Salam/Hi guys...
i created this post just to make a survey on which Antivirus is the most favorable by Lowyat.net members...
and if possible, please do put your personal review on the Antivirus performance installed in your PC...
this somehow might be helpful for those who are still confuse on which antivirus is the better one for their PC (effective, low CPU & Ram usage, cheap etc)...

avast free. thats what i need.

why avast? why free version? any difference between free and paid version?

Microsoft Essential..lazy to buy or crack...

free version because it not need pay..it got basic function..
for pay version u need to buy to unlock better function...
and why u ask a i dunno how 2 describe question..

haha, okay2...
just asking simple question...
for the sake of new users out there...
who knows...

Because avast is effective and light? If people tell you that paid is better, free cannot protect your computer, that person is talking rubbish. Behold my "free security suite" :

-avast! Free Antivirus v6 (few minor tweaks)
-Comodo firewall v5.5 (put it under training mode first to let it learn my system)
-Malwarebytes free v1.51
-ESET Onlince Scanner
-Sandboxie free v3.54
-Neo's Safekeys v3
-Lastpass
-Use Panda USB Vaccine portable
-Fully updated flash + java
-Fully updated Firefox + Ad Blocker Plus + Web of Trust (WOT set to very effective)
-Fully updated Google Chrome + Ad Block + WOT (set to very effective)
-Run my browser and any pdf files sandboxed
-Google DNS
-Do an image backup at the beginning of the month using Macrium Reflect

Addtional services used :
-Virustotal
-Url void
-Long url

Extras :
-Keep myself inform on what is going on in the security world.

Been running the above set up for nearly 1.5 years and I never have any issues. Heck, in fact, I help to clean my friends pendrive that got infected. So far, the only security setup I have run is the above and KIS. These 2 never disappoint me. KIS is for my one of my family member which is not computer savvy at all.

I am a person who put speed and protection above anything. Those set up are the lightest, easiest and mostt effective to use without giving me problem or slowing my computer down. I have ditch Kaspersky 1.5 years ago because it became too heavy and switch to avast v5 (then). The 2012 version is still heavy. I tested both avast and Kaspersky. What Kaspersky could detect, avast could detect as well. Samples were bought back from school. So if a free product can do what a paid product does or maybe even better, why not? The time of paying for security program for myself is long gone.

This post has been edited by Ramjade: Jul 13 2011, 10:47 PM

ESET smart security 4...very light woo... on my setup laa

Difference is in the Internet Security version you get a manual sandbox, sandboxed browser and firewall.
Other than that Free is enough in my opinion..

The AV I always use: Avast! Antivirus Free and Panda Cloud Antivirus Free light and does the job

QIHOO360. free,good,strong.
but only chinese version is available.lol

This post has been edited by tokthoo2002: Jul 18 2011, 01:25 AM

Agreed. Worth every penny you spend.

Eset 5.0 is coming soon, come along wif HIPS. and i heard that 5.0 is a bit lag.

Microsoft Essential, free and even paid AV wont 100% protect you from harmful event if you are not concious about what you are doing

Basically a free and paid version is not about the effectiveness in killing off any virus. The difference is mainly on the features provided. For instance, paid version comes with features like parental filtering, safe browsing, firewall, backup, bootable disc upon OS crash, good support via phone, email, online chat and many more. You can view one of my post I made on my blog on how to tell if you need a paid antivirus. I had been using paid and free antivirus in two of my PC. The paid one is Kaspersky and it is rated top 3 among all the giants like Norton and BitDefender and so I don't have any question about the quality.

But for free version, I had chosen Avast antivirus simply because it is free and light. But the protection is not complete as it does not come with a firewall. You can choose to stick with Windows Firewall but I last heard, Windows Firewall in XP sucks back then. If you are using Windows 7, the firewall might be 10 times better. In order for me to get a full protection, I top up my security with Comodo Firewall where so far it is doing a very good job for me.

It is very subjective on whether you need a free or paid version. If you have kids at home, you might want to use parental filtering so that your kids won't go and browse some gambling, drugs or adult materials. So, free version cannot suite your needs. And lastly, Microsoft Security Essentials is also quite a good AV to use because it is free and light. But since I already tie up with Avast because it saves my life by deleting a Trojan by performing a pre-boot scan, I'm with Avast from there. This feature I don't think is provided in MSE or most of other paid antivirus, so Avast has the advantage over here.

I'm using Kaspersky, it's very reliable antivirus. Start to use Kaspersky Internet Security 2010, the license expired a few month ago and now I'm upgrading to Kaspersky 2011, much better features. Great firewall protection, I love the auto pendrive scan features.

A few week after bought the 2011 version, I just saw the latest version 2012 sell at lowyat.. What the!!!
Anyway you can upgrade 2011 to 2012 for free.

For almost 2 years in a row still using the Avira Premium Security Suites...

So far so good...

Already using it now.

Personally I think, there are no powerful AV on the net. It all depends on the user himself. Just how they operate their PC.

This post has been edited by bugb34r: Jul 18 2011, 06:54 PM

Last time I use a combination of Avast 5 + Lavasoft Ad Aware + Webroot Sweeper.
I can say Ad Aware is really a heavy load and slow, now only using Avast 6 Pro Edition.

wow. paranoid level 999. i just use avast v6 free + common sense as my security setup.

This post has been edited by mono_demon: Jul 18 2011, 07:33 PM

just microsoft security essential + common sense, works best all the time