OT: Virus protection software

Anyone use any good software? one that does not try and take over your PC...

I have used several and it seems like they all try to take over your PC and run every time you turn it on, do a full system scan, slow everything you are running to a crawl, bla bla bla...

"Avast" works for me, and its free.

http://www.avast.com/eng/download-avast-home.html

http://www.download.com/Avast-Home-Edition/3000-2239_4-10602417.html?tag=lst-0-1

Start looking here.
http://www.techsupportalert.com/best-free-anti-virus-software.htm
I use AGV, free on one and purchased on the other.
I have used Avira and Kaspersky they are both good too.

Alot of people bag NORTON but it woks well and I venture into dark websites we are warned not to go. It has log in's saved and you can create cards to autofill forms(incl. credit card details). Its been forever since I last had to log in anywhere, including the pain in the arse e-bay everyday signin. Very handy feature, saves a heap of time. Its the only reason I went NORTON.

I use AVG and Komando. Both are working quite well.

I will NEVER recommend Norton. Nearly all of the computers I get to clean up have been "protected" by Norton. They seem to provide the worst protection, yet an incredible amount of user-confidence. Plus it is also one of the worst as far as taking over your computer. Personally, I'd rather have nothing than Norton.

Norton = NEVER. No Symantec Programs are allowed on any system that I even have to come within 50 feet of.

The lightest, and most effective I've used in the past couple of years has been ESET's Smart Security Suite, or just NOD32 for the AV part. It's not free, but is fast, unobtrusive, and even easily removable if you should choose.

Also not free, but a close second to ESET's is Kaspersky AV, though strangely they ignored security flaws in their own website just recently until they were pushed publicly out to hacker communities.

http://www.eset.com/

http://www.kaspersky.com

PS. Saved Logins and user information, while convenient, is a severe security problem if you are at all concerned.

I switched from Norton's to Zone Alarm and have been very happy with the Zone Alarm product.

I use AVG and schedule when it scans my system. I have not had any issues since going to it.

All of my personal computers use AVG free edition. Norton and McAfee both are processor hogs compared to AVG. I had McAfee on my wife's computer and it was running so slow it was almost unusable. Switched to AVG last weekend and it perked back up to normal. I'm another one that won't let a Symantec product near my system. Of the few viruses I ever got two were while using Norton.

Avast

No annoying popups.

I 2nd ESET. We are switching over our clients to them as well. Have a very nice business package. I've also used avast, and can recommened it.

I stay away from McAfee and Norton (bloated system hogs, poor performance in many cases). Use to use AVG but they just kept getting bigger and bigger and kept slowing down.

Avast does the job

Another vote for avast free edition. Hardly know it's there.

When we ran windows and for our isa servers we used Kaspersky on our desktops, and GDI web monitor with Kaspersky, Bit Defender, and Norman plugins. They scan as data moves across the ethernet port, blocking the detected material. We have since completely changed to variations of Linux and use Kaspersky on the desktops, and on our gateways.
We presently manage close to 80 servers with 3 gateways. After a wide spread infection with a W32 variant using norton coorporate edition, we started testing different solutions against known viruses. They placed for us on reaction time in this order, Kaspersky, Bit defender, Avist. Any of the others would allow the file to write to the harddrive and then let you know it was there and ask if you wanted to remove it. Of course by this time it's to late, so those are the only 3 I can recommend. A good test string to test this is http://www.eicar.org/anti_virus_test_file.htm simply click the text file and see if it makes it to your harddrive as a saved document, with a pop up from your antivirus, the 3 above will not allow it to be written to your harddrive. If your solution allows it to be written to the harddrive then it is in my opinion ineffective to protect your system.

Norton is good but not work with W2k.
F-Secure is good and works also with W2k.