what's the best anti-virus for computer?

Question

Pls. help am really having a lot of trouble formating my pc bec. of those virus..

Answer 1

There isn't any best anti-virus. No anti-virus is flawless, so that it can be termed as the best. Again, all the anti-viruses detect and remove 'in the wild' viruses (the viruses that mostly attack personal computers), so it's safe to use anyone of them.
It really matters HOW you use your anti-virus and not WHAT anti-virus you use. Your anti-virus should
1.have a good real time protection
2.update regularly
3.remove infections effectively

Again, you should take care that your anti-virus stays on all the time, is up-to-date, and scans your computer every week or so.

Here are some good quality anti-virus software, out of which you can choose anyone you like.

Not free: Kaspersky, BitDefender, TrendMicro PcCillin, Norton, McAfee, Avast! Professional, AVG Professional, AntiVir Personal Premium, NOD32, F-Secure

Free: Avast! Home, AVG Free, PC Tools Free anti-virus, Comodo anti-virus, AntiVir Personal Classic, ClamWin (with WinPooch)

:)

If you urgently want an anti-virus, get anyone of the free options mentioned above. They work really well. Just do a Google search and you will find their home pages and download links.

Answer 2

Actually the top contributor guy above misrepresented "In The Wild" viruses.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antivirus

In the Wild is where a user finds a new virus and reports a copy of it to the AntiVirus community / company.

I think he was thinking of Resident Shield Protection, as that is probably the one feature all virus scanners have in common.

2 methods of detection "in the wild" are the Sandbox method and Heuristic analysis, neither of which is much better than a black art, let alone science. There is no way to 100% catch all new viruses. There will always be a way for one to slip through the cracks.

I've had as much or better luck with AVG Free than I've had with Norton. My experience has been that AVG Free actually appears to do much better with normal folks. Note you may want to turn off the daily scan. Because it's free it doesn't let you set it for once per week, however nothing says you can't just manually have it scan once a week.

Although I will pat Norton on the back for a corporate client who's AV / Malware issues disappeared after I installed Norton and the client let go of a particular employee. Those machines in that office have been perfectly clean and running fast ever since.

I would advise to start with free AVG, then if you don't like it for some reason, download another, remove AVG, install the new one. Remember to remove each one before installing the next one!!

Different AV's have different up's and downs, I like mine to have a good up to date dictionary that is regularly up-dated and not get in my way except for a quick update once a day (usually on statup) or to tell me that it found a virus.

Since I started using AVG a couple years ago, I think I've only gotten viruses 3 or 4 times and AVG has handled them all except 1 which was classified as a Malware not a virus. (they detected it but not remove it)

Since I don't believe heuristics work very well, I turned that off in my scanner. If I had a sand-box I'd turn it off in a flash.

Dictionary virus detection is king. As long as you've got regular updates you're pretty darn safe. (this is the norm for the industry)

Ones that tend to get in my way -- McAffee, Norton, Panda (mainly the firewall)... I have not tried Trend Micro's resident one although I like their free web one.

Regards,

Roger Tiedemann, Jr.
roger at rogertdj.com

Answer 3

Common sense. I quote:

Wanna know how to keep your computer free from viruses, pop-ups, spyware, and other junk? Here’s how to do it without installing a single piece of software:

Tell all the males in your house to quit surfing for porn
Buy CDs and rip the tracks from there
Get a Netflix or Blockbuster account instead of using BitTorrent
Instead of looking for software cracks / serials, look for coupons
Stop operating in Administrator mode

Adhering to these five points (and forcing your family or roommates to do the same) should be enough to cut your risk by 90%, I’m guessing. You could do more to protect yourself, though, if you feel the need to download something:

Download drivers through official (or sanctioned) sources
Avoid unnecessary browser toolbars, plugins, or enhancements - and if you’re not sure if a toolbar is TRULY necessary, don’t install it
Read through every bit of a software installer process to ensure you’re not adding something that you don’t need and/or want - and if you’re not a geek, don’t install ANYTHING without first asking permission
Think twice before clicking on links sent to you by email or IM - especially if they prompt you to log in somewhere or download something else
Surf through OpenDNS servers for automatic Web site typo correction as well as an extra layer of phishing filters

That’s probably worth another 10% as far as protection from spyware / viruses are concerned. If you wanna be super-duper protected, surf the Web with Firefox or move to OS X (sorry, gang) and run Windows apps through Parallels.

Chris Pirillo

Answer 4

Try Symantec Antivirus or Kaspersky Antivirus. Both are very good to avoid virus attacking

Answer 5

i've used quite a few of them the best one i've found so far is windows live one care this is the only one that doesnt slow down my computer

Answer 6

norton protection center only .

i am using it and it will never allows any virus as it rectifies the minute it enters

Answer 7

there r many antivirus in the market, but i choose bit defender as my top antivirus coz it monitor ur PC every sec.

Answer 8

I've try a lot of them, but which is the best one to get, that's wat i'm trying to find out.