Reasonable or foolish?

Im very close to considering new systems I install to run with Prevx/SO as the sole resident security app (spywareblaster not withstanding.)

I tell ya, I'm all but fed up with what I'm seeing from the top AV makers. Yes you too Microsoft!

One product doesn't reliably update and has the support organization of a schizoid monkey with ADD. Another seems light contained and great - but interferes with dynamic disks, disk mounting and Hibernation. Another seems great til ya see how it shreds apart winsocks. Another I only have anecdotal info and my own subjective tests which is a great AV unless you move large databases of info or need to use Windows functions that page a lot of data really fast and then blammo - file corruption and errors galore. Then of course you have a few do nothings with pretty interfaces and bloated beauties that feel like carrying Sally Struthers home from a night at White Castle.

"Pullin at my hair."

I suppose a security app that makes it difficult to use the functions of your PC is certainly hampering malware, but gee, is it so much to ask an AV app to not break the full usability of a PC?

I have one semi bloated AV I might consider if necessary. Haven't made up my mind (sometimes a lil bloat can be sexy! ... but I digress .. lol)

Where on the spectrum of reasonable to foolish do you folks rate a decision to have Prevx/SO as the sole resident app?

 

I will be in the middle of 2011 as my Subscription to ESET NOD32 will expire and with the new things coming in Version 4 of Prevx which I don't know what's coming! Hopefully by the end of the year or into the new year they will be Beta Testing V4 by then!! I have high hopes that they will be my only realtime security solution!! The future will tell

TH

 

Hello NBP Pipsquack Bird;

No, I don't find it foolish at all.
For the past several months, I've been running (XP Home/SP-2 with IE 7) with no resident AV or AM.
All I have installed are Malwarebytes (on-demand only), Sandboxie (free), Keyscrembler (free), WinPatrol Plus for a lightweight HIPS, and Comodo Time Machine.

To-date, no known infections.

Every several days, I wipe the drive (40gb Western Digital SATA), re-image, and start over with the exact same base applications.
Prior to the wipe, I download/install either Avast 5, Avira 10, or Kaspersky 2010 and run a full scan.
Then I follow that up with a scan via Prevx 3.0 or A-Squared.

Again and again, the install checks clean.
Something might be there, but if it is, it isn't being detected by any of the above.
-So I see no point in changing.

I've observed over the years posts on any number of websites which depict user complaints and frustration over antivirus applications or firewalls either breaking their install or failing to update, detect, or clean.
I too have experienced the same, so I have chosen to see how successfully I can negotiate the internet without the standard AV or 3rd party firewall.
-So far, so good.

So I, as you, see no reason to trust a product which fails to perform as advertised.

Good luck !

 

This is why AV's aren't the solution. Keep it OUT of your PC and you don't have to get it off.

 

I've used just prevx as my only resident av for ages now, can't see me changing that anytime soon!

No bloat, super fast pc and protection.

 

I think its closer to reasonable than foolish to rely on Prevx/SO as your only memory resident app. However there is a lot to be said for a layered approach to security, but those layers don't always have to be provided by third party AV software.

I only run Prevx/SO in realtime but have the added protection of a Limited User Account and Software Restriction Policy. Even with teenagers in the house this combo is yet to let me down. But don't forget probably the most important security app of them all - disk image software, in case the unthinkable does ever happen!

 

A lot of this could be attributed to what one does on their computer. There are groups of people, like yourself, who never or rarely get infected then others that do, even with any combination of security software installed detecting the malware on their system.