I know that there is similiar question, but I\'m unable to use Microsoft Securit
ID: 658685 • Letter: I
Question
I know that there is similiar question, but I'm unable to use Microsoft Security Essentials.
I have new PC with 8 GB of RAM and i7. It has freshly installed Windows 7 x64 and basics drivers.
I wonder which antivirus install on it.
I never used to use anything than Avast.
Two people which I trust told me to use something better than Avast.
When I asked what to use instead, they told me, but gave no or almost no explanation why software they recommend is good, so I decided to ask here.
What do you recommend and why?
Some hints about how to configure it the best way you know are also appreciated.
It must be gratis.
I'd like to it to require as little my attention as possible. Unneccesary pop-ups are not appreciated.
I don't adore pop-up ads, but I think that almost every gratis antivirus has it; they can be, unless they say something about feature which I don't know, when I click it does something for a while, ant then say that I have to buy full version to access the feature.
I don't want to know every success of the antivirus; I mean, I don't want to know when some basic stuff, like signature database update, went succesful.
I don't know much about personal computers security against malware, so it would be nice if the antivirus doesn't ask me about solutions of met problems, when it's sure what is the best for me. When it doesn't sure, if it has to ask, it would be nice if it would be able to suggest something.
I don't like when antivirus scans every program wrote by me, when I want to launch it. At the moment I compile into few directories, so I think that possibility to exclude them from scanning would be enough.
On my pendrive I have installed PortableApps platform and of course some portable apps. My pendrive gets connected to many computers; I want to be able to use my portable apps from pendrive on my PC without risk of infecting my PC (I'm affraid that my apps can get infected when pendrive gets connected to untrusted computer).
If the software you recommend is Avast, tell me that - I don't say Avast is not good, other people told me that.
Explanation / Answer
You can try Panda Cloud Antivirus. I have it installed on my parents' computer, and they never notice it's there.
Features:
Gratis
Requires no attention at all after the initial install
No pop-up ads. Although some features require the pro version, you won't be notified unless you actively click them
No pop-up success reports. You can view them when you open the app. Also no update reports. Since it works on the cloud, it's always up to date.
No technical decisions on your part. It automatically decides what to do
I'm not sure if it can tell which programs you write, but you can add exceptions
I don't remember it requiring any special configuration. Just click through the setup and it should work well with default settings.