With the end of XP support for MSE, and whilst awaiting my Windows 8 machine, I've tested a few security suites.

 

I'll update full specs but essentially 7 year old Fujitsu Siemens XP pro running 256mb RAM.

 

Tested Norton 360, Kaspersky, and McAfee Total Protection so far

 

 

Worst of the bunch was McAfee. It lasted 4 out of the 30 day trial as it hogged all system resources and constantly wanted to run a scan.  Updates crashed the machine.

 

Next up was Kaspersky, a favourite with a few here.  Was quite speedy, did have issues in chrome thanks to the new policy on extensions killing the add ins which looked useful.  No noticeable lag unless it was updating, but it completed fairly quickly so no real issue.

 

Finally up was Norton which I've run on my other machines, and I wanted to see if it really would hog resources on a low spec machine.  I was pleasantly surprise that it pulled in less memory use than even Kaspersky.  Ran happily in the background and updated without any lag at all.

 

 

If anyone has any others to try as I need another period of cover as my new machine has gone to someone else who killed theirs/had it stolen or whatever.  AVG isnt happening, as I'm content being virus free thanks.

MSE still works and updates on xp - it just keeps telling you that the OS isn't supported. . .

I have found updates can be manually downloaded - Using Windows updates no longer works.

NOD32

 

Not free but well regarded by some

MSE still works and updates on xp - it just keeps telling you that the OS isn't supported. . .

Odd. Mine stopped updating at all.

NOD32

Not free but well regarded by some

Personally I prefer paid av as typically they're better in preventing stuff.

Do they have a trail? I'm hoping it's a temporary measure now as it's been 2 months since I was promised my new laptop

http://www.avast.com/en-gb/download-trial

http://www.avast.com/en-gb/download-trial

 

Avast is good - Not keen on the talking prompts though... makes it sound / feel cheap.

 

"Avast security database successfully updated"  :p

Does it still do that? That bugged me to death about 5 years ago

Avast still talks although admittedly it can be turned off, I've no idea why they think it's good to have on by default apart from wanting to remind you it's there and doing things I guess.

 

Avira is one that seems to be getting more recommendations recently although I don't have much experience with it aside from trying to deal with a false positive on someone's PC which was rather annoying.

 

I've found McAfee to be consistently terrible, I used to support it on a large number of machines and it frequently caused problems itself (not updating properly, using 100% of machine resources) while missing incoming malware.  It's been installed on some of the prebuilt PC's I've bought and been terrible on every one between reporting false positives for well known pieces of software or completely killing all network connectivity on another.  What I find particularly interesting about it is that AV tests frequently rate it near the top which immediately makes me distrusting of the rest of their results.

 

John

Does it still do that? That bugged me to death about 5 years ago

 

It certainly does along with annoying pop-ups from the task bar asking to upgrade.

Yes free 30day trial

 

http://www.eset.co.uk/Home/NOD32-Antivirus?gclid=CLWtht3Mj78CFSEcwwodvBIAKw

+1 for eset, although admittedly not used it in a few years but I remember it was pretty quick and on the ball.

Avast is good - Not keen on the talking prompts though... makes it sound / feel cheap.

 

"Avast security database successfully updated"  :p

 

Does it still do that? That bugged me to death about 5 years ago

 

5 seconds and it's switched off - no problems.

 

or, much to the amusement of my 8 year old nephew - announcements in Pirate.

5 seconds and it's switched off - no problems.

 

or, much to the amusement of my 8 year old nephew - announcements in Pirate.

 

What bugs me is, I tend to leave my speakers on & alot of time they are loud from listening to music and when the voice prompt comes up it scares the hell out of me!

Haven't read all through, but I use Avast, with no problems. That's backed up with Sptybot + Malwarebytes and Malwarebytes anti rootkit+ AdwCleaner + Rogue killer. Most problems I get are possible PUM, which slow down net speed ,and I someties get EAT problems. I've found this the most active, and an up to date Rogue killer gets rid of it.

For those happy with registry editing, it's usually HKEY_LOCAL MACHINE\SYSTEM\CURRENTCONTROLSET \SERVICES\TCIP\PARAMETERS\INTERFACES .

There is Sophos as well.

 

Used in a lot of big organisations mainly due to good education pricing and lots of free licenses for employees rather than sparkling performance.

 

Allegedly we're moving into the post antivirus age, the AV companies have all but publicly declared AV on it's own is pointless.

 

XP - Yes you can still get automatic updates, you just need to fool MS into thinking your PC is a cash machine. There are guides online.

Edited 3 July, 201412 yr by Aspman

Well new machine is here, dual core, loaded with corporate mcafee.

And it grinds that to a halt at times, and always wants to scan as the trial did on the xp machine. Even with the extra ram and dual core it confirms I'll be sticking with Norton on my personal machine for another year.

Sadly I can't bin Mcafee so have to put up with it.

According to a relative who works in one of the major IT support centres, Windows 8 comes with Microsoft's Antivirus which cannot be removed.  

 

If you run two sets of antivirus they cause problems and slow the machine down.  It seems that the major retailers know this but they make more money from addons such as Norton/McAfee than from the machine sales.

 

No personal experience since the only reason to run antivirus on Linux would be to prescan files destined for Windows machines.

MS security essentials is probably built into Win8. It can be switched off. We have Win8 here running another AV without issue. MS mandating an AV would get them in trouble with the EU for being anticompetitive in the same way as bundling IE did before.

 

Lot's of MS stuff now has previously big separate products all built in. Server 2012 has loads of stuff.