Well I use Kaspersky Internet Security, have absolutely no problem with it, works good for me...

NOD 32....great software. Actually, if you want the lowdown, ask angus1949 as he has extensive security experience.

Also helluva nice guy who loves to help.

Linux!

Sorry, couldn't resist.

Have you tried NIS 2009?

No, he didn't. That's kind of obvious when he says norton is "sooo slow"...

Really, NOONE who has tried norton internet security 2009 can honestly say it's slow... It's the mother of all fast AV-suites...

I'll check....

ccSvcHst.exe (Symantec Service Framework) - 2 processes... ~5500kB memory used.... Goes up to 12000kB when exploring the filesystem.... 0-1% CPU usage...

That's all there is to it... It's not a resource hog anymore.

(And I dropped trend micro when they released the 2008 version, because it was causing problems with my software, and ate up my resources, NIS 2008 worked ALOT better than trend....)

Just to add my 2 cents to the thread. Ive used quit a lot of different antivirus solutions over the year, from mcafee and norton to avg and kaspersky. No point in listing all of them. The point is dont be stupid, dont go to suspect sites, dont open email or files from unknown sources. And you are 3/4 of a way to having your computer secured against infection. Concerning the actual antivirus soft. If i was to rate 3 best ones:

1. Kaspersky (excellent protection, fairly small footprint, easy to use, no compatibility issues)

2.NOD32 (very good protection, small footprint.)

3. avg/avira (cant honestly decide which one is better from these two so put both of them down as the third. AVG has by far the smallest footprint of them all, Free version slightly lacks on the protection side of things. Avira is a good all rounder.)

If i was getting a new AV i'd choose from the above 4, the guide being my financial situation more then anything. Wouldnt bother with any other AVs out there at all.

Just my 2 cents hope it helps.

I've gotten several BSOD's on my old machine after installing Starforce enabled games (this was a few years ago, obviously). Starforce utilizes Ring0 access, which is proven to cause absolute chaos. My DVD-RW would also constantly degrade from DMA to PIO mode, with the inability to switch it back, ever. This happened right after installing a game called "Cold War", which used Starforce.  Not only did I come across several odd behaviors with my machine at the time, so did many people I know and trust. I went through 3 DVD-RW drives in a period of 2 years. I'm a big PC Gamer and have little doubt is was anything but Starforce, especially after talking to others in a similar situation.

Also, there's was an ex-employee that worked for Starforce, Russian I believe, that created a website whistleblowing on Starforce. He started it a few years ago, and was sued shortly after. The site was unfortunaltey shutdown, but had all kinds of internal memos on this subject, basically showing that they knew there were major issues and implications with their Ring0 driver. 

That's like saying you prefer to drive a car without a seat belt (safety belt if you like...), if you're smart about what and where you are driving you won't have an accident. Very few of all people who use a seat belt ever actually use them.

The problem is that very few people drive ONLY on a huge empty parking lot. And, while it's safer there, it's not 100% safe to drive there either and you could end up in a situation where the seat belt saves your life anyway.

Another bump for iolo from da munkeh.  Still going strong.

I agree the smaller and the less known companies I found have the best software. I wouldn't even care about Window live care because it is just another microsoft product

BitDefender and Norton 360 have worked best for me.  Really depends on the apps on your machine as well and compatibility with them against your anti-virus.  Currently, I took off BitDefender Total Security 2009 and installed Norton 360.  I'm running Windows Vista Ultimate (64-Bit) and BitDefender scanning (auto and manual) kept not working.  I reinstalled BitDefender for the 6th time, had the issue again and put Norton 360 on the machine.  I've been running Norton 360 for about 2 months and have loved it.

Differences I've noticed with Norton 360:

It's much more light-weight
Doesn't lag my PC AT ALL during scans
Lot less a pain to configure
Updates more real-time than anything else I've seen.

I'd highly recommend it..  When people ask well "why believe you"..  I'll tell you..  lol

I'm MCITP:EST and MCTS Certified for Windows Vista.  So, if you're using Vista...  Take my word for it and save a lot of time.  I've been there and done that with almost all apps.  First and foremost regardless of what you hear on this site..  Don't get anything free.  It won't help you and you mideswell not have anything in that case.  You get what you pay for.    Good luck!

i used nod32 from the day vista was released until last week. nod32 is great, in my opinion, but i've found vipre to be a bit better. vipre seems to use a tad bit less memory and also icludes a malware detector. it's pretty darned inexpensive, too. 30 bucks for a year's subscription. i believe it has unlimited subs for 50 bucks a year, making it great for home networks.

Could have been at av-comparatives.

If you read their first main test of the year, you'll notice that Symantec beats pretty much every other suite. It detects more malware than Kaspersky (incidentally, ESET Nod32 falls behind on pretty much everything too), it does it faster, and with less false positives.

Personally, I call Symantec the overall winner in that test because it's the only suite combining great detection and low amount of false positives with great scanning speed.

It'll be interesting to see the next few tests. ESET beware..