[mylesw93]

Hello all,
Kinda newbie here. I have a new HP Pavilion dv5 Notebook 32 bit OS Windows Home Premium Vista. The Norton Antivirus that came with the laptop has just expired. I checked the Windows Security Center and turned on the Firewall and windows Defender but obviously I don't have antivirus on. a) How good is windows Security firewall and defender? and b) as far as Antivirus goes, I checked out some reviews, user comments and also read some antivirus software forums. I was concerned that it seemed a lot of people were having issues with Vista and latest versions of antivirus specifically Zone Alarm and Bit Defender, where they had to download older versions of the antivirus until resolution is in place for the issues. For those on this forum that have Vista can you tell me which antivirus software you seem to be happy with and have had limited issues. We use this notebook for a small start-up businss and personal. I sure would appreciate your input. I'm almost thinking I'll just buy the Norton since it seemed to work pretty good on this notebook (although I've already removed it with the removal tool).
Thanks in advance for suggestions and your opinions.
P

[Cheeseball81]

I like AVG. Been using that for years.
At work, most customers I deal with who buy computers with Vista, usually choose Norton 360. I've never had any issues installing it for them and it seems to do a pretty good job.

[pr0methius]

Their is a free alternative version available for Windows called Clam AV available from http://w32.clamav.net

From here you can download a version of Clam-AntiVirus for Windows. Previously only available for UNIX-like systems, the release of Clam-AntiVirus on the Windows platform marks a breakthrough in AV technology for Windows.

[new tech guy]

I second the vote for avg and use it in both my vista and xp computers and never had a problem with either one.

[dharmeshbom]

You can also Choose Syamntec Corporete 10.0 edition
Its work Fine in widnows vista ...

[KLR]

Although Symantec has had a bad reputation as a resource hog in the past... I am using Norton Antivirus 2009 and it seems very good. Easy to work with and light on resourses - finally.
Does not get along with Zone Alarm yet - waiting for a fix.
Norton Internet Security 2009 may be a better answer.
Ken

[Courtneyc]

Another vote for Symantec Corporate. I use version 10.2. I have yet to have a problem with any version of Symantec Corporate Antivirus.

By the way, Symantec is the corporate side of Norton.

Courtney

[pr0methius]

My mom was using Norton's, she caught Win32.Bugbear.c then when we thought we had removed all trace of it, we found it had moved into the chk.0000 directory on Windows XP after a scan disk, her whole PC had become a botnet, now she uses Kaspersky and the manager of PC world was even still trying to sell her Nortons 360 when she was holding kaspersky in her hand even whilst explaining the problem and the fact I had managed to located BugBear along with 6 trojan horses. Kaspersky, Fsecure, Clam AV or Nod32 get my vote but only because Nortons let us down!

[pr0methius]

Download a free version of Bit-Defender then Disable your other Anti-Virus before you install it, nortons or whatever you have running as you cant run two anti-viruses at the same time, it would make the PC crash! Then run a sweep with another anti-virus you might be pleasantly horrified, viruses that don't get detected by most of the Big anti-viruses out their are updated daily on http://www.shadowserver.org/wiki/pmw...irusDailyStats and some malware out there is made to specifically disable the anti-virus protection that you have. It's always a good idea to have a few free MSDOS scanner ones and update their tables daily or weekly from the sites that make them available. NEVER run them altogether, the system will hang, blue screen or fail to load at all. But if that happens remember the good old F8 Safe Mode bootup trick to undo whatever you did that made it crash!

Or try some of these Boot CD's which will not interfere with your current anti-virus and may spot things you didn't know where hiding in there!

http://www.avast.com/eng/avast_bart_cd.html

http://www.softpedia.com/get/PORTABL...escue-CD.shtml

http://84productions.blogspot.com/20...-virus_07.html

http://www.khailtamasha.com/main/sof...8.0.0.357.html

http://www.warezrocker.net/softwares...cy-rescue.html

You can Scrub the Windows but they'll never stay clean, they just seem to attract the Dirt.. One of the side effects of being one of the most used operating systems on planet earth, it just seems to attract all the insects, like a moth to a flame!

Be weary of people in PC Shops that say buy this software or buy that software, how much commission are they on if you buy that particular product, instead of trying another alternative?

In the computer world it pays to be Cynical, Sceptical and Critical . .

I myself wouldn't trust windows with anything mission critical if I was running a business. It's good for playing games, but for staying safe and virus free, forget it. The only reason in this writers humble opinion that is has cornered so much of the market is it's a point and click interface for technophobic people (for dummies) with no hands on experience or knowledge of anything better. Mainstream Operating System - YUK!

[mylesw93]

Thank you all for responding. I took the easy way out and continued with Norton 360, but I do appreciate all the responses.