best AV for xp Home sp2?

[Robert J. Lafayette]

My antivirus license expires in 20 days.


AM not soliciting but am quite concerned that I can not find a reliable
source to assist me in finding the best or among the best and least cost
Antivirus software for my computer, a notebook at that.
NAV 2006 eats up processing time, slogging down my XP Home. Is there
guidance that can be offered in analyzing the best and least cost way to
protect my notebook PC?

Thanks in advance,
Robert

 

[Guest]

Basically, anything _other_ than Norton, McAfee or Panda.

AVG, NOD32, Avira all get good reports.

 

[Robert J. Lafayette]

Thanks,

if I may go a bit deeper.

and...

Avast Home Free v 4.x?

Robert

 

[philo]

Thanks,

if I may go a bit deeper.

and...

Avast Home Free v 4.x?

Yes Avast is good

as mentioned AVG and Free-AV


all very good. and anything better than Norton or McAffee

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

My antivirus license expires in 20 days.


AM not soliciting but am quite concerned that I can not find a
reliable source to assist me in finding the best or among the best
and least cost Antivirus software for my computer, a notebook at that.
NAV 2006 eats up processing time, slogging down my XP Home. Is there
guidance that can be offered in analyzing the best and least cost way
to protect my notebook PC?

Questions about "best" always get you opinions, rather than real answers.
That said, I'll give you my opinion.

NAV is the worst possible choice, and McAfee is right behind it. My personal
choice is Avast! (freeware), but there are other good freeware choices, such
as AVG.

 

[GeneK]

I have used the free versions of both AVG and Avast (which I presently use)
without problems. One bit of advice on both; select custom installation if
offered AND DO NOT install the E-Mail scanning portion which is more trouble
than it is worth. Your E-Mail is scanned by the anti-virus portion of the
program anyway.

--
GeneK

Thanks,

if I may go a bit deeper.

and...

Avast Home Free v 4.x?

Robert

 

[Vanguard]

My antivirus license expires in 20 days.


AM not soliciting but am quite concerned that I can not find a
reliable source to assist me in finding the best or among the best and
least cost Antivirus software for my computer, a notebook at that.
NAV 2006 eats up processing time, slogging down my XP Home. Is there
guidance that can be offered in analyzing the best and least cost way
to protect my notebook PC?

http://www.av-comparatives.org/

Microsoft's own OneCare rates worst for coverage. They should've bought
something better than RAV.

 

[Cari \(MS-MVP\)]

NOD32 (www.eset.com) but you'll find out that getting anything Norton or
Symantec off your PC is not as easy as it first seems.

 

[Tony Luxton]

Robert, this is my two penn'orth:

I've been using Avast 4 for 2 or 3 years now (on a desktop and a notebook)
and I've found it excellent, it makes friends with Windows XP easily and
seamlessly. It updates every 4 hours by default, though when it does so it
slows the machine down *slightly* for a few seconds - small price to pay.

I don't know about other email clients, but if you're using Outlook Express,
don't use the email module, as it causes all sorts of funny effects, and you
don't need it anyway; the on-access module will check any attachments you
open.

It's free to private users, though you have to re-register every year.

And no, I don't work for Alwil Software!

HTH Tony.

 

[Michael D. Alligood]

I have used WLOC since beta on all my machines. I have not encountered
any issues with any of my machines. I also perform additional
spyware/virus scans monthly using different AV scanners. Both WLOC and
secondary AV scan results match every time; zero infected files.

--
Michael D. Alligood
MCSA, MCDST, MCP, A+,
Network+, i-Net+, CIW Assoc.,
CIW Certified Instructor

http://yetanotherblog.typepad.com/theclassroom

 

[Robert J. Lafayette]

Hi to all,

Went with current Avast, and Comodo as FireWall.

Both freeware.

System working more efficiently, this is evident so much, can not believe
it.

and all seems well, a few days into it.

Only time and cpu consumer was the Avast VRDB, which takes a few hours for
one time compilation.

Will tweak both Avast and Comodo as I go along, but for now just enjoying
the unclogged cpu usage.


Thanks to all,

Regards,
Robert
XP Home, SP2, 40Gb HDD. 512 RAM