<p>Hey guys, I'm back again.</p>
<p>So as a student at my college, I have the option to download Symantec AntiVirus Corporate Edition and Endpoint Protection for free.</p>
<p>Are these programs good? I'm assuming so as they're for business... Or would I be better off shelling out the cash for say Norton 360 v.4?</p>
<p>Or should I get a different program all together?</p>
<p>From experience, the free ones tend to do the job best.</p>
<ul>
<li>Avast Antivirus</li>
<li>AVG Antivirus Free Edition</li>
</ul>
<p>You might also want to look into adware protection, since these are what usually causes your computer to noticably slow down:</p>
<ul>
<li>Windows Defender (available for free from MS)</li>
<li>Lavasoft AdAware</li>
<li>Spybot Search and Destroy</li>
</ul>
<p>Sysmantec is a resource hog. Not so sure on endpoint.</p>
<p>I’m gonna have to agree with excelblue. I’m currently using Avast, and I’ve used AVG in the past.</p>
<p>I’m going to have to disagree. I’ve found that Symantec/Norton runs great. Much better than McAfee.</p>
<p>I’m fairly set on Norton/Symantec ATM… 360 v.4 seems to be on top of the commercial security suites currently.</p>
<p>So I’m really asking whether I should go with Symantec’s business software, or their commercial software. The business software does not include a firewall or spyware protection.</p>
<p>Just go with the free stuff (Symantec business). Odds are that if you’re a savvy user, you won’t need an antispyware program.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>That’s true, but you’d want one just in case. It only takes a couple minutes to install, and a routine background run during low-activity times isn’t much of an issue.</p>
<p>McAffe is truly junk. Sure, Symantec is better, but I still find Avast to top it out due to the fact that there’s no “expiring subscription.”</p>
<p>Windows should have the firewall taken care-of, and you can always do spyware protection thru another app.</p>
<p>I use Microsoft Security Essentials.</p>
<p>Free. Very good performance. Very good coverage. I removed Avast and just run MSE when I’m on Windows systems now.</p>
<p>Same I switched to MSE from AVG Free recently.
It’s very good and seems to not use as much resources as the other ones.
Fully functional and no ads or anything.
I think it checks if you have a genuine copy of windows but I don’t know what happens if it isn’t one.</p>
<p>I’ve had several problems with Norton, and I’ve heard from more knowledgeable people that unless you get the top of the line, it’s a waste of time,effort and money. I have Avast for antivirus and it’s fantastic. My university says I should download Trend Micro but after getting a incredibly nasty trojan virus I will never use that again. </p>
<p>I also have Spybot search and Destroy.</p>
<p>I was searching for antivirus performance charts and I found that the software with less demanding resources was AVG.</p>
<p>For the love of God do not go with Kaspersky, Norton, or McAfee.</p>
<p>McAfee and Norton are notorious for identifying Windows operations (IE the stuff that makes Windows run) as malware. There was an instance where people with McAfee could not start their computers due to this error. Both are very resource-intensive, and are very “monopolyistic” as I would put it. They tend not to play well with other antiviruses/malware programs on a computer (Kaspersky goes as far as to require you to uninstall all other safety software before installation).</p>
<p>The paid version of AVG and Avast! are both quite good. Likewise, Spybot Search & Destroy is a freeware anti-Spybot/anti-Malware program that is very efficient and can nab most common spyware/malware.</p>