Of course all people asking it all the time, but what do you recommend as a best anti virus for Windows XP for now ?

System resource wise and if you're not into running av in real time, Clamwin (free) for Windows, is great.

Otherwise,
Kaspersky or NOD32, are the only way to go. Neither are free.


Cool signature! Have to agree!!

Nod32 for me.

I'm pretty happy with SAV 10.2
AV is a per user thing. Some like one, others like another.
And every study seems to indicate a different 'best' one.

KAV7

"THE" best? Microsoft Forefront Client Security with all licensed engines enabled.

The best you can actually use? Pick from Trend, KAV, AVast, or NOD32. I use Forefront on my work machines, and AVast on my home boxes. I have a license for Trend, but I use AVast because it has a smaller footprint - even though Trend is the market leader at the moment.

I like SAV 10 too. It seems to be the best (of the AV's I've tried) for catching threats and not hogging system performance.

I use AVG, works well for me. Meh. http://free.grisoft.com/ Daily updates pretty much.

:\ Sorry, did I miss something?

Not sure if/what you missed, but ive had experience with all the above mentioned, and i'm currently using NOD32. It's got a few quirks, but by far, its the most easy on the system resources and non-intrusive.

I have a bad experience with NOD, i got it running for awhile and it didn't detect a famous autorun virus, so i felt that i can't rely on it.

I've taken several runs at trying to figure out what's involved is setting up MS Forefront, but can not seem to claw my way through all the sales hype to get any straight answers. I take it at this point that there is not any "Client" version of Forefront? Anything you can "NutShell" for me would be greatly appreciated.

AVast?!? You are kidding me? I couldn't get past its constant user informational nattering long enough to decide if it actually worked. But I'm guesing by your endorsement that it does. *Sigh* I guess I got spoiled by the SAVCE's completely silent background behavior. I hate it when AV apps make a big deal out of finding something ... Kinda like the cat prancing around with the mouse it just killed.

Unfortunately SAVCE just don't seem to work well on Vista, so I'm looking to switch, but I need something that is (business class) centrally managed/updated/controlled, etc...

Tried a few but Kaspersky has never allowed any viruses on any of my 8 systems in the past 4 years I've been using it. Definitely worth the price.

Like I said before..everyone has a favorite/preference.

SAV has been like a rock for me. Easy on the resources, and no dancing cat routine when it finds something.

But thats me. Personally, if you want free, go with AVG Free. If you want to pay, I like SAV

i don't think so, for sure there is one actually better than others, it's unlike choosing a jeans or sneaker , recently i attend an event about Forefront, while it seems promising but i think its bringing another level of complexity to the network, i mean you will need to troubleshoot the forefront exchange client when a mail didn't arrive for instance, so i think they should get a stand a lone product don't need to a server all time.

That is identical to every spam filtration app on the market today. "False Positives" do exist/happen/have to be addressed, hence the need for an interface to check & clean the filter (so to speak).

I have a isolated Exchange mailbox, that is only accessed from a sand-boxed machine, that about 2% of our total spam is dumped into so it can be manually checked if need be (i.e. A user is missing something specific). It is a necessary evil caused by some companies that just won't follow the rules.

I'd say NOD32. You won't notice any performance drop on your system, and it has detected...

Well, I don't remember the last time I actually got a virus. Nor the last time I tried another anti-virus app.

You know, something I just noticed yesterday is that Symantec is replacing SAVCE with "Symantec Endpoint Protection," and with it they are finally getting rid of the ancient looking interface. I'm curious about how well it works though. I run SAVCE at work, and once it is installed there is a noticeable slowdown, especially on older systems. And I have always hated its virus removal system. It detects the viruses just fine, but whether it will actually remove them itself is another question.

At home I use NOD32, which is my favorite AV program. I don't really see a slowdown with it, but it does occasionally pick up a few more false positives. And they are coming out with a new interface in their next version, which I am not sure if I like.

As for Forefront, I have read some about it, and it looks like a big mess that I don't have time to manage. And if it uses the same or similar engine as OneCare, then I don't want to touch it.

Actually, we just had Symantec come in about the SEP, and it looks good. The footprint on drive space and resources is reduced big time, and its capabilities are increased massively

Well, here's the story on Forefront: Yes, there's a client version. But it REQUIRES a server (probably more than one for places with a lot of users). It integrates with MOM/SCOM and WSUS3, and requires both as well, so clients can be monitored. Basically, it's an enterprise only client and is another chunk in the monitoring/security/update product family. Kinda like McAfee EPO, except without the suckyness of t beig a McAfee product. And no, it's NOT using the same engine as OneCare - this one is top notch.

Forefront for Exchange is actually a LOT less messy than most enterprise AV/Anti-Spam products, because the spam for each user is sent directly into their Exchange Junk E-Mail folder. White- and blackisting are all done from within Outlook/OWA by the users, so there's a lot less for them to do, like going to a separate site as is the case with most products. The biggest advantage is the incredible scan engine onboard, with up to 9 commercial AV/Spam engines round-robining through up to 4 at a time - the chances of things getting through are a tenth what they are when running a single engine.

As for AVAst, you can turn all that annoying notification crap off. once you do, it's effective, fast, and best of all, free.

I used to swear by SAV10, but after it started hanging my 64-bit file servers last spring, I banished it from my data center. They're lucky we didn't file a lawsuit - it turned out they knew about the issue causing it, and had only documented it internally. Our Dell rep dug it out of a support tech after I worked a 90 hour week replacing three entire servers piece by piece trying to solve the issue. We're never giving Symantec another dime of our money while I'm still around.

Well Hell ... That's what I was afraid of on ForeFront. The level of complexity makes it rather impractical for small shops, which is mainly what I run into around here. I'd hoped it would be a viable alternative to SAV which seems to have completely gone into the toilet as of late.

Are there any other good centrally managed AV solutions out there that will run on Vista, and don't totally suck? I've been toying with trying Panda, but I haven't had time to get the project off the ground.

Well, NOD32 has a LAN update server that can deploy configuration files along with its updates. This is its configuration editor (running on my home Windows 2008 server):

Click to view attachment

Their Enterprise edition also comes with remote administration software and mail server protection, which I haven't tried yet.

Well I have been testing out Symantec EndPoint Protection, and I'm about ready to declare it's a load of shit. It has a new feature called "Network Threat Protection," and when that's enabled, it absolutely hinders my ability to browse the network. Accessing network shares goes MUCH slower, and I can't even connect to some computers. Just as soon as I disable Network Threat Protection, then everything goes back to normal. The problem with just leaving it disabled is that the software goes red and says I need to click the Fix button to enable Network Threat Protection.

Any surprise here? This absolutely typical for a Symantec product.