Which antivirus is best for win7

[ciphernemo]

If it does NOT have at least 1 or 2 false positives in some testing, I don't trust the program because it is not doing its job at finding new and unknown viruses.

Unfortunately for you, most third-party authorities on the subject disagree with you and weight false positive heavily. It's not exclusively my opinion that you disagree with, but the industry in general.

Look at the reviews at http://www.av-comparatives.org/comparativesreviews/main-tests

FINAL result ratings from that test for the latest one at that link you quoted (May 2009):

• Advanced+ Rating: Microsoft, ESET, Kaspersky
• Advanced Rating: AVIRA, G DATA, BitDefender, eScan, Sophos, Symantec, McAfee
• Standard Rating: AVG, TrustPort, Avast, F-Secure
• Tested Rating: Norman, Kingsoft

 

[bobgay]

in 3 words microsoft security essentials or MSE. I was using avg and when i installed mse it found 3 trogans. Its compact and installs in 3 min. I think MS got it right this time. After all who knows virius's better than someone who has been fighting them for 30 yrs
Bob

 

[ciphernemo]

Real World Test
(or why ESET NOD32 puts Symantec Endpoint and Microsoft Defender to shame)

This happened today, July 1st, 2009. And I used my personal copy of NOD32 to scan then removed it afterwards (ie: wiped the PC any ways).

At my workplace, a co-worker recently (and of course accidentally) infected his PC somehow. We knew it was an infection because his PC was sporadically playing random audio-only advertisements (really odd). It also changed his background image (which can be done with javascript anyways), and gave him pop-up ads with no browser running and sporadic intervals.

Here's the funny part: He already had Symantec Endpoint Anti-virus software already installed and updated, which is managed by the domain controller and Symantec deployment tools for businesses. He also had Microsoft Windows Defender already installed and updated. Even beyond that, on this XP system, he was running under a domain-controlled, limited user account (not part of the Administrator group or anything, very limited privs). All of this is our university's policy for security. And even more so, he only uses Firefox (as per our standard as well).

What he did not have was NoScript or Adblock for Firefox, nor ESET NOD32. Unfortunately, Symantec let a trojan slip through which stealthed itself to Symantec, disabled Windows Defender, and downloaded and installed another virus in the background (or vice versa of trojan/virus order).

I used HijackThis to remove some suspicious items at boot-up, then rebooted into the local Administrator account which hasn't been used since the system was infected. I then ran Symantec's Endpoint scanner on the entire C: drive (only partition on the system's hard drive). It found only one item, and it was just a tracking cookie.

I uninstalled Symantec and Windows Defender (Defender would not even launch and gave an error message).

I installed ESET's NOD32, version 4, and right after installed, NOD32 popped up a few "infiltration" messages in a row, meaning something was already infected in memory. It pointed to a couple system files that were compromised. But of course, unable to clean them since they were loaded in memory. I couldn't delete them either because of the same reason. But NOD32 prevented them from executing their malware code sections.

After a reboot, I had NOD32 scan the entire C: drive before even updating it. Sure enough, it found the trojan Kryptic.PE and the virus Virut.NBK. The total file count infected by the virus: 456 files.

If NOD32 was on this system at the time the trojan or virus attemtped to attack it, NOD32 would have prevented infection. Because it found it right away, even without any virus definition updates.

 

[septprince]

I am using Microsoft Security Essentials. It works nicely but I would like to get some more features like modifying quarantined items(which we can`t do) and some more features.

And I also use Kaspersky Internet security. It is a very dependable antivirus.

 

[ciphernemo]

And I also use Kaspersky Internet security. It is a very dependable antivirus.

Kaspersky is a fairly solid AV.

 

[Uber Philf]

I'm currently using Avira, was an AVG fan, but got annoyed with its resource hogging, so Avira was next in line, had it running for the last year, and hasn't let a virus within 20 foot of my computer, and is very easy going on resources. After reading the comments of others about Avira, I'm glad im running it.

 

[bigseb]

a handful of people recomended I buy eset... any good?

 

[ChazzMatt]

I would have said that up to last week when my PC got badley infected.
While it wasn't down to anything other than me taking Eset off and forgetting to put it back on, when i did a scan of my W7 instal from XP it found a few infections. I put Avast on and it found a further 47.
so for now, at home im sticking with Avast.

Dave.

Yeah, but all 47 were probably false positives. Avast is the recognized leader in false positives.

In the most recent report, Avast was demoted for their plethora of false positives. ESET got "Advanced" with 3 stars and Avast got "Standard" with 1 star. That's 2 levels down.



Easy to find infections when everything is considered an infection!

 

[Mercurial]

a handful of people recomended I buy eset... any good?

hell yes... I use it

 

[septprince]

Kaspersky Internet security is one for me.

 

[Dinesh]

This chart will help you decide what to choose...

 

[septprince]

By microsoft they want to mean winlive one care not WSE right??

 

[K3VL4R]

a handful of people recomended I buy eset... any good?

I use ESET security suite and it is great especially with the firewall in interactive mode as it you will ask you for all network permissions for all your apps and even windows services but you don't get a million popups while installing like Comodo does.

The best AV will vary every few months but ESET is always near the top. If you want a good one Avira is really good also. Check out this recent review from Tom's (they are unbiased with their reviews)

2009 Anti-Virus Roundup : One-Stop Comparison for 14 Anti-Virus Titles

 

[Dinesh]

This chart is of may 09. AV comparatives do not include beta products in their tests. But im sure MSE will be much better from one care.

 

[K3VL4R]

This chart is of may 09. AV comparatives do not include beta products in their tests. But im sure MSE will be much better from one care.

Like I said though AV rating will vary over time and gave recommendations for all around top performers. I have a paid AV /FW so I wanted one that I know will be in the top performing class for the life of my subscription.

If you are looking short term then I say find an unbiased review (because they can be hard to find with AV reviews) that have lots of free AV's as well because you can often see Avira and others that perform better that paid AV's.

BTW: I am looking forward to trying out MSE and seeing some reviews of it also.

 

[Tews]

Avast! Home Edition 4.8.1335

Alwil Software - 29.81MB (Non-Commercial Freeware)

avast! antivirus Home Edition represents the best free antivirus protection currently available on the market. This edition is FREE OF CHARGE for non-commercial & home use. Its features include:

• Anti-spyware built-in
• Web Shield
• Anti-rootkit built-in
• Automatic updates
• Strong self-protection
• Virus Chest
• Antivirus kernel
• System integration
• Simple User Interface
• Integrated Virus Cleaner
• Resident protection
• Support for 64-bit Windows
• P2P and IM Shields
• Internationalization
• Network Shield

Download Avast! Home Edition 4.8.1335 - FileHippo.com

+1

 

[Uber Philf]

i'd agree, cept for its large amount of false positives.

 

[bigseb]

hell yes... I use it

Well if YOU use then it must the best...

 

[Tews]

i'd agree, cept for its large amount of false positives.

I have yet to get a "false" positive, but then I usually operate in "paranoid" mode and stay away from dodgy sites...

 

[ChazzMatt]

I have yet to get a "false" positive, but then I usually operate in "paranoid" mode and stay away from dodgy sites...

How do you know you aren't getting false positives? They aren't labelled "false positives". Avast CLAIMS it is malware, whereas it's really not.

Are you saying you are not getting any malware reported by Avast? Because that would be the only way you were not getting false positives.

If you are getting malware reported, then to be double check they are not false positives, you have to re-scan with another AV that does not give false positives -- like ESET or Kapersky. Which is why a lot of people use those to begin with...