Uncheck it (but don't delete!) and it won't load at startup.

That will only stop the console from loading, not the AV-engine. Would be a snap for any virus to disable it, otherwise.

This is similar to turning off the console in your Windows bar, where it warns you that doing so only makes it essentially inaccessible, and does not turn it off.

Autoruns IS a very handy program - btw double-click on the entry headers, and it will take you to the correct registry dept in one move - handy too.

Had Nod32 with subscription about to run out, read this, decided to give AVG Free a whirl, downloaded, installed and ran a scan,

6 VIRUSES FOUND! One of which Nod32 told me it deleted LONG ago!

WTF?

It's so lightweight I can even use my PC while a scan is in progress.

Unfortunately, a complete scan of my entire system (2 HDs), takes soooooo loooooonnnnnggggg.

ORIGINAL: Roflcopter

Uncheck it (but don't delete!) and it won't load at startup.

That will only stop the console from loading, not the AV-engine. Would be a snap for any virus to disable it, otherwise. ... This is similar to turning off the console in your Windows bar, where it warns you that doing so only makes it essentially inaccessible, and does not turn it off.

So what does disable it, then? Turning off the service in services.msc?

Anyway, good to know if that's indeed the case. Still, I believe that not loading certain console applets can speed up boot times. It would be better to get to the root of these things, though. It would be best if we could control this easily and reliably from a simple, central application.

So what does disable it, then? Turning off the service in services.msc?

Those drivers are loaded at boot, and are not SUPPOSED to be easily turned off, or unloaded/reloaded - that's not exactly in line with their good and reliable function as an antivirus system. You could have a button that says 'Stop checking', I guess.

Logic says that if you HAD such a function in AVG, others would shun it like the plague *exactly* for that reason- and be very verbal about it here. I know programs that have such BIG buttons, and I only ever click those BY MISTAKE, setting everything wide open without noticing it. Fantastic. No-questions-asked-100%-moronic behaviour, is what you call it then, not 'convenient'. You suddenly want a padlock on it.

Everybody wants an antivirus that's 100% effective, lightweight, and essentially not there unless needed, then it autokicks in and kicks the bejezes out of the baddies. Oh, and free.

Yeah, I wants one too.

It's worth having one just to auto-filter out the thousands of e-mails I get a week that have viruses in them so that I don't have to manually do it myself. I literally get three or four thousand such e-mails a week, because my e-mail address is a publically and widely visible business address that I cannot hide in any way and have it still be useful.

And it's also worth having one to scan any programs you download. Just because a program came from a reputable source doesn't mean that it isn't infected. It's been known to happen without the knowledge of the people makign the product available. Particularly in the plugins world, there are a lot of people out there doing plugins and if they aren't all completely careful, they could put up an infected program and then you download it. It's not terribly likely, but for the 10 seconds it takes to scan any program or plugin I download, it's worth it just to make sure I'm not one of the unlikely ones. My systems are for work and serious play and it would takes days to get it set back up again, and I have a network so mulitple machines could be affected.

ORIGINAL: Ognis

Unless you surf porn, mindlessly cruise the internet, or download anything you see, you should never get a virus in the first place. I couldn't even tell you the last time I got a virus. To be complely honest with you, if you get a virus, then it's YOUR fault. You shouldn't need an AV in the first place.

Completely true, but don't go into politics

I did that on a bet once for 2 months - good firewall ofcourse but any good router will do. And, whenever you DO need something scanned on-the-fly: you just email it to yourself at some webmail service. You can go for ages without any problem - any sudden slowdown would be just as telling as any scanner, and there's online ones to get a 2nd opinion.

Point is, there's *always* exceptions - and people reading your story probably all secretly fear it would be just their stinking luck, and then such a 'verdict' would not be exactly what they would like to hear...

There is also the issue of business. I do business on these systems, and I have customer information on them. So my own level of paranoia is not really the limiting factor. Well, my paranoia about lawyers is, but not about the sanctity of my own computers. It would be bad enough to have to spend half a week rebuilding my development/DAW machine, but to leak out customer information would be beyond the pale. It just cannot be allowed to happen and so erring on the side of overkill is well justified.

I'll check that out, too, thanks!

I've found that the best solution is to have one computer for online and emails (in my case a mac), and another for audio. I know that's not the case for the OP, but it is a good way to solve that headache.

I like Kaspersky. A bit pricey, but it's very fast and it's very good.

BitDefender is quite fast also. Don't know about how accurate it is.

ORIGINAL: Antler

ORIGINAL: Ognis
Use something to partition out your drive, and run Sonar on it's own partition, with no other software than audio, and put the network on permanent disable.

That doesn't really work... If your internet partition gets a virus, it still has access to your sonar partition because it's on the same hard disk. (Unless you write-protect that partition somehow.) So if you theoretically downloaded a virus that does a seek-and-destroy on your files, you could end up loosing data on either partition.

True, I didnt even think of that.

Reading this post made me un-install norton and install AVG and both of my computers.
Cj

ORIGINAL: relayer66
To me, Norton IS a virus.
I tried grisoft and avast free versions, along with ad-aware and they worked fine, not to mention they found dozens of issues that Norton couldn't find.

I've read some good things about Norton 360 (and how it was superior to the previous Nortons in some way). I personally haven't tried it though and don't really plan to at the moment.

ORIGINAL: relayer66
I switched to Zone Alarm a couple of years ago for an all-in-one solution and it has worked very well for me. Highly recommended, but not sure if it works with Vista yet.

I tried Zonealarm a short while ago and it wasn't Vista compatible at the time. I actually found that zonealarm made me wait forever between logging in and being actually able to do something.

Your ISP may offer a AV firewall combo for free. I have Comcast (it's Comcastic ) and they offer McAfee for free.

I really like F-Secure

Its an excellent no nonsence Virus checker, with firweal and spyware stuff all build in.

The best bit though is it has an exceptions section, wherby it will ont run a scan or do any background actions while you are using certain user defined aps.

I jsut drop Sonar in the menu.

This means that i cannot surd while using Sonar, becuase my PC would be unprotected, but as long as i remember not to do both at the same time, I am golden, it means that he AV does not affect Sonar performance.

G