What's the Best Anti-virus?

barbarossa2241 said:

I heard good things about Bitdefender and wondering if I should get it or stick with my 2012 Norton ?

What was annoying when I had Bitdefender 2012 installed on a trial license is that it kept logging so many "autoscan settings changed" events logged it was ridiculous. I have NIS 2012 installed on a trial license now.

I have Windows 7 64 bit.

Microsoft Security Essential for the win!

I think Webroot SecureAnywhere is the best one out there. its very small and fast.
Webroot SecureAnywhere Complete Review & Rating | PCMag.com

I'm replacing Avira with Microsoft Security Essentials now, can I install it even though I did not install Service Pack 1 for Windows 7?

NOD 32 has served well for me, I haven't had any viruses so that's a good thing I used to have Kaspersky in 2010 and it was great, i'm sure the 2012 one will be even better :)

I will never recommend Norton or McAfee 'suite' malware protection products. I have at great pain [sometimes] removed these gremlins from MANY troubled systems.
terribly flawed, invasive, even destructive packages.

Top 5 Free Antivirus for 2011 | PCWorld

I have installed AVAST on probably 50 to 100 systems. I have gone in to troubled systems where AVG, Norton, other packages were installed, running, apparently doing their jobs, only to find that by scanning with AVAST and other tools, those aforementioneds had failed, and allowed trojans into the system [or worse...rootkits].
avast is smallish, light, fast, and deadly [to the bad guys].
Anymore, we are not much concerned with "viruses" but rather with sites that are sprinkled with hot links to malicious programs. The combination of AVAST Free, with all its scanners running, and Chrome [I also like firefox and opera..], properly config'd, offer great online on-the-fly protection. I do realize that Google have never met a tyrannical government they didn't just LOVE, so using Chrome probably means all your stuff is exposed to some contractors working for DHS, DIA, BATF, FBI, and your local "Fusion Center" . But very little east european Malware can hitch a ride via chrome

but for those users who insist on using IE plus Toolbars Du Jour.... there's nothing that can prevent the eventual infection. Its just a matter of when, and how bad

I would like to see some real, intensive independent testing of MSE if anyone has a link.... Most of the articles I see on the "Top 5" and "Top 10" anti-whatever packages are bogus.