McAfee subscription is running out LF antivirus that is actually good.

[Masark]

Honestly, the best thing people can do is simply browse in a non-idiotic way.

How do you define "non-idiotic"? When crap gets served from irrelevant little sites like the New York Times, mere common sense rather ceases to be an effective defence.

While said incident was only a garden variety fake AV thing, nothing would have prevented them from using something more aggressive and subtle.

[Iamanerd]

For a long time I went AV free as I'm not stupid with what I do, but I use Avast paid as I got a 2 year subscription from my boss, and we use ESET NOD32 at work (I'm a PC Tech, repairs/networking/servers) but honestly it all comes down to user habits and how smart you are on the internet.

[DeltrusDisc]

How do you define "non-idiotic"? When crap gets served from irrelevant little sites like the New York Times, mere common sense rather ceases to be an effective defence.

While said incident was only a garden variety fake AV thing, nothing would have prevented them from using something more aggressive and subtle.

I'm not saying that people who browse safely are 100% safe, but they are a thousand times safer than people who click every which thing they are linked to, like those obscenely stupid "omg dude lol why are you in this video?!" linkes. -.-

"OMG IS THIS YOU IN THIS PICTURE?!" Forwarding to a picture like this that has nothing to do with the person.

[Whidbey]

my person record with AV programs
McAfee.. one hassle after another, system slow downs, 8 viral issues got by in 6 months
Norton.. Practically made my system run like a 386, missed a lot of virus's 2 months
AVG.. 2-3 got by.. usually root kits. 1 yr.

Microsoft Security Essentials 2 years.. Zero problems.

[Lilbruz]

You just need to figure out if you are satisfied and feel safe with a free solution, if you know enough about computers and risks that you know how to avoid it best, or you dont feel safe or dont know enough about it, and want to feel more secure.

Also, you need to figure out if you feel a free scanner has enough features, or you need more features (like backup, rescue, file shredder, parential control, per-program access control, port control, data encryption, password manager, Safe Money, activity eraser, data cleaner and advanced deep zero day threat scanning.

If you dont need any of that, go free. If you do, look into a paid version - look online at what best suits your needs.

For me, I have been using Kaspersky for 6+ years. I know what not to do to avoid malware and virus, but I like the added features that paid software gives you - and you can ALWAYS find cheaper deals than the default price on the website for whatever brand you should chose

EDIT: Using Kaspersky PURE 3.0 just for the record

[Deleted]

As a skid that ocassionally ratted people i can say for sure that no anti-virus is foolproof. Actually, the real danger to you will most likely always reach you because proper hackers make sure to make their stuff undetectable by AV's (with crypting).

That said, i use the following:

Comodo AV
Malwarebytes anti Malware
CC cleaner

I recommend all, no popups, no BS, good interface, regular updates, and it's free.