what is the best personal (Home Antivirus product)?

Question

i have windows xp with 128 MB RAM. i Installed norton 2005. My whole pc started freezing. Not enough memory. What are the other antivirus products i can use? Avast or AVG? I NEED SPYWARE PROTECTION ALSO.

Answer 1

Personally I like Avast, but AVG is also good. With Avast you can set the resident scanner to high or low. (High makes your PC slower if you don't have enough memory, so you might want to try low)

Anti-spyware:
Do not download anti-spyware programs blindly, they might be spyware themselves. Check this list to know which programs to trust:
http://www.spywarewarrior.com/rogue_anti-spyware.htm

Antispyware:
Personnaly, I use the following

Windows Defender
http://www.download.com/Microsoft-Windows-Defender/3000-8022_4-10502712.html?tag=lst-0-1

Spybot
http://www.download.com/Spybot-Search-Destroy/3000-8022_4-10401314.html?tag=lst-0-1

Ad-Aware
http://www.download.com/Ad-Aware-SE-Personal-Edition/3000-8022_4-10399602.html?tag=lst-0-1

If you’re using Internet Explorer, it would be wise to stop using it and use the following browser(s),
this will you help keep spyware at bay:
(keep in mind that nothing can help you if you purposely/accidentally download spyware)

Firefox
http://www.mozilla.com/firefox/

or

Opera
http://www.opera.com/

Finally, to help keep spyware and viruses away:
Stay away from porn, gambling sites, myspace and other risky sites.

Happy surfing

Answer 2

Basically, most of the previous answers are giving you the right information. I'd do two main things: Uninstall Norton, and add at least another RAM stick of 512 MB. Then download and install either of the free versions of AVG or AVAST! anti virus (not both), and also Spybot Search and Destroy AND Lavasoft's AD-Aware, both of them are also free. A key thing with the anti-virus and anti-spyware programs is to USE them, at least once a week after downloading the updated definitions.

Answer 3

At the moment; McAfee is well rated, it comes bundled with new Dell computers.

The best way to judge this is get tech mags, either online or in the mail. Most will rate Utilities, and give you a starting point.

Consider downloading Norton save and Restore.

Run one AV utility; Panda, PCcillin, Norton.......and use free scans at competitor sites regularly.

No one AV utility will catch all virus. Always second guess your firewalls.

You need more ram. Not a big deal at all, even a casual user can buy and install ram.

Go to best buy or similar outfit, get a geek and tell them the make and model of your puter and that you need way more ram. If you purchase a memory stick larger than the one currently running, it has to be in the first slot. Ask a geek when you buy the stick how to install and configure.



AntiVirus utilities are fairly huge, the amount of virus is huge, these will be ever increasing. Face it.

Spyware detection is problematic, generally I have encountered as many problems with this software as I have solutions. I tend to use them, not host them. If I find I have an issue, I will then download the software which tells me about this issue, remove the issues, then and dump the software, but save the liscense key.

You can always reload.

Defrag, scan disk, clear cookies, clear temp files, loose everthing you have in doccuments that you rarely use. This will iprove your connection speed,, as well as giving your AV utility more strength.

A clean computer is a faster computer. Most data is easily saved to an external HD.

Answer 4

First get rid of Norton, its a memory hog and you cant have 2 anti-virus at the same time or they will cause problems.
You can install all of the following Free protection software, but 128 MB RAM is barely enough for Windows XP to run on. Consider getting more RAM and your system will run MUCH faster.

I use all of the following Free software with Windows XP SP2 and Internet Explorer with MSN toolbar and the pop-up blocker turned on and have never had a single problem with my computer sense Microsoft came out with SP2. (knock on wood.) (And be sure to keep Windows and the following software Updated)


The best Anti-virus is: AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition. (www.grisoft.com)http://www.grisoft.com/doc/289/lng/us/tpl/tpl01

The Best Spyware defense is: SpyBot Search and Destroy (http://www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html)<--English version

AND: AdAware SE (www.lavasoft.com)
AND Spyware Blaster (http://www.javacoolsoftware.info/kb/)
The best Firewall besides the one that comes with Windows is: Zone Alarm (http://www.zonelabs.com/store/content/co... or just (www.zonelabs.com) and select the FREE version.

These are all FREE and are all that are required. There is no reason to pay for this kind of software, except to give a donation to the writers if you can.
ALL the above programs are recommended and should be run on a regular basis. With some the free versions they must be run manually.

The best way to avoid getting any Malware (virus, Trojan's, spyware, etc) is to practice safe computing. Microsoft and many others have countless articles on the subject of safe computing. (something I think should be taught in schools)

for further information on computer safety.
NATIONAL CRIME PREVENTION COUNCIL -> http://www.ncpc.org/media/Internet_Safety.php

http://all.net/journal/50/cybercop.html
And here...
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/security/default.mspx
http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/viruses/zombies_and_botnets.mspx

http://www.spywarewarrior.com/rogue_anti-spyware.htm

CNET these 10 programs comprise the best free security software
http://www.download.com/Best-free-security-and-spyware-software/1200-2023_4-5163183.html?tag=nl.e497

Answer 5

Get another 128 m. all the AVPs mentioned above work well. Just use 1 AND KEEP IT UP-TO-DATE. Spyware protection from Yahoo! should be on your toolbar. Also Spybot S&D, Windows Defender, Adaware, etc.

Answer 6

AVG FREE Edition is what I use. It works great and it is free. Just type in AVG FREE EDITION and download it. I think the AVG has spyware also.

Answer 7

I have xp and used Norton. Also have Nortons on and old computer runing me.

Answer 8

get AVG at www.grisoft.com and also use ewido at wwww.ewido.com

Answer 9

Try this
www.free-av.com