What's the best spyware/Anti-virus?

Recently I've tried alot of spyware/anti-virus programs and they all, ofcourse, have their strongs and weaknesses... but what do YOU think is the best overall? I open to all suggenstions

Thanks in advance.

I would like the answer to that myself...
right now I'm running on AVG for both...
It works well... but updates have to be done too often to be effective for my computer...
But thats just my 2 cents...

At home and in the office, I use Symantec. Never had an issue and you can get it all sorted via the internet.

I have selected auto update so every time I log on, it checks for the latest file definations.

It picked something up today.

Well I used to use Norton and very nice and easy-to-use program, but took up alot of resources i guess. I myself use Kaspersky, nice program, but I have trouble getting rid of some pop-ups. one called "disc-cleaner" or something...

I do not use any anti-spyware software, but when I suspect that a computer may have something like that installed I use two little programs from Sysinternals (now part of Microsoft), Autoruns, that shows everything that the computer loads on start up, and Process Explorer, that shows everything running on the computer.

I have used both to detect and remove three spyware programs and a virus from several computers.

As an anti-virus I use Avast, and I think its good and it does not slow my computer down (I have only an Athlon 1900+ with 760MB RAM with Windows Vista).

But I think that the best defense is in your head, thinking a little before doing something while online may help, I hope you were not one of those people that clicked the advertisement "Click here to infect your computer"

Some of the best that i've used are free, like spybot searchanddestroy, adaware, and avast! . (yeah, the exclamation point is part of its name). The latest Norton works pretty well too.

note: if you're downloading spybot, ONLY download it from this site. www.safer-networking.org...

don't download from spywarebot.com or www-spybot.net

Not entirely sure about trusting my computer, data and id protection to some free software!!!

Happy to pay about £25 or $40 a year for peace of mind

But I think that the best defense is in your head, thinking a little before doing something while online may help, I hope you were not one of those people that clicked the advertisement "Click here to infect your computer"

I totally agree, but as you know, the www is a jungle filled with dangers, so I wouldn't mind a little helper to guide me
Actually I got the pop-up downloading a game for my 6 year old son hehehe

Anyway thank you all for your inputs so far. You've all been a great help. I will try the ideas you've given me and get back to you with a review. Cheers.

Does anyone know ZoneAlarm? Is that a good firewall/antivirus?

kaspersky is the best antivirus but it slow the computer very much.
the latest nod 32 does the job perfect and its so lite u dont even feel it
u can also try bitdefender i heard it was "the best"

for spyware the best is "scan spyware" finds many stuff the other dont find,combine with other antispyware but not like spybot(IT IS SPYWARE IT SELF)

put tuneup 2007 and diskeeper 11 and ur good to go

Yeah Kaspersky really REALLY slows the computer down... I'm gonna try nod32... haven't tried that yet. Thanks mate!

I use ZoneAlarm (an oldish version) on the computer that I have always connected to the Internet and that I use to host some test pages that I create, and the only problem that I have had with it is when, for some reason, it cannot use its log file and starts to have problems loading because of it.

Since I found that this was the reason for its problems, when they appear I delete the log and everything works fine.

My log grows at a rapid rate because my computer is on a ISP that is the most used by people who try to get access to other people's computers, but I have never had any problem.

reply to post by Unisol


it's actually spyWAREbot that infects your comp. it put so much crap on my machine, which was annoying. If you really ask anyone that knows a lot about antivirus and spyware, they'll say spybot search and destroy is a good program.

How about avast or AVG? Anyone got recomendations on those?

reply to post by chris_dk


I prefer avast to AVG, but right now I'm trying out NOD32; it seems pretty good, not as memory intensive as the others I've tried, plus it caught a bug avast didn't.

[edit on 25-9-2007 by Beachcoma]

Remember that a lot of the free stuff like Spybot S&D etc are made by computer security experts that REALLY know their stuff.

For AV I'm using "AVG Free Edition" works great. Yeah Kaspersky is probably the best out there, but can sometimes really slow things down.

I'm running NOD32 right now... very nice program, very lite, but it dosn't seem to "discover" as much as kaspersky....

i used to like NOD, until I realized it was somehow causing problems with lots of other programs, especially 3D Studio Max! yikes!

i've been using avast! exclusively, since it's free.

reply to post by chris_dk


Hmm... then I must try Kaspersky out as well. I guess this means that just like anti-spyware programs, there's no one solution catches all program.

By the way I use AdAware + SpyBot (not SpywareBot... run from that like the plague) because if one doesn't catch something the other is likely to catch it.

Finally I use HijackThis to highlight other suspicious stuff for manual removal.

i was talking about spybot search and destroy.
before it was a nice program,locks the holes in the system detecs many types of spyware,but now in the install the program installs ADWARE as i saw,and i WONT TAKE THIS.
just get a spyware doctor,it will also fix the holes,but its really slow to load.
or fix the holes and remove spybot search and destroy.

for antivirus,i though since avg is free its probably trash it wont detect anything but it saved my honey a lot of times,but stilll using nod32....
avg was too not-interesting, i like my antivirus with lots of cool and shiny options to adjust^^but then it heavy and it just dosnt worth it,i dont even use firewall my internet connection is boring>_