Good antivirus program

I'll be honest though, we've never used their security suite, but we've been using Avast Free 4 Home for at least five years now and are very please with it. We find the free version to be quite light weight and not resource intensive.

Currently, Avast is offering a two year subscription for their Security Suite for the price of one year http://www.avast.com/internet-security good luck :)

We have it on 3 computers....2 Windows 7 Pro(64 bit) & 1 XP Pro.

It updates the virus database almost daily.

I've also used the server edition on Windows 2000 & 2003 servers with Exchange on them....it was also lighweight & quite good. They were just 60 trial versions & I never purchased it but it seemed almost identical to the free home version. I think the "Pro" version might be more suitable if you have kids/adults that may be surfing some questionable sites.

But like PurpleSkys said....it's treated us very well & we very seldom have any virus/malware problems & any we have had I can usually take care of in an hour or so at worst.

http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/products/?p=256

I found out about this one in a TR Blog. It has the same functionality as the pay-for edition, except that it must be updated manually. The pay-for edition contains auto-update; the freeware does not.

But I can remember to update it myself.

Not too resource-hungry - read the blog.

I got rid of McAffee because it bogged me down so much every time I booted the machine, which was only once a week or less. I haven't had that problem with AVG.

First: I have to let you know that 1, single Anti-Virus definition set(from a single vendor) is not a "One Stop Shop," because they each are individual companies, some more proactive than others but eventually all viruses will be covered. Unfortunately due to legal and ethical issues, they can't check everyones computers to see whats floating around as the latest and greatest virus.

The difficulty is that they all have different techniques and approaches to scanning for viruses.

Second: Patches must be current, policies must prevent downloads of particular files. If your organization uses internally sourced email, I recommend purchasing a deal with a company like MXlogic/McAfee for scanning emails, as well as the desktop AV source. With bulk amounts of mailboxes, you could get a price like $3 per user. They also offer business continuity, so if your email server goes down, they will store your email on their servers until it's back up. With that, end-users can also check, as well as send/receive emails on their web portal, until the email server is back up. Once the email server is back up, it forwards all of the email to the server.

Personally, I have always liked ZoneAlarm, it has administrative password protection to prevent changes. Changes can't be made without the password. It's very customizable, you can configure it to reduce CPU usage for scanning Viruses and Spyware.

It also uses a virtualized web browser, so if the browser does catch something, it can be dumped and never reach the kernel of your operating systems. The browser feature is called "ZoneAlarm Forcefield."

Right now they have a killer deal, $39.95 for 1 Year License that can be used on 3 Computers.

ZoneAlarm used to be a freeware firewall software until it was adopted and backed by Checkpoint Software Technologies Incorporated. It was one of the first few original software firewalls... The same individuals whom make enterprise level appliance devices for secured networking. They have also been in business for over 25 years now.

http://www.zonealarm.com

Check it out, I have 3x3 licenses for my systems at home. They also have an "End-Point" security solution directly with http://www.Checkpoint.com. Which is a centrally managed Zone Alarm like product. Zone Alarm by itself has to be manually configured. Checkpoint Endpoint Security is centrally configured for all hosts with the security software. Kind of like ForeFront Security, Trend Micro Office Security, or other endpoint security vendors. It's a little on the pricier side of course, but it's intended for companies with many systems that require an endpoint security solution. 3 computers, is good enough for home edition security like ZoneAlarm.

but as you say, to each their own. I dropped ZA because it was resourse intensive and in all reality, what does an average home user need with anything stronger than windows firewall, if someone wants in bad enough, it's not really going to make much difference what they have, even if it's a hardware firewall. I use what works for me and a number of programs that have been recommended to me by folks that have worked in the IT field for 30+ yrs.

I'm not a huge fan of M$'s security either, but that once again comes down to my personal preference. I have had decent results with the stand alone products that I have been using (current products and others in the past) for over 15 yrs, grant you, I have run into a few duds over the years, but have currently found a few good products that have done me good and aided me in fixing/removing some nasties on other folks' computers.

I do admit though, I do try to keep an open mind as new software emerges and folks suggest different things for me to try, had I not, I would never have the nice little collection of goodies that I have now. I will definitely take a minute or two in the future to check out your suggestions as well.

Oh, and I married my families IT guy :) , he's been actively working in IT for over 30 yrs.