Kaspersky wins hands down, closely followed by NOD32, and F-Secure (but NOT F-Prot). I'd also add Sophos since I've only heard good things about that by professionals using it.
Kaspersky has some strong points, including the best antirootkit and PE pack protection and it's used as a benchmark for generic recognition by rootkit writers. It has a strong service when it comes to definitions updates and databases and it's lightweight compared to Symantec Antivirus or Internet Security.
Avira is the best free antivirus, followed by AVG. Avast doesn't recognise a lot of viruses, just as Symantec Antivirus, which is also a cpu hog and a crappy program when it comes to installation and uninstall issues.
The only downside of Kaspersky is that its kernel driver and antivirus monitor can be sometimes picky in particular situations (or with particular hardware) so they can get stuck easily, but it's a minority of cases compared to all the failures I have experienced with Symantec Antivirus. Kaspersky also provides alternative klif.sys kernel mode drivers for situations in which problems are experienced.
Immaterial, the topic is the same.. hell, you even replied in the thread and yet you _still_ thought (I assume) that it'd be worthwhile starting a new one of the same ilk. Absolutely amazing!
As an ex-computer engineer who's seen a fair few virus' i've never sucessfully removed a virus with a piece of automated software since Windows 95 replaced MS-DOS.
Anti-virus software has the effect of making your computer running slower and at times less stable. Fundamentally the same thing as most virus'. It's like choosing what to be infected by.
At least with Vista virus' are less likely to infect end user systems, but common sense and not browsing porn sites or downloading illegal software torrents is still the best protection.
But why on god's green earth would you run it as a TSR? What's wrong with an on-demand scanner?
I've used F-Prot since DOS was my primary OS and have over 65,000 viruses, and I've never been infected by something I didn't want to be (sandboxed of course).
Never understood how people operating computers can be so stupid as to need a TSR AV scanner.
I don't have an anti-virus...they don't work, they just tell you there is a problem that you probably already know about then then direct you to a website that tells you how to resolve the issue manually...the auto-fix features never totally remove the infection unless it is a real simple harmless trojan or some other lame virus.
Like said above in prior posts, the best anti-virus is common sense...I have only had 1 virus and that was blatantly my fault, but i was able to detect and remove it without an anti-virus...
Want to know in my case? (4 computers at home, no antivirus running.)
The Italian laws about privacy explicitly mandate the usage of some security measures to prevent data loss and dispersion. The usual interpretation of Law 196/03 dictates some minimal technical measures of safety, which include firewalls, UPSes, antiviruses, along with a row of other obligations when treating sensible or common data.
In short, running no antivirus (or other form of centralised virus protection) is against the law here.
I don't put any kind of trust in antiviruses when it comes to absolute infallibility, but my job includes also configuring and installing antiviruses, so I know them. I'd never use an antivirus to disinfect a computer, save for a major cleanup of inactive items at the end, which manually is a nearly impossible task.
If I have to clean, I do it with my own hands: I use Process Explorer, Autoruns, HiJackThis (for minor things), Rootkit Revealer, Rootkit Unhooker, IceSword, Gmer, The Avenger, Process Monitor and some other piece of software to eradicate malware.
I think antiviruses can be partially ineffectual, sometimes damaging and always eating resources, yet they provide security for the technically unsavvy, at least to a certain extent.
And I have to work for Customers, which, if you don't understand, have to obey a law and to have someone put their hands on their computers, and Customers are those who help me pay my food.
So if someone asks which is the best antivirus, I answer saying my opinion, which is based on a certain experience: you can't understand why people can be so stupid to need an antivirus, but I can tell you with certainty why people here in Italy NEED to run an antivirus on their workplace. I consider ironical the fact that you consider futile something that is vital for my job (including the fact that in the virus world, in one year, the technical aspects change dramatically).
It was AVG for me but Avast blew it out of the water for me. The ability to customize how it did things and the providers won my respect for having it. I'd have no anti-virus but once in a while my dad goes on my computer and goes to betting sites which seem unsafe. I only have it as a safety measure.
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Haven't had any AV application software installed for 4-ish years.