Hi Guys!

I got my Dell Laptop which came installed with Norton antivirus software. I am using windows vista ultimate as the operating system. Now my problem is I am not getting good reviews about Norton and I am planning to switch over to McAfee or Kaspersky. After looking around on the internet I found some good deals on Checkout software. http://www.checkoutsoftware.com/mcafee/ … 2008_p4226
Which antivirus software should I go for? What do you suggest?

I personally use AVG on all my systems--the free version. I "fired" Norton the day it failed to stop a virus attack. They only update their virus database once a week, and several new strains come out per day. AVG updates daily.

Just my 2 Pfennig Wert.

I have used AVAST Free Edition for the last few years and love it. I'll never go back to paid subscriptions for AV.

Roadrunner offers me free EZ Armor Security Software provided by Computer Associates but I don't use it because I'm happy with AVAST.

I have sworn off both McAfee and Norton because of their never ending cost and bloat.

But to answer your question. Kaspersky, hands down.

Personally, I have never had an anti-virus application installed. They cause far more problems then they are worth. You can eliminate all anti virus threats just by using a few common sense items:

1. Use FireFox or Safari only. More people get infected because they use Internet Explorer

2. Never open an attachment in an e-mail message unless you are 10000% sure it is safe.

Follow those 2 rules and you will always be virus free.

I'll risk the embarrassment of sharing a slightly different way in which I got nailed. I use Firefox unless IE is absolutely required by a site to function (usually work-related stuff). I never open e-mail attachments, and even if I trust the source I still download and manually scan before opening something.

I was in the market for some good video conversion software for doing a video podcast format. I was Googling for candidates to try/buy once I found one I liked. Instead of going to the original author's site for each one, I got lazy and went to some "clearinghouse" site that purported to have tons of stuff mirrored "one stop shopping" style.

Big mistake.

One of the install programs I downloaded was infected. Norton failed to detect it, nor did it intervene to prevent the virus from taking over my machine. The good news is I'm diligent about backing up my machine, so recovery was simply nuking the whole disk partition and restoring from my last backup.

I consider Norton to be a failure, in that I expected it to provide protection in just such an occasion. Whether AVG would have fared any better I'll never know, having learned a lesson that won't be repeated, but several "tech support gurus" at work swear by its effectiveness so that's what I carry now.

I guess my main point is there's a kind of grey area out there where even with good intentions those two rules above might not strictly apply.

I'm an AVG fan too, altho it has it's quirks. Norton has caused me too many problems, and it's damn near impossible to get rid of it. You'd think it was owned by Adobe due to it's "bloatware" nature. My feeling is that McAfee is just as bad.

I've never used Kaspersky, but i wouldnt go without an AV protection of some kind... I dont think you can ever be 10000% sure of anything, even tho Scott's approach SHOULD be used with whatever product you decide on.

Thanks guys!!

your suggestions helped me alot in taking the correct decision. I have decided to go with AVG.
Thanks Scott i'll keep that in mind

Rick