help need virus scan

[gj]

New computer today and Im a computer idiot, do I need a virus scan?

Can you recomend an inexspensive one for me.
I was told norton or mcaffee were good.

Thanks for any help, gj.

[pat]

If you were asking if you should install AV software, I would say yes.
Most of the AV software from the major vendors should be fine, my favorite is Pc-cillin from Trend Micro.
If you?re going to be connected to the internet you may also want to look into firewall software. The free versions from either Zonealarm or Sygate should be enough to get you started there.
Also consider installing a Spyware detection and removal tool such as Spybot Search and Destroy available from our download page.

[query]

Yes, you need a virus scanner.  There are many good ones - I'd consider PC Cillin (www.antivirus.com) or Norton (www.symantec.com) first - there are others that work well - Panda (www.pandasoftware.com), E-Trust (www.cai.com), among others.

I would not consider McAfee -- it has caused too many problems for me in the past.

[Karen]

Before purchasing Norton System Works with Nortan AV included, I used Grisoft's AVG for about a year and was satisfied.  It sucessfully caught several viruses on my PC.  Best of all, it's free, user friendly, and the virus definitions are updated frequently.

http://www.grisoft.com

[dcsun]

I've found Trend's PCcillen to be the best, but I've had severe problems with all them at one time or another.  It's a tricky business, because you need to balance good protection and features against wasting the resources of the entire system, and you never can seem to find a package that does both :P.  I thought PCcillen was doing a pretty good job until I discovered that it was the cause of my intermittent boot problems :(.

[gj]

Before purchasing Norton System Works with Nortan AV included, I used Grisoft's AVG for about a year and was satisfied.  It sucessfully caught several viruses on my PC.  Best of all, it's free, user friendly, and the virus definitions are updated frequently.

http://www.grisoft.com

I had allready loaded this, time will tell thanks karen and all here. gj,

[dastls]

Its not safe to surf without some type of AV. The guys here have mention some very good choices. Myself I us Norton Antivirus Corporate Edition version 7.51 and been very happy with it. Nice thing about it is Norton makes a real effort to stay on top of problems with new virus definitions on a weekly basis.