I've just installed Vista Ultimate 64bit for the first time and need a good compatible Anti-Virus and AntiSpam/Popup/Spyware application.

In the past I always used AVG but recently upgraded to version 8.* and absolutly hate it - it runs slow (takes over 11 hours to scan my hard-drive when it used to take 1-2 hours using version 7.*). I did some reading and found it wasn't even the best one out there and potentially not even compatible with Vista64.
As for AntiSpam/Popup/Spyware, I've always used Lavasoft Ad-ware/Ad-watch but have no clue if a) it is compatible with Vista 64 and b) still the best to use.

So I was hoping to get some advice from real users, a lot of Google'ing provided 100 of pages all listed different programs as "the best" - I know it is hard to actually list but there has to be 1-3 top contenders for what I am looking for - so far the ones I see most recently listed are:
- AVAST (free)
- KASPERSKY (pay)
- NOD32 (pay)

Of course these are just things I noticed - I am completly open to trying whatever everyone suggests as the best one.
Important for me is that it doesn't take much ressources/memory (meaning - polar opposite to Norton)...

I tend to rather FREE (therefore AVAST) but if enough people lean towards a paying version I don't mind.
And this is only ANTI-VIRUS (right?), what about a replacement for Lavasoft? Or should I simply keep using it (install newer version).

Any advice / help would be much appreciated...
Thanks,

Shaitan00:

Of course these are just things I noticed - I am completly open to trying whatever everyone suggests as the best one.
Important for me is that it doesn't take much ressources/memory (meaning - polar opposite to Norton)...

I tend to rather FREE (therefore AVAST) but if enough people lean towards a paying version I don't mind.
And this is only ANTI-VIRUS (right?), what about a replacement for Lavasoft? Or should I simply keep using it (install newer version).

I love NOD32. Its what I have on my moms computer. Very lightweight. There is a 30 trial on there website. Give it a try before you pay for it.

 Bob: does it also take care of anti spam / popups / spyware? Somethint to handle the stuff LavaSoft Adware/Adwatch does for me right now? Like blocking popups, closing unsafe webpages automatically when I open them, etc...?

Not spam but it does do adware/ As far as pop ups go both Internet explorer 7 and Firefox 3 do a great job with that. No need for a pop up blocker anymore. As for unsafe websited I'll investigate that.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/3456 for firefox. What browser do you use?

freeav.com  been using it for yrs

 I've never even heard of AVIRA - holds up well when compared to AVAST (free products)? Also not sure I am reading this right but it also has anti-malware (popups, spyware, etc...) integrated? (so no need to install Lavasoft as well)...

Interesting ... Curious to know what makes youchoose this over AVAST (free) or NOD32 / Kaspersky (pay)?

Thanks,

It looks good. I'm trying it out right now.

Is it VISTA 64-bit compatible?

Running on mine vista 32bit. It shouldn't have a problem with 64bit.

I work on probably between 75 100 virus/spyware removels a month avira works.

This is overkill for just antivirus and antispam/popup. But it is a lot of links to a lot of very good and free utilities.

Very true you just have to make sure you have adequate cooling. I am still running a athlon x2 4400 clocked at 4900 and an MSI 3870 OC which is overclocked a little to (and my northbridge and frint side bus are overclocked to acheive my results). Of course I have 4 80mm fans blowing in, a 120 on the cpu and a 120 blowing out of the top of my full tower aluminum case. My system definitely runs competent but if any one reads this and is going to OC make sure you have good cooling. Also make sure you have monitoring software so you can see what temps everythings at. Heat is the first thing to kill any computer, but it is not dangerous for your components if done with care.

GPU-Z             http://www.techpowerup.com/downloads/SysInfo/GPU-Z/

CPU-Z             http://www.cpuid.com/cpuz.php

HWM               http://www.cpuid.com/hwmonitor.php

Thats 3 tools I would definitely tell anyone to download if you don't already have them. Whether your going to overclock or not, but especially if you are. There's hundreds of others I have just found those 3 to be reliable, I'm sure some people on here can back that up.

These tools are more in line with the article.

Cleaning tools generally free and free of malware

best cleaner out there:      http://www.ccleaner.com/

Defragging:                       http://www.defraggler.com/

For Microsoft utlities I use Regclean and Autoruns (note a regcleaner and reg defrag are different thing's run defrag after cleaner)

Microsoft Utilities:              http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/default.aspx

Registry Defrag:                http://www.auslogics.com/en/software/registry-defrag

Antivirus: These are both great products take your choice or both. Note I generally never leave an antivirus running. Thats a personal choice . Of course I know how to edit the registry to which is where most virus start at. If you can find them using straight reg edit or autoruns search etc. . Which is not hard but does take some knowledge. (note I have gotten 2 virus's in my life I could'nt deal with. I have also been on the internet since b4 it was called the internet. :)               

Clamwin:http://www.clamwin.com/

AVG:  http://free.avg.com/ww.download?prd=afe

Hope that will help someone I also run Spybot S&D and Adaware now and again, One thing specifically these utilities are all free. However some of them offer utilities for a price to, those versions of the utilities generally have a bit more functionality. Some of them also take donations which I do give usually at least 10 bucks. I do not work for any of these companies in any way. There just reliable tools I've used for year's most of them for year's so I think there worth something. One more note be careful on utilities programs a lot of them contain spyware/adware. The ones I pointed out specifally do not. Hope this helps someone :)

I am a Symantec Partner and get free Corporate AV (Less intrusive than consumer Norton AV) and personally I prefer Avira AV Premium for my personal comps. Its very lightweight on system resources and updates every night. I am using it on 64bit XP and it works on Vista 64 as well. Use Windows Defender for antispam it is free and has become a really great product.

Also, it has a 30 day free trial to evaluate.

I run norton 360 on one and Avast on the other

Never trust norton any further than you can throw the disk. Can't count how many pcs ( in the thousands i'm serious) that i have worked on whom norton failed to do its job. With norton it is a case of too many chiefs and not enough indians. They have been investigated more times by the fair trade committe than carter has liver pills check em out. Mc Caffe is in the same boat. My thought on antivirus's is don't use 1 of top 10 and here is my logic.

Hackers write their stuff to target weakness of the most popular antivirus's giving added insurance there payload will be delivered with a minium catch rate. Norton and most of the others are still chasing down the common virus but for those keeping up with the trend don't write em anymore since most cpu's since 2006 have data exucution prevention stopping buffer overflow attacks in there tracks. Now days the attacks are typically worms and trojans and this is the area where the top ten do horribly