I downloaded Avast yesterday to give it a whirl, and have come to the conclusion that while it might be effective, it makes browsing horribly slow.

Does anyone have an opinion on the best/efficient antivirus? I've used AVG and Antivir in the past. I actually was getting annoyed with Antivir after using it for a couple of years for the exact reason I'm annoyed with avast.

Personally, I don't use one as I feel they are pretty worthless when you actually need them. That said, the last one I used was Nod 32 and you actually have to pay for it. Since you've already given the three most popular ones a chance, I'd maybe try Microsoft's Security Essentials. People were given it good reviews when it was first released.

Microsoft Security Essentials Review (http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=5310&review=Microsoft+Security+Essentials+Review)

Conclusion

Microsoft hit the nail on the head with Security Essentials -- this antivirus suite is simple to use, proactive, and best of all, free of charge for genuine Windows users. It is also extremely efficient with system resources. Security Essentials is not as fully-featured as other players' antivirus suites including Norton and ESET, but it provides as the name implies -- essential protection. I personally would not have a problem paying for this software if Microsoft charged for it.

To those looking for an antivirus suite or want to upgrade their existing, we highly recommend investing two minutes to download and install Microsoft Security Essentials.

Personally, I don't use one as I feel they are pretty worthless when you actually need them. That said, the last one I used was Nod 32 and you actually have to pay for it. Since you've already given the three most popular ones a chance, I'd maybe try Microsoft's Security Essentials. People were given it good reviews when it was first released.

I'm to the point where I'd pay if it were a good enough product.

I'll definitely check out Microsoft's Security Essentials.

I like AVG myself. I used to never use an anitvirus because they all hogged resources but I pretty much never notice AVG.

I like AVG as well.

Avast and Avira are generally considered the best two free Anti virus right now. If you had issues with Avast being too much of a hog, give Avira a try.

MSE as suggested above is pretty light weight and not much of a hog but doesn't score quite as well in some tests. Still running MSE is far better than no anti-virus.

Avira and MSE are the top two choices for sure. The 3rd party tests I've seen show these two at the top of all choices, even premium (there are a couple of higher scoring premium, but these two are at least on par). I could show you the tests, but the graphic is on photobucket only for me and I'm at work, which blocks it. If I remember, I'll post it when I get home.

I personally use MSE, but I used Avira for a long time. Both are very light, though Avira is lighter.

I use MSE for the day to day active monitoring, then use a combination of Super AntiSpyware or Malwarebyte's Anti-Malware every so often to see if anything slipped through. Also, Hitman Pro often finds things that others miss, because it uses an aggregation of scanning engines.

Avast and Avira are generally considered the best two free Anti virus right now. If you had issues with Avast being too much of a hog, give Avira a try.

MSE as suggested above is pretty light weight and not much of a hog but doesn't score quite as well in some tests. Still running MSE is far better than no anti-virus.

I haven't seen any new tests with the newest beta version of MSE yet. They added some features.

That's what I use and I've had no problems. YMMV.

New features in the beta of Microsoft Security Essentials include:

Windows Firewall integration – During setup, Microsoft Security Essentials will now ask if you would like to turn the Windows Firewall on or off.

Enhanced protection for web-based threats – Microsoft Security Essentials now integrates with Internet Explorer to provide protection against web-based threats.

New protection engine – The updated anti-malware engine offers enhanced detection and cleanup capabilities with better performance.

Network inspection system* – Protection against network-based exploits is now built in to Microsoft Security Essentials.

I haven't seen any new tests with the newest beta version of MSE yet. They added some features.

That's what I use and I've had no problems. YMMV.


Yeah, I haven't seen any tests with the newest version, even internal tests from my own company. So I have no suggestions as far as that goes.

I downloaded Avast yesterday to give it a whirl, and have come to the conclusion that while it might be effective, it makes browsing horribly slow.

Hmmm - I've been using avast for a couple of years now, and I hadn't noticed any significant browser slowdown. What are using to determine that avast is the cause? Before & After time tests? Gut feel?

Hmmm - I've been using avast for a couple of years now, and I hadn't noticed any significant browser slowdown. What are using to determine that avast is the cause? Before & After time tests? Gut feel?

Both of the above.

I actually just turned off some firefox add-ons, and things are a tiny bit better, but I think that I should still be able to run more than 4-5 add-ons (including no script and adblock) without having a huge performance hit. Then again, I'm not a computer expert - That's what you guys are for. :)

I use MSE for the day to day active monitoring, then use a combination of Super AntiSpyware or Malwarebyte's Anti-Malware every so often to see if anything slipped through. Also, Hitman Pro often finds things that others miss, because it uses an aggregation of scanning engines.

:+1:

MSE for day to day and Malwarebytes and Super Antispyware for anything that slips through.

Microsoft Security Essentials -- and this from someone who was as incredibly skeptical of a Microsoft security product as they come. I've tried all the free programs, and they're all archaic when compared to this one. It works quietly, without hogging anything, and gets the job done. In my experience it's been much, much superior to the others.

AVG + Superantispyware

Installed MSE, and am liking it much better than avast. Thanks for the suggestions guys.

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y257/Gorgonian14/avtest.jpg

As a result of a previous thread on this I introduced Avira and Malwarebyte to this PC and haven't seen any problems since and I don't detect any slowdown in browsing.