Free antivirus?

[Geek King]

No, she does recommend running a couple concurrently. I've got AVG and Comodo running concurrently right now. I did that on my old machine and on this one and haven't had a problem yet with them bumping into each other or using up resources.

If it's working for you, great, but two active-scan antivirus programs at the same time is on the big list of things not to do. Do a quick google on "running multiple antivirus programs" to see some good reading on it.

[crashhelmet]

Quoth tsar View Post
http://www.ubuntu.com/, and you'll get rid of the virii forever.

serious answers would be nice... why not just recommend a mac (i.e., no need to pay for antivirus)?

No Operating System is immune to virii. Windows is simply more susceptible due to the easier ability to write code for it.

As for free Anti-Virus apps tho, I run AVG 8.5 and MalwareBytes on my system and it's been running strong without any problems.

CH

[Geek King]

No Operating System is immune to virii. Windows is simply more susceptible due to the easier ability to write code for it.

Actually, Windows gets more virii because it has the biggest install base. Why write destructive or info stealing virii for an OS that has less than 10% of the install base (May 2009 numbers) when you can write one that could potentially infect around 88% of computers? The people that go after Mac and Linux machines are usually targeting a particular machine for a specific purpose.

It is only easier to write code for Windows because there are more people digging through the code to look for exploits and sharing what they figure out. If the same numbers turned on the Mac or Linux code, you'd see similer issues. Just for example, a fellow at DEFCON last year cracked a Mac and gave himself full admin control over it in just under three minutes.

[Broomjockey]

I recommend "Common Sense 2009." I've been using it since the 2007 edition, and combined with the occasional sweep from a non-active AV (aka, I have to turn it on and manually scan), and running Spy-Bot, versions of No-Script, Ad-Block, and Flash Block, I haven't needed a real-time scanner in years. Doesn't work well in business environments though.

Mod Note: The original OS-post shouldn't have been made in the first place, so can we keep any OS-bashing, or in-depth discussions about technical aspects about OS relative security to a minimum? The first is Fratching, the second is technically interesting, but this thread was for recommendations about AV programs.

[Slytovhand]

I now have to modify my original answer...

I seemed to have gotten myself a virus. Avast got shut down and wouldn't run, ZoneAlarm got shut down and wouldn't run...

So, I managed to get Avast to do an online scan... found nothing.

I ran Malware... found over 30 infections in the first 30 seconds! Bagel virus, worms, trojans, spyware, adware.... sigh!

[draggar]

Reboot into safe mode with networking support and see if you can run / update your protection SW.

Also try to download the latest versions of Ad-Aware and Spybot.

If you can - update and reboot into safe mode (without networking) and do the best scan / clean that you can.

Install Ad-Aware and Spybot and then do a full scan with those while you're still in safe mode.

If that doesn't work - reboot into safe mode with networking and Google the viruses that you get.