Forum Thread: Which Is the Best Antivirus?

There is no best, there are no greatest. They are all good, and they all work in a pretty similar fashion. That database of viruses and attacks you are talking of are called virus definitions. The term refers to signatures stored by the antivirus to match with the signatures of actual viruses when encountered.

No one here would know which AV software keeps the most up-to-date record of signatures. I assume that all the big names like Kaspersky would keep everything updated at all times. There really isn't much competition between the brands, it's all about the name. They all do the same job and they all do it well (if you pay them well).

Yes, but some of them won't detect most basic attacks or encoded backdoors.

Really? And what if someone will put virus inside your PC and you won't notice it? And Malwarebytes too.

Well then it's a zero-day that no AV knows about. Don't worry since there aren't many of them. You're relying on a fraction of a possibility, and I say you shouldn't overthink it. Whatever you have probably works as best as anything out there could. Whether it's ESET or Kaspersky or Norton. Just rest assured that you are protected, relax and try not to think too much and worry about the impossible (or the marginally possible).

It's not only about the software you have protecting your computer but also how you browse the internet.

Only download things from a reliable source. Using P2P services and browsing torrent websites contain a lot of malware and viruses. Try to keep yourself away from that. Also, always read before clicking on anything because a lot of programs come with sponsored software or toolbars that will annoy you for days.

So just run a popular antivirus with malwarebytes, preferably the pro version, and browse the internet carefully and you should be okay.

True, there is no best, it all comes down to what they discover, so you are never really safe regardless of what AV you are using. If it's zero day as mentioned already, your screwed regardless.

From experience I would recommend spybot: search and destroy for the stubborn viruses, spybot also has an antivirus now, malwarebytes as a second backup incase spybot doesn't get it. For an everyday AV, Eset is fine, its not any better or worse compared to any other antivirus. Also avast is pretty good as well, and what I mean by pretty good is that it is not a system resource hog like the others.

If none of these get rid of a virus, trojan, adware etc that you suspect you may have, then you need to find out specifically what it is and target it with the right software.

Best way is to experiment with them, I've used almost all of them, I tend to come back to avast, with spybot on the side as a backup. Then if I still suspect something I fall back to Linux Live antivirus (http://antiviruslivecd.4mlinux.com/) which runs before the PC even boots up eliminating any ones that try to hide.

VirusTotal says that an AV can, at best, detect 50% of viruses.

People at TopTenReviews always seem to rate Bitdefender as the best antivirus. But when it was hacked, none of credit card information was stored encrypted.

ClamAV is the only popular open source antivirus out there.
I wouldn't recommend QuickHeal even if they offer it to me for free, since I think it is a 'dirty' antivirus.

Norton's manufacturer is the company that creates SSL certificates for big websites, besides Comodo, which also has it's antivirus.

Avast offers a good personal license.
AVG and Kaspersky are known to be faster at scanning than others, though I don't prefer either of the two.
Malwarebytes offers good functionality even in free license.
Dr.Web is good for android, but I can't say anything about its PC counterpart.

So, it comes down to what you prefer. Here in India, many people say quickheal to be the best, but I'm among the few to hate it.

-The Joker

If u game a lot i would reocmmend bitdefender :)
It doesnt do all the stupid cleaning whenever u are in game and eat up all the cpu.

Made for gamers <3

For Windows, the main antivirus programs you can get are Bitdefender, Norton and Kaspersky -- They consistently rank at the top 3 positions in all AV Tests.

Personally, I'd go for Kaspersky if I were you.

Nowadays antivirus is very tool for everyone who is working on computer or laptops because of an antivirus protects our data from different types of malware or viruses. I use Avira antivirus and faced some issues avg error code 0xe001f90f I don't know how to solve this. A suggestion would be helpful.