AV for newbie

Which antivirus is the best for an user, who don't know anything about antivirus software? It has to be user-friendly, not complicated for use and good.

Regards.

 

AntiVir Personal used to be a fair AV, but is hopefully a bit better now that heuristics have been added. It is said that it gives large numbers of false positives, but I've used it for quite a while, and haven't had a single one. (Perhaps it depends on your operating system, I really have no idea.) Pretty easy to configure, and everthing is in pretty plain English. Just remember that this is not a standalone AV, or even a genuinely good one. You'll want to use F-Prot for DOS as a backup, in case things get past AntiVir. (Don't worry about screwups caused by 2 resident protection programs, because F-Prot, being a crippled free version, doesn't have any resident protection.)

Speaking of which, F-Prot has a pretty easy-to-use interface. Manual upgrades can be annoying, though, so you might want to download an application called F-Pup. Run the installer to install F-Pup and F-Prot to a directory of your choice. F-Prot is the AV; F-Pup (FP-UP.exe) is a sort of add-on (best phrase I can think of at the moment - sorry) that allows you to download updates without going to the F-Prot website.

Oh yeah, and some advice on F-Prot and F-Pup: the "Paranoid" option really does make the program paranoid. Very paranoid.

 

Thanks for the corrections, Ronjor.

Btw, I suggest staying away from Avast. It takes up an appreciable amount of RAM and HD space, and the only heuristics it has are for mail scanning.

 

Hi! Thanx for the answers.

Avast is very complicated, I know that. So I want to stay away from it.

AVG ... people say it isn't very good.

AntiVir ... when it found virus, it open such dos-based windows and offer you what to do with file. This can be realy confusing.

Any other possibilities?

 

Easy to use commercial AV programs for newbies which I have personally used and recommend include NOD, KAV 5 and F-prot for Windows.


1. NOD, easy to set up, very little effect on system resources and easy to schedule automatic updates and scans. Can run with default settings but here are some recommended ones;

https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=21171

As a newbie you would receive a lot of help here at Wilders.

2. KAV 5, just released but seems relatively stable ( on my systems anyway). Easy to use GUI and again it will give you good protection with the default settings. Again has a good support forum, this time over here;

http://forums.useice.com/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?s=40aee7e35b7affff;act=SC;c=1

3. F-Prot for Windows, again can run it 'straight from the box' and easy to set up scans and updates to work in the background. A little more information here;

https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=10006

I have used these scanners at one time or another on my children's computers. Like most kids they are not interested in the in's and out's of malware protection but simply want something to run in the background, which apparently protects the machine but which does not affect their more usual activities on their boxes.

Check out some of the suggestions you receive here, trial a few then select the one that suits you and your system the best.

 

"Out of the box" + "newbie-simple" = Norton

 

What about quality? Norton doesn't have it.

 

Try eTrust. These's an EZ version for home users.
It's free through the Microsoft-CA deal and it's up to the job.

 

Echo that http://www.my-etrust.com/microsoft/

 

Panda has an offer for a free version of Panda AV Platinum 7, complete with a year of free updates (after that, you have to register it again or something). Be warned, though, that a) it comes with its own firewall (and mediocre one, from what I've heard) and b) it hogs more RAM than Avast. I've also heard that it has some false positive problems, but I've yet to see for myself.

As for AVG: it's really the only free AV with all the standard features, but from what I've heard, the detection rate is a tad below average.

And for AntiVir, I can provide some DOS-screen translations:

"Move" = quarantine, i.e. move to the quarantine directory, where the offending file cannot be accessed.

"Rename" = change the file's extension so that it cannot be accessed.

"Delete" = delete file. Note that this does not move the file to the Recycle Bin, it just deletes the file and overwrites it. Be very careful with this.

"Ignore" = ignore file. Chances are, you won't want to do this.

If you don't have AntiVir set to repair infected files automatically, I think another one, "Repair", will also be shown. But I'm not sure about this, Ill have to check it out.

To select on of the above actions, press the key for the highlited letter in the word.

To test your AV, go to
the Eicar AV test website, read what it says, and click on "Eicar.com". If your AV says it detected the Eicar signature virus, it's in working order. Don't worry about the "virus", as it's not a real one.

 

I agree with the Cat here, except for KAV. Although KAV is a great AV with wonderful detection--IMO it's a bit too new to recommend to newbies at this point--but that's my opinion only. F-PROT and NOD32 are great choices for lightweight, easy-to-use AV's that work great "out of the box", and are excellent choices.

 

I wouldn't recommend F-Prot for Windows on XP to newbies, as there is no final action on any detection in the RTM. The next version yes, but not as it is now. (I'm assuming "newbie" is specifying they won't run on-demand)