I've been using avast for years w/o issues.

I had my DAW built by a professional DAW builder, ADK. They do recommend using anti-virus if you are on the net. I think they recommend Microsoft's anti-virus software.

I personally do not use it. Where I work there are 50 computers on the network and all but mine have anti-virus software. Frequently, many users still get viruses! I never have. I try to be very careful about what I open, and I use Sandboxie for web browsing.

At home I have gotten 2 or 3 viruses in the past 15 years.

Just create a system image, and if you pc gets hosed, just do a restore.

~Jay

One of my computers had a problem updating to the latest AVG Free recently, and I tried Avast. Didn't like it. It seemed much more intrusive than AVG, and a little bloaty.

I am a big fan of the cloud anti-virus freeware Panda. Uses only 19MB of RAM when running and have had no issues running it with any version of Vegas.

Erik

FWIW I use McAfee, and am usually connected. I had many crashes with V11 - as have most people - but 8, 10 and now 12 have not been a problem.

I think antivirus should not be a problem.

I use the Microsoft Essentials on all four computers as it is free and doesn't seem to bloat things up.
JJK

I use Avast on my hack computer that accesses the internet. Lately I find AVG too agressive with unusual software and it was even suspicious of one of its own installation files that was left lying around. On two other computers, AVG didn't survive an upgrade to the next version, and I couldn't delete it to start again or upgrade over the top.

On my video editing computer I don't have antivirus and it is not normally connected to the network. I transfer files with USB drives. I love the way it starts up quickly without the antivirus scans. Most Windows updates are for security, which you don't need if you are not connected to the internet.

It is getting harder to disdain the internet because software companies expect you to be connected for activation, for updates and for help.

Simply disable the constant monitoring feature of the software then it won't hog any resources.

Run it to check for viruses regularly and have it quarantine or delete the viruses if it finds them. But don't allow it to "monitor" the computer. It's completely unnecessary.

Alternately, if you use Firefox, install the plugin "NoScript". Viruses usually require scripts to do their thing. Not foolproof, but helpful.


Finally,

If you are using ZoneAlarm it has the "internet lock" that blocks connection to the internet automatically if there is a "lull" in activity. When you render the lock should be engaged. Alternately, you can just "disconnect".

John

Hi - I use Firefox with Better Privacy, No Script, AVG free and Malware Bytes.

But I also like the idea of the Sandboxie program.

I do not have my Windows in a Drive Image space but will on my next PC. (Using the SSD option...)

Thanks,
Bill

Noscript is essential for many things in addition to helping slow down viruses. In many cases it makes the difference between a website visit being useful (don't allow most of the scripts it tries to launch) or useless. It astounds me how many websites try to get so many things running that a visitor's computer can't even cope with the site.

I've used a variety of antivirus packages on many different PCs with usually no ill effects. The only one that's caused me grief is Symantec. Install that and instantly your PC becomes just like one manufactured 15 years ago. Don't even bother trying to run a DAW or even MediaPlayer with Symantec installed. Sadder part is that once it has been installed the only good way to get rid of it is to wipe the drive and reinstall Windows from scratch. Symantec's removal procedure is worthless.

It's worth noting that before the internet became big people still got viruses by sharing floppies. If you have a device (even saw a virus on a mp3 player once) that goes between two computers or more you can still get a virus.

I have AVG on some units and Avast on others. Just switched from AVG to Avast on my editing box and on some other PCs that I support, as people were tired of the AVG "Click here to update now! Free (for 30 days)!!!" popups. By contrast, Avast is very unobtrusive, with a classy interface to boot.

I use Microsoft Security Essentials. Work fine and free for me.

Erni

+1 m$e

If you have a fast computer, Microsoft Security Essentials is fine. If your computer is at all slow, it is worth noting that Security Essentials is far more CPU intensive than AVG or Nod 32. The worst offenders CPU-wise are the well known names like Norton or McAfee. Those two are just incredibly inefficient CPU hogs, even on a fast computer.

+1 MSE

> "For years my workstations have been connected to the net and have had AVG Free running while editing and rendering, with no apparent problems."

+1

No issues. It just works

~jr

> "Simply disable the constant monitoring feature of the software then it won't hog any resources. "

Windows Task Mgr., or one of the better 3rd party apps like Project Lasso, or the free Process Explorer from Sysinternals at microsoft.com , will all tell you if your security software is active or not while you're rendering -- if it is using CPU, disable real time monitoring, & that takes care of the prob. for the most part in MS Sec. Ess, & mostly takes care of it in McAfee [don't know about other brands].

> " If you have a device (even saw a virus on a mp3 player once) that goes between two computers or more you can still get a virus."

That's how Flame & variants can spread. As far as mp3 players & such, there are a few hacks that might surprise.

+1 MSE

I also regularly update the hosts file with MVPS Hosts

But McAfee might kill something ....

geoff

I remember when McAfee was *THE* antivirus choice, nothing else compared. Then windows 95 came along.... :(

> "I remember when McAfee was *THE* antivirus choice, nothing else compared. Then windows 95 came along.... :("

:) what can I say... it's cheap @ ~$4 a seat [or $0 if I hassle with MIR], it's fully removable, it's usable by anyone. The removable part is important to me -- I'm not a fan of re-installing Windows.

Some folks don't trust what they suspect are Kaspersky's ties to their gov. I'd rather have something other than Windows firewall so use SE where that's irrelevant, i.e. in my VMs. Some brands use their higher rate of false positives as marketing, with users happily pointing out how much malware it catches, even though the blocked stuff really wasn't. And most successful breaches continue to be via phishing. :)

As usual I'll see what's avail. next spring when licenses expire, which work best with win8 [no, I don't believe win8 is bulletproof because SE is pre-installed]. :)