What do you use to protect your computer?

[niKopol]

What do you use to protect your computer(s) from virus', spy-ware, ad-ware and all that lovable stuff that is on the internet?

Personally I never have need of them anymore. But none the less what do you use? What do you not use? What do you hate/love? And don't forget the reasons why.

[Blixium]

I don't use anything. I never go near any attack sites so I have no use for them.

But if I did get a virus or something then I'd probably manually delete it or just use free virus programs around the net, they do the job.

I usually always get a version of McAffee for my retarded parents though, they get so much spyware and crap on it somehow. o_O

[Daken.]

I would not use norton, But I do use AVG. And I havent got a infection/virus yet while using it. Plus its light weight so yah.

[Eris]

This would be me:

[Miss Moonlight]

I just reformatted my XP desktop and changed a few programs. I kept the good ones, but got a new virus scanner. I used to use AVG free 8.0, but I didn't like it; it took up too many resources and my computer only has 256mb of RAM. ;[

So now I use (all latest versions):
Hijackthis
Spybot Search and Destroy
Avira AntiVir Personal Free Virus Scanner (it's fast and lightweight)

I rarely get viruses or spyware/malware, though.

[None of the above]

Using Avast after having to get rid of McAffee.
I am very pleased with it.

[SigmaSD]

I use Avira Antivirus and Ad-Aware for my laptop and CA antivirus for my other computer. Ironically enough, I only get an infection whenever my sis uses it, since she visits practically anything. I heard that myspace has a lot of infections as well, so she might get then from there.

[RaShayRitto]

i prefer not to use any real-time "protection" software. I like all my resources available to me for various tasks. So basically i survive off common sense. I do run some scans now an then when i have nothing to do but i cant STAND having some memory hog in the background popping up messages and generally interfering with my computing experience.

[Khanxay]

avast!, Ad-aware, a-squared, Malwarebyte's anti-maware, spyware blaster, and SUPERAntispyware.

I do a full scan with avast! the first of each month, and scan with one anti-malware thing on every Sunday. Oh, and it's not my computer.

[Atsui Sake]

NOTHING! Even when I did have antivirus software, I never ran it because of how slow it was. I just go online and do a Housecall every few months and only end up with cookies and one or two occasional worms. Either way though, I like to think I'm pretty good at avoiding stuff that will cause me to have to reformat. Haven't formatted since I got my machine, except for when I put Win7 on my other hard drive and ended up messing up the boot files on both disks.

[Aizmov]

Common sense and Linux/X/GNU/Fluxbox

I also run Tiger and Snow Leopard

[Ryuuzaki HD]

Windows Live OneCare so far so good no viruses.

[Gero50]

I use Microsoft Security Essentials. It is a free one but it gets the job done for me nicely.

[Cobra Commander]

Anti-virus - Avira Antivir Personal. It's free, and it works.

I have, on occasion, used spybot and ad-aware, but I've found that since the last two XP updates, switching to Firefox, and some common sense on my part, I have no need of them.

I don't really need Avira, but I keep it around because it has stopped trojans and supposedly a worm in the past. It doesn't hog resources, either.

Switching to Firefox was probably one of the smartest things I ever did, computer-wise. After about a year, I don't even like IE anymore.

No one try to tell me about Chrome. My Uncle uses it and it infuriates me to no end.

[gaburieru]

For the whole network I use a hardwarefirewall and my wlan is encrypted.

On my Mac and Linux-box I have softwarefirewalls. On the faildows-box I use avira antivirus along with Outpost firewall.

I would not use norton, But I do use AVG. And I havent got a infection/virus yet while using it. Plus its light weight so yah.

How can you be so sure?

[Storm Strife]

Probably too bleeding much.

avast! anti-virus, Malwarebytes Anti-Malware, HijackThis, Spybot - Search & Destroy, Windows Defender, Trend Micro RootkitBuster, COMODO Firewall.

I also have Sandboxie installed, just in case I'm feeling extra paranoid/risky.

[devendra3047]

i have installed AVG antivirus system.
it has really protected my pc.
i find it to be great.

[Gjallarhorn]

In the two years I've had this laptop I've used nothing, and I've never had any problem with it. I got a trojan once through some german file hosting site with a malicious pop-up, but that that was an easy fix...it was also one of only two instances I've used IE on this laptop.

I actually tried Avast last month, and used it for about two weeks. Didn't notice any sort of difference beyond the fact that it made my entire computer crawl. I got rid of it because I like playing simple games such Age of Empires 2 without having massive lag...and not waiting 10 seconds for a folder to open.

[Señor Nobody]

I use...
avast! anti-virus
Spybot - Search & Destroy
Windows Defender

They serve me pretty well. No problems yet.

[TheAsterisk!]

I typically run 'round the Internet on Linux of some sort, so it's pretty safe, and I keep a software firewall up on each of them, but I still need to boot into XP now and then, so it gets tedious.
I have a simple virus scanner on my Linux OSs to try and keep from passing on any of the nasties to XP, and XP has its own firewall and scanner installed, too.

By the way, what's with everyone telling everyone exactly which apps, right down to the version numbers sometimes, they use? If you're worried enough to keep watch for the nasties, why let everyone in on which countermeasures you've deployed? Seems a little counter-productive to me.
That, or there just aren't enough tin-hats in this forum.

@Eris: Should've had flamethrowers mounted on the bike.

[AshCrimson]

Avira for the AV and Zonealarm for the Firewall, or COMODO if for some reason zone is having some problems.

[Ranshiin]

Well, for me I've been using the same system protection for a few years, and never had any problems:

Avast (Pro on laptop, Home on desktop) - brilliant free AV and I never have trouble with it
Windows Firewall
Spybot - I don't have the scanner running though, I only use it to scan periodically.

People will ask why I use Windows Firewall, and that's because I watch what I do on the Internet, so I have no need for a resource-hogging firewall. Also, my router has its own firewall, which tends to block more stuff than I'd like it to. -.-

[Kuresuma]

I have firefox, which comes with internet safty, but on my other computers I use Norton Security Scan and/or firefox. ^^
Hope this helps.

[ZenErik]

I have a Mac. No anti-virus needed currently.

[bee.]

ESET smart sec.