I'm getting a new laptop next week, but I don't really know which anti-virus to use. Are there any that are still not compatible with Vista or having problems when installed on Vista? Are any head and shoulders above the rest?
I've always like Norton's. My HP came with a 3 month trial and it worked fine with Vista. I then used McAfree which was also worked well, but I felt like it wasn't protecting me enough. McAfree made my computer run faster compared to Norton's though. But then I got a 4 year subscription of Norton 360 and have been using that ever since. It is a resource hog, but I'm going to keep this for a while. I haven't had any problems with compatibility issues either.
dude, I don't know much about comps, BUT I do have genius friends who have told me the following: Norton and McAfee slow down your computer drastically (i concur), a lot people now are using the windows anti virus, or not even one. Or an anti virus that is free on line, I've seen one in people's sigs on this forum. Talk to a computer genius not working at Best Buy or a retail store, and ask them the best way to go. BUt I do know this, Norton > McAfee.
AVG free is what Im using on mine. has never caused a problem. re: not using a AV product = Stupidity dont be part of the problem....use a damn antivirus.
Avast is super duper. It hardly uses any system resources so you don't even notice its there... but it works great. you can type in this serial: IAMANNOTVERYBRIGHT and you can get the professional version. just DL the trial off the website.
Having an AV product don't mean much in reality. The typical user won't gonna get virus if they go to clean site only & not open unknown file. And AV is just a program, its up to the user to prevent & remove virus/trojan/etc. I recall the last time i got a trojan (3-4 years ago), and everytime i ran norton, it will detect it & say its deleted. But i always research every trojan it find, then I found out that all norton was doing was deleting a "clone" & not the source file that keep on making a new "clone" everytime I restart. I use av like once every 2-3 months with the trial only (update def, then 1 full scan, then uninstall ). 2 tips from me: Always run the full system scan in Safe Mode Always research Virus/trojan/malware detected (since it might be a perfectly clean file) and read up on how to remove it "completely" (even if your av said its removed) and Party Boy I don't think your allow to post serial key here.
I've been using Kaspersky (www.kaspersky.com) on Vista for a couple of months. It's a great program. I've used Kaspersky and Eset NOD32 (www.eset.com) almost exclusively for the past couple of years on my machines. They do the best job of detection without being a bear on system resources like Norton can. They have auto-update features as well - I know Kaspersky can update itself hourly I believe. Most AV software has started catching up with one another in terms of what they can detect in Windows (there are still some that are inferior and some that are good but you've probably never heard of).
Thanks for the advice. Also, which firewall? I forgot to ask. Not all firewalls are compatible with Vista yet. What is the best available. I'd like not to start another thread about this if possible.
It does, but it's not nearly as good as some others. The one in Vista is probably an upgrade over the one in XP, which is basically better than not having one at all. There are simply better options, but I know that some of them are not Vista compatible yet. I was just curious if anyone has had any luck with one of the handful of firewalls that are compatible with Vista.
Use Windows Defender for now. There are no great Vista firewalls yet. ZoneLabs' ZoneAlarm is still in beta and the last time I looked, it was getting crappy reviews (I wouldn't install the beta). Keep an eye on a freeware firewall called Comodo (www.comodo.com). Its version 3 will have Vista support, and as I said, it will be free. The release got pushed from mid-May to an early June release the last time I looked. It may be renamed by then. Its XP version wasn't quite as good as ZoneAlarm Pro, but it was close. If v3 on Vista is as good as their previous release, it'll be more than enough firewall for you and cheap enough. Or if you don't want to go the Microsoft route and use Windows Defender, you can try PC Tools Firewall Plus (http://www.pctools.com/firewall/). It's free and works on Vista. I can't vouch for it as I've never used it before, but I've heard people using it say good things about it. I may install it in the next couple of days. Good luck.
I'm using Comodo on my XP machine -- it replaced ZoneAlarm -- and I like it. That June release, if I understand it, will be a beta version -- which may or may not be fine. I am looking forward to version 3.0 final.