Best (free) anti-virus for a NETBOOK

[Boyfriend]

Why not give a try to Microsoft Security Essentials. It is good and cost you 0$. Only prerequisite is genuine Windows.

 

[exodusprime1337]

i'd say avast, personlly i love nod32 but later editions have begun to show up in other programs as ctd, blue screens and the like. I wanted to try something free as i hear so many good things about various free av programs, so i tried avast, i'm currently using it on all 4 of my computers including my notebook, it runs great, updates all the time and doesn't thrash the disk often

 

[extrasalty]

You should all google "linux antivirus".

 

[inferKNOX]

I wouldn't advise (speaking as a PC Technician for a IT company) using AVG (especially free is bad), McAfee, TrendMicro or Panda because of their poor heuristics (detection) and weight / problematic behaviour.
NOD32 is only good with on-entry detection, but once the malware is in the system, NOD is useless.
Kaspersky is by far the best that I have used, but is too demanding for lower end systems.
Avira & Avast have good detection rates & low resource use for lower end systems, they are the best choice

 

[Mussels]

I wouldn't advise (speaking as a PC Technician for a IT company) using AVG (especially free is bad), McAfee, TrendMicro or Panda because of their poor heuristics (detection) and weight / problematic behaviour.
NOD32 is only good with on-entry detection, but once the malware is in the system, NOD is useless.
Kaspersky is by far the best that I have used, but is too demanding for lower end systems.
Avira & Avast have good detection rates & low resource use for lower end systems, they are the best choice

^ i agree with what he said.


your best bet on a netbook is to run windows 7 with UAC on high.

 

[lemonadesoda]

I am unsing avast! at the moment... it added a little slow-down, but nothing like McAfee Enterprise. Since I upgraded to 2GB memory, I noticed avast! resource untilitsation increased BUT it his the HDD less so is overall a little faster now.

Antivirus for netbooks is a real problem. Single core Atoms are essentially "weak" pentium 3's, and Atoms dont HTT well. Someone needs to come out with antivirus TARGETED to netbooks, and not just Dual/Quad core CPUs.

It seems that (as is with so much software) as CPUs become more powerful, the programmers become less efficient.

 

[inferKNOX]

It seems that (as is with so much software) as CPUs become more powerful, the programmers become less efficient.

Don't you just hate that? It keeps new generation hardware feeling sluggish like older h/ware!
Tech aught to be improved on all fronts, not progressing in h/ware & receding in s/ware.:shadedshu

 

[Mussels]

Don't you just hate that? It keeps new generation hardware feeling sluggish like older h/ware!
Tech aught to be improved on all fronts, not progressing in h/ware & receding in s/ware.:shadedshu

and thats why i'm excited about GPGPU and compute shaders. finally a generation where things speed up drastically

 

[RejZoR]

You guys will want to use avast! 5.0 once it's finally released. This thing is so damn fast. Even for a beta version. There is hardly any lag and i'm using Max heuristics on my netbook.

 

[erocker]

You guys will want to use avast! 5.0 once it's finally released. This thing is so damn fast. Even for a beta version. There is hardly any lag and i'm using Max heuristics on my netbook.

When is this due out? Where can I get the version you are using?

 

[RejZoR]

You can get it on avast! forums. Just remember, it's still a BETA and is not recommended for regular usage. Final release is scheduled before Windows 7 release. Not so far away anymore.

 

[newtekie1]

I wouldn't advise (speaking as a PC Technician for a IT company) using AVG (especially free is bad), McAfee, TrendMicro or Panda because of their poor heuristics (detection) and weight / problematic behaviour.
NOD32 is only good with on-entry detection, but once the malware is in the system, NOD is useless.
Kaspersky is by far the best that I have used, but is too demanding for lower end systems.
Avira & Avast have good detection rates & low resource use for lower end systems, they are the best choice

I agree with everything, except AVG. I've found it to be the best free anti-virus. Resrouce wise, it can seem a bit heavy, but even during a full scan, I notice no performance hit on my netbook(or any other system).

Having working in computer repair for nearly a decade, I can say that vary rarely do I see a machine come in that has a properly updated AVG and viruses, and I have only see one or two times when AVG has broken, which can't be said for McAfee, Trend, or Norton, they all break way to easily, leaving the computer unprotected.

 

[Mussels]

performance hit isnt the issue with AVG, its the crap heuristics.

it tends to miss all the newest viruses, and grab random safe files (false positives)