Free Virus Protection

[nicksson]

I use the free version of Avast for 3 years now: is not only free, but also very good.

[Seeker47]

About 15 years ago there was a rumor of a virus that could route high voltage to your monitor causing it to explode in your face...

And there are a bunch more along these lines that you can browse through at SNOPES.COM, pretty much consigned to the Bogus Bin. The great thing about items like these is that they are perennials: they just don't go away, but recirculate on the net or turn up periodically in mass emails (usually from a friend or relative who knows very little about computers and the like), no matter how well it has been debunked. If something like this were true, there would be abundant, demonstrable proof.

[JohnnyMalaria]

Avast.

I've only recently started using. I have a Symantec NIS 2007 subscription and it is installed on my 32-bit XP and Vista. But it doesn't work with Vista 64. So I tried Avast and it is a blessed relief. Non-intrusive, doesn't steal half my CPU power in the middle of something critical, provides full control etc etc.

I expect I will eradicate NIS from my other Windows installations and use Avast.

My only gripe is that it prevented me from installing Visual Studio .NET 2008. Since I was still prep'ing that particular Vista install, I just uninstalled Avast temporarily. I'm sure that there was a way I could have gotten around it within Avast but it worked.

[Video Head]

About 15 years ago there was a rumor of a virus that could route high voltage to your monitor causing it to explode in your face...

And there are a bunch more along these lines that you can browse through at SNOPES.COM, pretty much consigned to the Bogus Bin. The great thing about items like these is that they are perennials: they just don't go away, but recirculate on the net or turn up periodically in mass emails (usually from a friend or relative who knows very little about computers and the like), no matter how well it has been debunked. If something like this were true, there would be abundant, demonstrable proof.

It's true...best to sit a good 20 feet away from the monitor...or build a bubble out of 2" thick Lexan that you can sit in while computing. Be careful out there!

[SanderMan]

Using Antivir here. Download from www.free-av.com Very light on resources and a good scanner. Check out www.av-comparatives.org for virus scanner tests.