is 2 antivirus excessive

I think MSE is set for quick on defaualt, check the settings

Based upon the opinion of most members MSE is best. It was made just for windows. The others are "one size fits many"

richc46 said:

Based upon the opinion of most members MSE is best. It was made just for windows. The others are "one size fits many"

Not only is it made just for Windows, but MS has made multiple versions specifically for different versions of Windows (Win XP, Win Vista/7 32-bit, and Win Vista/7 64-bit). As you said, most other companies use a "one-size fits all" mentality.

For the money they cost, they should be made of gold.

They aren't. Macs are just targeted less in the wild than Windows is.
On occasions they have competitions to see who can hack what the fastest for cash and prizes.
Macs are usually the first to fall from the ones Ive seen.


Norton scanned less files because it flags certain "known good" or "trusted" files and does not rescan them unless:
The file changed or its doing a full system scan.

A few other AVs have a similar behavior.

I agree with the others however, find one you like and run just the one active scanner.
As well as Malwarebytes as a secondary on demand.


MSE is probably the best free alternative out atm.

jhd17 said:

why do people say macs are pretty much virus proof

The "pretty much" is the most important part of the claim, because no one can say what "pretty much" actually means.

Basically, the claim is made because not too many people use Macs. 90% of computers run windows, but only 7% run Macs. Like most software, Viruses made for one will not run on the other. So a virus maker wanting to hit 97% of computer users would have to do almost twice as much work than if he just made the version for Windows. The main purpose of Malware these days is to make money. Rogue security software alone make virus makers millions of dollars each year. When it comes down to it, that 7% seems insignificant to most virus makers.

On the other hand, Macs cost a lot compared to PCs. Some Virus makers also come to the conclusion that anyone willing to pay twice as much for a Mac, most have a lot of money they don't mind spending. Going off of this assumption a minority of virus makers take the time to create viruses for Macs.

Macs have less viruses made for them, but staying virus free is a very bad reason to buy a Mac.

There are many more windows users than Mac. Those jerks that write these virus are very proud. They actually have meetings on how many computers they infected. I say proud to be nice, but there are a lot of other words I prefer to use.