I found McAfee extremely invasive on my PC, and taking it off my machine ended up requiring a full windows reinstall, that shoud never have to be the case to completely remove a program from your system and customer service was no help either. Of course, you may have better experience with a more up to date product, this is after all just my opinion:up:

Hmmm... thanks for the heads up. I sure don't feel like doing an os reinstall so I'll guess I'll stick with it untill I upgrade to windows 7. It does seem to have done a good job so far but my machine does seem to have been pretty slow of late. Have woundered if it's due to the anti-virus.

I can certainly second the poor customer service though, that drove me nuts. To access their help service they wanted me to enter my full name, phone number and address on their website! As if...:nope:

I've done quite a lot of research into AV programs over the last couple of years as like the OP I wanted the best for my needs and PC, in my reading I have found that many of the really big names like Norton and even one that regularly comes recommended BitDefender are notoriously difficult to remove from your install without a reformat.

Takes a long, long time to read all these articles and most of the time you just end up even more confused as to which is best, I did it for every single component on my new build PC too:know: worth doing to be more informed but even then you can find out something bad, often right after you place an order:/\\!! so I'd say take some time, do your research, maybe ask for others advice in a tech forum, good luck:up:

When I would ask a company whether its security suite is fast, reliable, has high recognition standards and low false positve rates, does not pose stress on the system, and is compatible with other software, EVERY company will answer ALL these questions with Yes. Because they are companies interested in getting your money, and no independent testers.

;)

It makes no sense to ask a company about the quality of its products. Of course quality is always "great". No company will ever tell you that they sell crap. Such questions only makes sense if it is hard-nailed to something like whether or not it is running under Windows and Mac, or only Windows.

G-Data uses two scan engines, but they base on - the engine by Kaspersky, I read. They just designed another interface around it and some stuff, and there you are. Well, you never stop learning.

Anyway, I will test Kaspersky. There is too much complaint about massive system intrusion and slowing down with Bit Defender.

You just need to be specific and have the best information you can find independently, it's also not in company's interest to outright lie to a potential customer, and you email and get an email response that lies you can return it on that basis, also online purchases are protected in the UK and I assume in the EU also, to give you an example, I bought some RAM for my XP desktop a few months ago on the basis that the company's website said they were compatible with my motherboard, turns out they weren't after extensive testing and research, full refund no problem, but I'm sure you know all this already.

Hope Kaspersky works well for you, they seem like a good company at the very least and chart well in top 10s, I'd agree with you about bit defender. Good luck with it :salute:

Tracking really freaks me out! Since posting in this thread every ad on this site has been for anti-virus software. I know unkie Neal has gotta cover costs but this is too much! Is it the site or my browser?

I use mozilla personally, don't like IE and Chrome is too invasive, also I highly recommend you install this little gem, legit and should calm your nerves:

http://www.abine.com/

:yeah:

P.S. Always stay signed out of Google, Yahoo or Messenger, or indeed any other Email that is affiliated with a Search Engine when you are browsing, they can't target ads at you if you're not signed in

It is also a matter of who you ask.
Ask an IT dude... some will tell you that an AV is complete Bogus. Others will say a security package is all you ever need.

It is also important to NOT ask certain types of people. Those that work for a certain domain [company] and above all those that sell. Never ask those.

(not a complaint about all and every salesperson, but some are really incompetent and do one thing: bbrainwash and manipulate people in buying a product)