Which Virus Protection to Get (for a Computer Newbie)?

atrueidiot

Solid State Member
Messages
18
Location
USA
First, I wanted to thank everyone on this forum so much for their help in my other thread asking about which laptop to buy for someone like me who is not very computer literate on the technical side (those "gig," "mega" and "bit" words really have no meaning for me lol :lol:). This is a very cool and helpful place!!

Now that I've just bought my laptop, I am needing to get an anti-virus program before going online at home. I'll probably be shopping around Target and Best Buy this Friday and thought I'd ask folks a quick question as to which virus protection program you guys find to be best? I'm hoping to spend less than $100, by the way.

Thanks so much for people's input and help at these forums! You guys are awesome!! :)
 
If I were you I would just go with Avast free antivirus for preventing viruses, and Malwarebytes for removing viruses and malware.

There is no real need to buy an antivirus when they have a free version of that same antivirus that is barley any different.
 
Same as above, avast is good and free, and it has a mobile version aswell that has more features like tracking and remote wiping / locking.

However if you really do want to buy a premium one I cant say anything against macafee, every elctronic device that can be protected in my house is on that all for one yearly fee, thats gotta be over 10 devices¬???

And I like all the fetures of it, but even then I combine it with other free tools such as ccleaner and others mentiond on the clean up page for virus removal as no virus protection is 100% guranteed to stop every virus and chanches are you will get one at some point.

But if your more concerend about keeping your data privet, forget it, as no software will do that, the govement spies on us via everything XD!

Even angry birds!
 
I would recommend Kaspersky, it's not free but affordable. Avast is free, yes! Unfortunately, it scans and removes system files/ directories, common problem is OS error! Which you will need to reinstall OS!
 
I would recommend Kaspersky, it's not free but affordable. Avast is free, yes! Unfortunately, it scans and removes system files/ directories, common problem is OS error! Which you will need to reinstall OS!

OH??? :eek:

Have others had this issue? I wouldn't mind paying for something if it meant better protection and less hassles for me! Thanks guys for the recs!
 
AVAST!! As said above, also use Malwarebytes

---------- Post added at 03:48 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:47 PM ----------

I would recommend Kaspersky, it's not free but affordable. Avast is free, yes! Unfortunately, it scans and removes system files/ directories, common problem is OS error! Which you will need to reinstall OS!

Disagreed, anything Avast has done to my computer repairs in the directories and deletes anything non essential, and if something is ruined, I run startup repair, then get an update and all is good
 
Avast & Avg are the two i recommend, they are both good and work great and are free. The only slight difference i think is that Avg can be a little resourceful but what can you expect for a free software.
 
Avast & Avg are the two i recommend, they are both good and work great and are free. The only slight difference i think is that Avg can be a little resourceful but what can you expect for a free software.

I'd agree with this from a third-party point of view, I've always used AVG (on XP) and found them very effective. However...

Personally i use microsoft security essentials, great and its free!

Now you're in the Windows 7/8 realm you get Microsoft Security Essentials (MSSE) bundled with your OS. To be honest, there is no reason to buy a third party antivirus anymore since none of them are perfect (in terms of virus detection/removal) and many of the third-party ones require more system resource (RAM/CPU time) than MSSE.

As a beginner, I'd recommend you read a post I made yesterday (http://www.computerforums.org/forum...an-you-get-virus-youtube-facebook-224609.html) to familiarise yourself with email security. I say this because safe browsing/email practices are much more effective than any security software ever could be.

I'm looking to pull together a comprehensive website to help people such as yourself understand the dangers (rationally, not paranoid) and educate others on how to protect themselves. Unfortunately I don't get anywhere near as much time as I'd like to do this, so it's slow going. I will post a thread in these forums when this is ready for a 'test run' (provided it doesn't contravene forum posting guidelines).

Good luck and safe browsing!
 
Back
Top Bottom