and provides good solid protection, try ESet's NOD32. I've been using it for 4 years now. VERY powerful, and have yet to see anything make it through. It's about $39 per year, so no it isn't free, but if you do a lot of bit torrent downloading, I find AVG just doesn't stand up to the more clever virus' out there.

I have read good things about NOD32 also actually.