I've always felt that 99% of the problems that get automatically blamed on "a virus" are not really caused by a virus; they're either software bugs, or just someone who doesn't know how to use a computer. The myth of every single computer problem out there being caused by a virus, to me, seems to be created by the antivirus software companies, who are dying to sell us a solution to a problem that is more easily solved by just being slightly tech savvy.

That said, I've been a Mac or Linux user my whole life, and have only ever used Windows in school, where I don't have to deal with long term maintenance of the computer. I recently purchased my first windows box, and I feel confident enough with my tech skills that I'm not going to download some .exe attachment that claims to have the secret to a bigger penis. Plus I regularly monitor my active processes and I am likely to notice something unfamiliar hogging resources.

So, as a very tech savvy person (I'm a digital media major, computer science minor and a lifelong computer geek)...do I REALLY need to install one of these shitty, bloated, commercialized anti-virus programs? If so, which one will stay out of my way, and not be a resource hog?

No, if you're careful, you don't need antivirus software. I am very careful, but I run Avira Antivir because I am personally not comfortable without antivirus software. I do torrent quite a bit, and I have come across infected torrents. If I didn't do any downloading like that, I wouldn't be all that concerned about it.

Posted by DJ Craig I've always felt that 99% of the problems that get automatically blamed on "a virus" are not really caused by a virus; they're either software bugs, or just someone who doesn't know how to use a computer. The myth of every single computer problem out there being caused by a virus, to me, seems to be created by the antivirus software companies

A lot of what people think is caused by a virus is probably not, but, those people who don't know how to use a computer are constantly doing stuff that you wouldn't even consider possible for a person to do, opening themselves up to all kinds of threats, so yeah, the vast majority of consumer PCs are probably running rampant with malware.

But, I didn't use antivirus for 15 years and never had a problem. For a while, I put AVG on everything, but it began to suck. Nowadays I let Microsoft Security Essentials run, since it doesn't seem to slow things down much. It's not the most effective, but its free and doesn't get in the way.

It's not a bad idea to keep file backups and be ready to reinstall the OS if it does have nasty computer sex with the whole internet. You just never know.

Well, yeah, if you don't have a good back up system, you're an idiot.

Mutant wrote knowingly: Microsoft Security Essentials

Second for this.

Its probably not wise to go without something, but the Symantecs and McAfees of the world seem to be really good at chewing through RAM and CPU cycles for the most part. Oh, and also very good at putting "scanned by yadda yadda" on outgoing emails.

While I have lots of experience supporting various anti-virus programs on both corporate and personal systems, I have never run an active anti-virus program on my personal computers for the last 20+ years. In that time I have never had a virus infection that I didn't purposefully cause myself.

In most cases I view AV as a case of "the cure is worse than the disease". If you do manage to get a bad virus, AV or not, you still need to nuke and pave to be sure it is gone. If you have to re-install anyway, why slow your computer down ALL THE TIME, just on the off chance you might get a virus?

I've dealt with lots of "computer people" who insist that you have an AV or you WILL get infected. All told I am up over $300 in won bets after I let them scan my PC. These were full offline scans too with any AV they chose.

While a computer savvy individual could go without ever getting a virus, I doubt the typical 13 year old face-spacer could go a month without one. Then again, these are the same users that will get one even with the absolute best AV in the world.

For some time, we didn't include any AV when we did an OS install. We had nearly constant bring backs for the same issue. When we started installing an AV program, our bring backs dropped to one every couple of months, usually for a hardware issue.

In summary, for us, we don't need it. For the average user that doesn't care about what they install, I feel it's needed.

I've been using firefox with no-script, adblock, and super-cookie blocker add-ons and never had a problem. Keep scripts off by default ALWAYS unless you really need to use it. No-script add-on makes it much easier. I will enable for things like youtube vids. Block those ads too, lots of nasty stuff gets in to your computer through them, NEVER allow flash cookies. If you use windows Explorer browser it wont be long before you get something bad.

Yes.
Sometimes 0days are pretty awesome. A recent one was a file, and all you had to do was view the icon to be infected. You didn't even have to run the executable.

Better to be safe then sorry.

Posted by Washu I've dealt with lots of "computer people" who insist that you have an AV or you WILL get infected. All told I am up over $300 in won bets after I let them scan my PC. These were full offline scans too with any AV they chose.

But you are certainly not the average click-happy user, either.

I haven't read all the posts, but I say yes to the title and use Microsoft's Antivirus

Posted by z0th But you are certainly not the average click-happy user, either.

No, obviously I'm not.

The thing is, most people, even those who truly know what they are doing won't be helped much by AV.

For viruses people fall into three categories:

1. The know nothings. You stereotypical grandma surfing the net. These people might be helped by AV, but in most cases they won't run into sites that will infect hem. A better solution for them is anti-phishing software, or some basic education, but AV might be useful incase something like the ad network gets hijacked. Put MSE on their systems, but not something like Norton or McAfee.

2. The people who think they know what they are doing. These users will get infected no matter if they are running AV or not. Nothing will prevent the stupid from getting infected. These are the people who run random shit from torrents and limewire. Their PCs will have to be nuked and paved no matter what, so AV is just making them slower until the inevitable occurs.

3. The people who actually know what they are doing. They won't be infected because a bit of knowledge and commons sense is way better than any AV. AV will just make their PCs slower for nothing.

Think about it, when was the last time AV truly stopped a real virus and did something useful? Either it was "warning: useless cookie which can't do anything" or "your fucked, format and re-install anyway".

Colleague at the office has recently been playing with this app sandbox thing.

http://www.sandboxie.com/

I am, obviously, skeptical. This has a good deal to do with "awards" it seems to have won from sites I've never heard of before.

Seems more efficient to me to run "potentially damaging" applications in throw-awy virtual machines. One click restore seems like a good idea to me.