New
#51
Guess it all comes down to personal preference. For me, my machines have plenty of resources available for running the average virus scanner and I rely on the Windows firewall and my hardware NAT router firewall. I've never encountered an issue with gaming or anything else as a result of the virus scanning tool installed. And even if the AV cannot catch "everything", if it catches "most things", than that is likely good enough.
I've certainly encountered situations where Trend has gone off at work while surfing the web performing work research. Being a systems admin, there is a lot of Googling for strange error messages and such from software that I don't use personally, so I can never be certain of the forums and such that I will find along the research trail.
I don't even install virtual machines at work without at least putting something on it like Microsoft Security Essentials. I simply cannot take a chance of getting something and allowing it to wreak havoc on the rest of the network.
My home computers are always attached to the Internet...as I don't do much anymore these days that isn't Internet centric. From emails, to forums, to web surfing and playing games online. Without an Internet connection, I almost don't have a need for a computer.
The only machines I don't run an AV on are Linux based...as I just haven't really ever seen the need there.
AV packages that I use
--Trend Micro on my work machines: It's corporate standard and centrally managed, so that's what I have to use
--Microsoft Security Essentials: On my Windows 7 machine, it's good enough for me
--Avast on my wife's Vista laptop: She had AVG, but didn't like the daily pop up showing the update.