Whats a good AV for Vista??

[odditude]

what a surprise, i've seen stage 2 as well.

my patience for certain australians is at an all-time low today.

[Cyrus]

the free version of avira doesn't scan email, and likes to throw nag screens at you.

It's not so bad though. The nag screen is only once a day.

The nag screen is once every update, which is usually every day.
The advertisement can be disabled:

.: Disable the Avira AntiVir avnotify nag screen :.

Windows 2000:

1. Click Start, and then click Run
2. In the Open box, type gpedit.msc, and then click OK
3. Expand User Configuration, expand Administrative Templates, and then expand System
4. In the right pane, double-click Don't run specified Windows applications
5. Click Enabled, and then click Show
6. Click Add, and then type the executable file name of the program (avnotify.exe) that you want to restrict users from running.
7. Click OK, click OK, and then click OK (NOTE: If domain-level policy settings are defined, they may override this local policy setting.)
8. Quit Group Policy Object Editor
9. Restart the computer

Windows 2000/XP: (2000 & XP Pro do not require you to boot into safe mode)

1. Boot into Safe Mode (tap F8 repeatedly after you restart the computer)
2. Log in using the Administrator account
3. Go to C:\Program Files\Avira\AntiVir PersonalEdition Classic\avnotify.exe
4. Right-click avnotify.exe-> properties-> security-> advanced
5. Under the Permissions tab click on SYSTEM under Permission entries:
6. Edit-> Traverse Folder / Execute File-> deny-> ok ->apply-> yes -> ok-> ok
7. Reboot the computer into Normal Mode (start-> shutdown-> restart)

Windows XP Pro & Vista Business/Ultimate/Enterprise

1. Start-> Control Panel
2. Administrative tools-> Local security policy
3. Click on Software Restriction Policy-> Action (at the top)-> create new restriction policies
4. Right-click additional rules (on the right side)-> new path rule
5. Click Browse and navigate to C:\Program Files\(Avira)\AntiVir PersonalEdition Classic\ and double-click avnotify.exe
6. Set the security level to Disallowed-> apply-> ok

Windows Vista Home Premium

1. Go to C:\Program Files\Avira\AntiVir PersonalEdition Classic\avnotify.exe
2. Right-click avnotify.exe-> properties-> security->
3. Under the group or username SYSTEM click edit
4. Put a checkmark under the DENY column for "read and execute"


.: Disable the splash screen :.

1. Open regedit and navigate to [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run]
2. In the right pane double-click avgnt and add /nosplash at the end of the path (ex. /min /nosplash)

[franpa]

Here, there is stage 1, then 2, then reboot, then 3, then log in.

Here it is always Stage 3, Stage 1, reboot, Stage 3, Log in.

[ZH/Franky]

I've used Clamwin for some time now, and it's quite good.

[85cocoa]

(This is not directed specifically at Franky.)

Just a reminder that ClamWin doesn't have real-time protection. (Spyware Terminator does have a feature to use ClamWin as a real-time shield, but I don't really like the rest of Spyware Terminator that much).
Also consider some behavior-based malware prevention such as ThreatFire.

[alexz721]

Can't believe no one's recommended Kaspersky. This one really is one of the best. I personally don't prefer it because it's somewhat slower than other products (but not nearly as bloated as say, Norton). I use NOD32, which is a perfect blend of functionality and speed, in my opinion. Trend Micro's up there, but I don't think it's better than these two.

Antivir is good, and it's better than AVG (not so sure about Avast), but it's most attractive feature is that it's free. It's not better than the two aforementioned products, I'll tell you that much. Don't know about Clamwin, I'll have to run some tests with that one.

Symantec is garbage.

[sweener2001]

thanks, kode

[kode54]

thanks, kode

What did I do?

[snkcube]

the free version of avira doesn't scan email, and likes to throw nag screens at you.

It's not so bad though. The nag screen is only when you update anti-vir.

Fixed.

also, been a happy user of avira anti-vir for over three years running.

Heh, sorry for the mistake. I set my Anti-Vir to update everyday.

@Cyrus - Thanks for the tip.

[adventure_of_link]

'cube: no worries bud.

kode: maybe for setting Franpa straight?

[ZH/Franky]

Just a reminder that ClamWin doesn't have real-time protection.

I'm not on Windows often anyway (I use linux most of the time), and I hate real-time protection. More resources being used. I'd rather just do a thorough scan of all drives every week or so; and for that, Clamwin does a wonderful job.

Hell, I turn spybot and clamwin off whenever I log into Windows. My XP is fairy secure anyway (software restriction policies, I always run as limited user unless I need to to admin stuff,, disable certain services that pose security risks, disable simple file sharing and restrict read/write access to certain places, etc, etc, etc). Sure, not bullet-proof, but then I also don't watch porn or go on warez sites.

[paulguy]

Yes because .avi files are so full of viruses.

[ZH/Franky]

Yes because .avi files are so full of viruses.

I wasn't talking about the video files themselves, Mr. Dude

[franpa]

Unless you do regular backups, real-time protection is the way to go, and with multi-core processors, the performance impact is negligible.

[funkyass]

the performance was negligible back on a 486.

Ok, it really do much, but it wasn't that bad.

[ZH/Franky]

You say that the performance impact is negligible on a dual-core system, but...
Mesa no have two cores. Pentium 4 Prescott 640. Hyper-threading can only do so much.