Windows Vista comventional wisdom antivirus vista

What is the comventional wisdom on using antivirus software on vista? I have researched and found several people that don't use the software because of the overhead. They avoid the "critters" and such by avoiding questionable sites, doing updates and being careful on email.

Having worked on Windows systems for a long time and knowing the level of "stuff" that can invade ones system I have a hard time not using a security suite.

Any opinions on this? thank you!

 

Vista need for antivirus

they were my sentiments....just wanted to check to see if I was out of touch with reality....well...we won't go there but out of touch with Vista requirements...thank you!

 

The New AVG 8.0 free version doesn't cause too much system slow down, although some are having issues with Vista. Avast doesn't use too many resources either.
I prefer something like Symantec AV that includes malware protection as well as AV. I run Windows Defender but find programmes like Symantev AV with Malware protection tend to catch things (like some dodgy sites) that Defender doesn't.
No matter how careful you may think you are, you will always stumble into some site that causes problems. So protect yourself. As Broni says, AV (and Malware protection in my opinion) is a must.

 

I'm using Trend Micro. I stay away from Symantec & McAfee for several reasons. I do like AVG and used the free version for a long time. I bought a verson for small business that gives me 3 licenses. It's already caught stuff my CA stuff didn't. anyway...thanks for the insight.

For those who don't use virus protection...they will once they've experienced losing data. Thanks!

 

I think people are using Vista incorrectly. If you read about the (new) power saving mode of Vista, you should not need to "shut it down ". Instead of shutting down you should use the Start -> Power (icon) button, it puts the system into a very low level (and power saving) sleep.

Vista is a big operating system, it takes a lot of loading if you start it up cold (it may not seem like it, because you get to a working desktop relatively quickly, but lots of activity is still being carried out in the background and that is also the time when the antivirus wants to start checking files. You may see disk activity for a long time after logon.

If you don't shut down, the antivirus should only run when it is scheduled to do so. You can adjust the schedule yourself and should be able to adjust it's level of (background) activity. Before you walk away from the computer for an extended amount of time, set it to run a system check (partial or full), that should stop it from running another check while you are trying to work on something (maybe?).

Look at using web based email for all your day to day mailing. I only use the computer based email (Windows Mail) for business, AND this also keep SPAM downloading onto my PC. My ISP now offer a joint web-based email, so I can use either, but my main email account is a Hotmail address. I think that when Windows Mail, Outlook, etc are started, the AV starts running checks on the mail files, web based email doesn't encounter this.

You can take all the defaults set by the security system or you can teach yourself about how they work and control them yourself. Just don't complain about how slow things are at a cold startup!

Matt