Antivirus software: Do you really need it?

[Lite]

Do you wish you could do without antivirus software? There are certainly plenty of good reasons not to like it. After all, antivirus programs invariably slow down your computer, annoy you with false positives or status pop-ups, and of course most of them cost money - often on a recurring, yearly basis. But can you just say no to antivirus software and still stay safe? The short answer is 'yes' - if you adopt some security-savvy computing practices.

Know thyself

If you only use commercial software and never install programs you've downloaded from the internet or copied from a friend, then your main sources of concern for contracting a computer virus will come from web sites and e-mail. Common sense - and following the guidelines below - will protect you the rest of the way.

On the other hand, if you're addicted to free downloads, shareware, and 'warez' sites that purport to offer commercial software at no cost, then you have no viable option. You must install antivirus software - and perhaps even use a couple of programs - to make sure you don't fall victim to malicious software or phishing attacks.

Most people, however, run just the few programs that came with their PCs and don't venture into dangerous territory on the web. For them, the guidelines below will provide adequate protection.

Web sites

Today's browsers have a lot of security controls built in, and these tend to do a fine job of preventing phishing attacks or the automatic downloading of potentially malicious software. Antivirus tools add little to their already robust protections.

So if you want to be free of antivirus software, be sure to use to latest versions of Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, or Chrome, and keep those browsers up to date through your operating system's automatic update feature. Also, do not disable or alter the default security settings of the major browsers unless you know what you're doing.

If you attempt to access a web site that's known to be harmful, most modern web browsers will warn you before the site is displayed on your screen. If you'd like to feel even more secure when you're surfing, consider installing the free McAfee SiteAdvisor tool (http://www.siteadvisor.com), which adds small site rating icons to your search results and a new browser button and optional search box to your browser. These controls together do a good job of alerting you to a potentially dangerous site before you reach it.

Clean e-mail

Most of the generalised warnings you hear about virus-carrying e-mail messages are misleading. You can't get a computer virus merely by receiving an e-mail message. You would have to click on a link within the message that downloads a harmful file onto your PC, or you would have to open or run a malicious file attached to a message.

So don't do either one of those things if you receive an e-mail message from someone you don't know. Combine that common sense approach with the latest patches or updates for your e-mail program of choice, and you should have no use for additional protection offered by a bloated security package.

You can add yet another level of security by configuring your e-mail program so that it displays incoming messages as plain text. Doing so will turn off the display of graphics, which, when clicked, may unleash a virus-carrying file. If you use a traditional e-mail client such as Outlook or Outlook Express, add a good spam-blocking like Cloudmark Desktop (http://bit.ly/7zrVeU) to your toolkit, and chances are very good that any potentially dangerous messages will get routed automatically to your Spam folder, where you will never see it.

Periodic scans

Just because you decide to run your PC without antivirus software doesn't mean you shouldn't check for viruses occasionally. You can do so, however, without installing anything if you stop in occasionally at one of the free online virus scanners. Among them are Eset Online Scanner (http://www.eset.com/online-scanner), Avast Online Scanner (http://onlinescan.avast.com), and TrendMicro Online Scanner (http://housecall.trendmicro.com). All of these allow you to initiate a system scan without installing a permanent antivirus package.

Giving in

If you don't like the idea of initiating a virus scan from a web sit or you just don't feel comfortable going without antivirus software, you can keep system slowdowns to a minimum and annoyance at bay by opting for one of the security applications that are known to be effective at detecting threats, relatively easy on system resources, and reasonably priced. Titles that meet all of those criteria . Each of these will provide the background scanning and on-demand protection that you might need, and each can be configured not to bug you unless absolutely necessary.

Source

[someone]

Nice.

One important step in remove AVs from your setup too is maintain all your softwares updated. Normally people not update the games before play... imagine if they check updates for flash player, adobe pdf reader and this kind of stuff. If you check the exploits explored by the package kits that is sell in the "dark side", there is exploits from 1-2 years ago...

[tipo]

nice article. thanks!

[Drolz]

i gave in i mean damn it just an AV we got proccerors that can handle 20 avs at leat i do with my overclcoked 4core amd phenom -peace ;)

multiple antivirus will just conflict each other

[RadioActive]

If you're using a Windows OS then you definitely need a decent AV at the very least. Common sense is essential but it isn't always enough. Something I heard comes to mind; "I'd rather have one and not need it than need one and not have it!".

Now PC advanced so much that the performance penalty from using security software became practically negligible, so...

[Lite]

Some are of course lighter than others. Gaming performance can be essential too.

[NightWalker]

I dont think that i need it , but I use Prevx. Hitman Pro for on demand scan with LUA + UAC + Windows 7 x64 fully patched is more than enough for some people .

I love Prevx solution , it is the future of antivirus and is so light.

[Hottwire]

I know its not the greatest anti-virus out there but at least its portable so i suppose your not committing to too much resources

Clamwin Antivirus Portal

http://portableapps.com/apps/utilities/clamwin_portable

[Drolz]

I know its not the greatest anti-virus out there but at least its portable so i suppose your not committing to too much resources

Clamwin Antivirus Portal

http://portableapps.com/apps/utilities/clamwin_portable

im not going to trust this av...

[spootnack]

I know its not the greatest anti-virus out there but at least its portable so i suppose your not committing to too much resources

Clamwin Antivirus Portal

http://portableapps.com/apps/utilities/clamwin_portable

im not going to trust this av...

Better to go without AV than with this one :lol:

[*dcs18]

Good-bye

[Drolz]

I know its not the greatest anti-virus out there but at least its portable so i suppose your not committing to too much resources

Clamwin Antivirus Portal

http://portableapps.com/apps/utilities/clamwin_portable

im not going to trust this av...

Better to go without AV than with this one :lol:

you got that right... :dance2:

[HX1]

Hitman rules as portable... ( even though it does installl.. ) ..and small.. wait did I say that already.. I couldn't be without my ESS though.. something about Clamwin.. never trusted it.. don't know why.. I used to carry a portable ESET NOD 32 ( stil have the old reg files and installer for the 2.0 version..LOL ) with me.. but no more... Hard to really find a good one though... Not really one that can do what it needs to for a USB Drive..