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Mac-key

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Apr 1, 2010
753
202
Alabama
Hey all,

I'm putting Windows 7 on my MBP via bootcamp.

What anti-virus software do you guys recommend??

love to hear your thoughts

thank you
 
I also recommend Microsoft Security Essentials. It's light weight, free, and pretty good.
 
Haven't used any anti-virus on Windows since Vista SP1 as I just didn't see the need for them anymore.
 
Norton Internet Security or Kaspersky Internet Security, and for the best protection out of all... Common Sense!
 
Norton is a resource hog - no sense in getting your MBP all toasty.

MSE (like others have mentioned) is free and VERY light weight.
 
Norton is a resource hog - no sense in getting your MBP all toasty.

MSE (like others have mentioned) is free and VERY light weight.

I havent used Norton yet, but I hear the 2009 and later versions are pretty lightweight and good. MSE is fine though and free.
 
This is not true. There are many webservers out there that aren't fully patched, and riped for hacking. Hacked websites are ideal hosts for spreading trojans and other malware. Unfortunately, you're not going to know until its too late.

Your best bet is a layered defense, starting with a free AV like Microsoft and Clam. Then follow up with MalwareBytes and Lavasoft Ad-Aware. These can be installed, and configured to be run as needed.

For paid software, anything except for Symantec. From past experience, they lag on updating their virus definitions. Especially variations of existing viruses that other anti-virus makers are already detecting and have a solution to remove.



None.

If you don't do anything stupid, you won't get a virus.
 
After years of using Norton AntiVirus on Windows systems, I switched to AVG free. It catches everything and uses much less system resources than Norton.
 
Kaspersky hands down, kicks ass, and runs so smooth in the background vs damn near all the others that can be resource hogs
 
The advice you're getting here to "just use common sense" is IMO irresponsible. You need an a/v program running, as there are just too many ways to get hosed in the Windows world, and sometimes even very experienced users get hit. Any of the freebies recommended here would be fine; personally I use Avast! on my Windows systems--it is lightweight and fairly unobtrusive.
 
FWIW, I'm disappointed with MSE.

I managed to download a trojan and executed it (It was a .txt.exe file and on that machine I had not yet told it to show file extensions.) No UAC, no MSE warnings. It unpacked and ran a couple of other EXEs including a ssh server. I was able to kill the task and contain the damage quickly, but MSE didn't catch it as a threat at all. Very disappointing.

B
 
I agree with most what's been said, but in my own words.

Kaspersky: Awesome software! Best on the market IMHO. I've used it for years and (touch wood) always been fine.

MSE: Does the job if your just pottering around online but it's free and will only offer so much.

AVG: Like MSE it's free so will only ever be so good. Even the full version isn't that cracking.

Norton: Useless, It's an industry joke. If one of my customers asks for Norton I'll do all I can to get them to go for Kaspersky instead.

Just my 2 cents.
 
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