What anti-virus software do you use? - 2014 edition

[BRIK]

A Trend Micro representative at work just gave me a three device, 12 month install of the Maxium Security. Seems okay so far.

[casterofdreams]

AVG Free on all PCs in the house all the way for years now. I also use Glary's Utilities as well. I don't visit any questionable sites. I leave that for an old 2008 HP laptop running Vista and that still has no problems with those two programs.

I also use Revo Uninstaller in combination with the stock Windows 7 "uninstall a program" list to see if anything was installed without my knowledge. I haven't caught anything in years but if I see something strange it allows me to question it.

[Opa Opa]

Bump.

Just got into the windows 8.1 club; do I really need anything other than Adblock on chrome and windows defender? I visit about 12 sites and stay away from TEH pR0ns and illegal shit. Is something like avg necessary?

[Fragems]

I just get a 3 system licenses through AVG every year. It's cheap(Almost free with MIR sometimes) and it gets the job done. 95% of my activity is on a handful of trusted sites so I don't really have to worry about viruses to much.

[isiolia]

Bump.

Just got into the windows 8.1 club; do I really need anything other than Adblock on chrome and windows defender? I visit about 12 sites and stay away from TEH pR0ns and illegal shit. Is something like avg necessary?

I would say it's not. Defender is not great, but it's something, and it's pretty unobtrusive.

Quite a lot of the crap out there now falls more under Potentially Unwanted Programs (PUPs) than full on viruses. Not a lot of that gets stopped by anything but common sense, since as far as the computer is concerned, it's acting legit.

Keep things like Flash and Java up to date, and keep in mind that nearly anything can be used as bait to get you to click on/install the wrong thing. People point the finger at porn a lot, but you're as (or more) likely to get infected from a free font collection or coupon toolbar.

With 8, you actually have a couple additional tools. First, you can use the Modern UI version of a browser. As potentially annoying as the Modern UI stuff is outside of using touch, those apps are locked down just as much as iOS/Android stuff is. I'm not saying they can't get compromised, but, they aren't exactly allowed to do much from a system perspective, and they usually can only get installed through the Windows Store to boot.

The restore option for Windows 8 is improved as well, if you do wind up having issues.

[Hobie-wan]

Even if you never click on ads or any scruffy links, you can still get crap on your PC. If some vulnerability is found, but not been patched yet, simply visiting a web page can load crap on your PC. Heck, trusted sited can get hacked where clicking a link that would normally be ok could load you with something.

[Opa Opa]

^well that's true. I guess I'll give AVG another try.
Thanks for the info, guys.

[noiseredux]

I switched from AVG to Avira and am happy.

[marurun]

I was using Avast Free but found it had a little too much impact on my gaming performance. AVG has been much kinder to system performance. This is the exact opposite scenario of a couple years ago.

[noiseredux]

I was using Avast Free but found it had a little too much impact on my gaming performance. AVG has been much kinder to system performance. This is the exact opposite scenario of a couple years ago.

Weird, I'm finding the opposite where Avast seems so lightweight and unobtrusive.