Virus Scan.

[trekkiedane]

How often, how deep, what software and when do you do it and how long does it take?


I do it every night at ten past midnight (local time = 10 past six PM Eastern Time for you Americans ) as deep as it'll go with AVG (free version). - And only stop it every now and then if I need all my machine resources to do some special task.

ETA: Almost forgot: It usually takes about an hour

 

[archeryguy1701]

My main program is Malwarebytes Anti-Malware. I run a scan every day around noon (since I'm usually at work and it won't slow me down). Tuesday through sunday is a quick scan that usually only takes about 8 minutes. Monday is a full scan that checks everything and it usually takes over 2 hours.

 

[Amaris]

I use Microsoft Security Essentials, which performs a full virus and malware scan every Sunday at 7 AM, when I'm (most likely) asleep. The average scan time takes 45 minutes.

 

[Captain Ice]

Norton 360 Premium. It runs virus scans, defrags the hard drive, deletes temp files, scans the registry, and does automatic online backups. It goes to work anytime the computer is idle for more than 10 minutes.

 

[Ghost07]

I use AVG free version...I have it scheduled to run every morning at 8 am...if, for some reason, I forget to have my computer on and I miss a day, it takes an hour...if it runs daily, it takes about ten minutes.

 

[Bigjoe]

I usually do a full scan once a week. I'm currently using Avira premium which costs me around £18 per year.

I run Malwarebytes Anti-Malware once a day for added peace of mind.

 

[Tiberius]

I have both Avast and malwarebytes, which I run at irregular intervals (read: whenever I remember to do it.) I can't remember the last time it actually came up with something. But then, I'm not some idiot who clicks on every ad that pops up.

 

[Bisz]

My virus scan is OS deep, I use a Mac

Honestly, before I switched I found that the performance degradation that came with continuous virus scanning on Windows was worse than most viruses.

 

[bbailey861]

AVG Free 2013. I run a quick scan every day and once a week a complete scan.

 

[Sector 7]

Avast! free version runs weekly. Mine is set for Sunday nights at 11:59 pm and shuts off the laptop when finished.

In addition, I use CCleaner, Defraggler to maintain all my computers. I haven't found a free firewall which can handle multiple computers on a home network, so I'm using Windows Defender for Win7. Is there anything better for free?

 

[Amaris]

Avast! free version runs weekly. Mine is set for Sunday nights at 11:59 pm and shuts off the laptop when finished.

In addition, I use CCleaner, Defraggler to maintain all my computers. I haven't found a free firewall which can handle multiple computers on a home network, so I'm using Windows Defender for Win7. Is there anything better for free?

Windows 7's firewall is more than adequate. Also, it's likely that you have a router, which means you already have a hardware firewall, so you're in good shape.

 

[Candlelight]

Symantec Endpoint Protection on my PC and Mac.

 

[archeryguy1701]

Honestly, before I switched I found that the performance degradation that came with continuous virus scanning on Windows was worse than most viruses.

In my experience, it depended on the program you were using.. I've always found that the big box brands (McAfee, Norton, etc) are serious resource hogs at all times and had issues with killing stuff. The free options (Malwarebytes, AVG, etc) seemed to be consistently better on both fronts.

 

[Amaris]

Microsoft Security Essentials is very lightweight, and I notice no system performance degradation.

 

[bigdaddy]

My virus scan is OS deep, I use a Mac

Honestly, before I switched I found that the performance degradation that came with continuous virus scanning on Windows was worse than most viruses.

It is. My mom is like "Why don't you have a virus scan?" on her 8 year old computer. I explained that the scanning made the computer unusable, so I used some free stuff every 3 months at night and get anything, there was never anything big, then delete it.

Norton fucked the computer up so badly that it wouldn't let me uninstall it and Windows had to be reinstalled.