What is the absolute best Anti-Virus program ?

[MentalIlness]

Ok, my wifes computer is continuously receiving Malware, Spyware and Virus's.

The only thing she does on it though is watch video's through Youtube, Fancast and things like that. Now...I know enough about computers to know these sites should not be doing this.

Every once in a while, my kids use the computer for school homework and things like that.

My question is: What is the absolute best program for Anti-Virus/Malware/ Spyware ?

I will purchase the license online once I find out some info. I am currently running Spybot Search and Destroy and Avast Free. But these don't seem to be doing much, although Spybot does pick up on some things.

Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

 

[Lemon law]

Well first of all, an antivirus will not protect you from spyware and most malware. In short you need a mutilayed computer security set up, and this form subsection will give you good instructions to set one up. See the Security Resource Thread.

As for which is the best antivirus, its a debatable choice between Kaspersky, NOD32, and some others. Varies year to year and test to test.

 

[mechBgon]

Yeah, the antivirus and anti-spyware software should be third-string defenses, not your main defense. Start off with a security tune-up: http://www.mechbgon.com/security

What version of Windows are you using, by the way?

 

[BW86]

Use a Limited Account

 

[MentalIlness]

Right now I am using Win XP Pro on the computers. But within a few months will be upgrading and going with Win 7.

Been reading over your pages mechBbon, pretty interesting stuff there.

Oh, and when I said the best Anti-Virus, I just mean protection in general

 

[MentalIlness]

Oh, when I do purchase protection though, I am going to be needing 3 user accounts.

 

[VirtualLarry]

The "3 user" packages of antivirus are for *3 computers*, not three users sharing the same computer. If that's the case with your computer (XP with three user accounts), then you only need purchase the 1-user edition of those products.

If you are running XP Pro, then you NEED to look into SRP (Software Restrictions Policies). mechbgon's site has an awesome tutorial. I use that on all my machines so far, and it has been basically 100% effective at blocking drive-by malware. Even without an antivirus installed. I even clicked through when my web browser got hit with one of those "fake AV" trojans. Only it never got to installing anything on my machine, because of SRP. But everything leading up to that is a web page, although they fake windows dialog boxes very convincingly.

As far as AV goes, I would avoid WebRoot spysweeper + AV. Very buggy, made my Win7 machine act worse than if I had a virus. (The number one reason that I hate AV software). Am currently testing out TrendMicro AV on this XP Pro box, seems largely ineffective. When I hit that fake AV malware website, the TMAV popped up, but didn't give me a choice of what to do, and it said that it couldn't quarantine it for some reason. Later on, in the logs, it said that it "sucessfully ignored" the malware. I sure as hell never clicked on anything that said ignore. So I'm not that happy with it.

Norton seems like the best that I've used, although I know someone that likes Avast Free.

 

[Modelworks]

Run the browsers and email applications sandboxed.
Anything that happens inside the sandbox , stays there. Sandboxed applications can only read off your system they cannot write to install malware or virus. You can then close the sandbox and delete the contents and nothing is harmed on the computer. Malware attacks the browser, just close the sandbox window and delete the contents, re-launch the browser and you are ready to go.


The only way anything can get out is if you download something and save it. Sandboxie will ask if you want to save the file you downloaded, at that point you can use antivirus to check the file before running it. All the other web stuff, facebook, etc will work like normal except it can't get out of the sandboxed environment.
http://sandboxie.com/

 

[MentalIlness]

Run the browsers and email applications sandboxed.
Anything that happens inside the sandbox , stays there. Sandboxed applications can only read off your system they cannot write to install malware or virus. You can then close the sandbox and delete the contents and nothing is harmed on the computer. Malware attacks the browser, just close the sandbox window and delete the contents, re-launch the browser and you are ready to go.


The only way anything can get out is if you download something and save it. Sandboxie will ask if you want to save the file you downloaded, at that point you can use antivirus to check the file before running it. All the other web stuff, facebook, etc will work like normal except it can't get out of the sandboxed environment.
http://sandboxie.com/

Now that is interesting. I am currently downloading it. Will try it out and post my thoughts here shortly.

 

[Chiefcrowe]

agreed!

Use a Limited Account

 

[anandtech2010]

Linux.

 

[Fallen Kell]

Linux.

That made me LOL

 

[spikespiegal]

Ok, my wifes computer is continuously receiving Malware, Spyware and Virus's.

Dude, take the frikken admin rights away from her account and be done with it. End of problem - costs nothing - 100% effective. Stop listening to advice from blue shirts at Best Buy and the Linux geeks here looking for attention. This is the reason that the Health Care provider that I did contract work for last year with over 11,000 clients has *zero* issues with spyware or malware in over 3 years. If an admin or support tech gives a user local admin rights they are immediately *FIRED* on the spot. Best policy - ever. Needs to be mandated in every corporate environment on the planet.

The local school system I finished a contract with that locks down their workstations and keeps local admin rights away from the students has been 100% free of Spyware and Viruses for over two years. With over 1800 teenagers banging away at hundreds of Windows XP stations daily and no Internet policies they've never had a problem. No need for Linux, or Macs, or A/V software.

The guys in Russia or South Korea writing this crap are running the same A/V software you are buying.

 

[llee]

Microsoft Windows Firewall, Microsoft Security Essentials (Free), Limited User Account will take care of 99% of the problems. Use Malwarebytes or HijackThis if an infection does strike. This setup isn't bulletproof but works if you simply practice safe browsing habits like restraining when someone offers a free ipod, etc. Also, this setup takes up the least system resources and is very integrated (Microsoft knows their own OS's ins and outs best IMO). Once you have that covered, pick up Ccleaner to keep your computer in good condition by deleting junk files and cleaning up the registry.

 

[Lazlo Panaflex]

Now that is interesting. I am currently downloading it. Will try it out and post my thoughts here shortly.

Curious to try out Sandboxie as well. How did it work for you?

 

[shiner]

 

[HopJokey]

I would go with McAfee VirusScan. I heard some good things about them...

 

[compman25]

I would go with McAfee VirusScan. I heard some good things about them...

Yeah, it'll make it so nothing can get installed on your computer

 

[chickadee]

Run the browsers and email applications sandboxed.
Anything that happens inside the sandbox , stays there. Sandboxed applications can only read off your system they cannot write to install malware or virus. You can then close the sandbox and delete the contents and nothing is harmed on the computer. Malware attacks the browser, just close the sandbox window and delete the contents, re-launch the browser and you are ready to go.


The only way anything can get out is if you download something and save it. Sandboxie will ask if you want to save the file you downloaded, at that point you can use antivirus to check the file before running it. All the other web stuff, facebook, etc will work like normal except it can't get out of the sandboxed environment.
http://sandboxie.com/

Doesn't Comodos new version of antivirus have something similar with sandboxing so you can isolate and scan at the same time?

 

[Modelworks]

Doesn't Comodos new version of antivirus have something similar with sandboxing so you can isolate and scan at the same time?

It does but it is much more intrusive.
The thing I like about sandboxie is it doesn't install anything that is going to hinder your pc performance. It doesn't get used unless you want to use it and is pretty simple to understand and use. It consumes about 5MB of memory and no cpu when not running with an application.

Right click a program, tell it to run sandboxed. If you download something in the browser that is sandboxed it will ask you if you want to recover the file to the regular hard drive. If you say no it stays in the sandbox. When you close the sandboxed program you can find a sandboxie directory on the drive that contains everything the program you ran sandboxed did to the system so you can delete it if its virus/malware or you can copy a file to another folder.

 

[thescreensavers]

Anti-vir

 

[Pegun]

What it really comes down to is there is no "best" antivirus. All Av's have their share of flaws, all AV's are lacking in some way shape or form depending on the needs of the user or company that needs them installed. That being said, you have three options as I see it.
1. Limited account - This will prevent the user from installing anything so that an experienced tech might be able to better do so.
2. Run Windows XP or whatever in a VM and require that VM to be used at all times. Usually this can be done just by maximizing it and making sure no one knows the difference.
3. If you really must use the physical computer, buy Zone Alarm Security suite and then install your choice of antivirus on top of it. Zone Alarm does come with it's own AV, but I like the double protection on mine (only one runs at a time)
3a. Linux.

Good luck.

 

[mckickflip]

i've tried many, many different anti-viruses and I have decided that Kapersky and MSSE are the best choices. MSSE works almost as good as Kapersky, but is free, and takes up fewer resources. AVG is good too, but I personally prefer MSSE

of course, limited account is one of the best things you can do.

NOD32 is a joke at this point. even Norton is better at detecting viruses than NOD32 now, and we all know that Norton isn't all that great...

 

[KeithP]

You might want to check out Windows SteadyState (its free).

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/sharedaccess/whatis/default.mspx

-KeithP

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

i've tried many, many different anti-viruses and I have decided that Kapersky and MSSE are the best choices. MSSE works almost as good as Kapersky, but is free, and takes up fewer resources. AVG is good too, but I personally prefer MSSE

of course, limited account is one of the best things you can do.

NOD32 is a joke at this point. even Norton is better at detecting viruses than NOD32 now, and we all know that Norton isn't all that great...

Except AV Comparatives has NOD32 up there still. Not the best, but near the top. Norton is at the top now... Actually Nod32 works perfectly fine for me.