I'm looking for opinions here.  I've been running my DAW with no antivirus on it, concerned about whether it would interfere with Sonar X2a.  I have a BitDefender license but I've been hesitant to install it.  My DAW is connected to the Internet but I browse from the DAW only to check vendor forums, YouTube tutorials, etc.  Even so, you never know where you're gonna catch something.  I feel fortunate that I haven't picked anything up (I think) but I'm worried that might not last much longer.  And I've never done a full system scan with an antivirus program.
 
If I install my BitDefender antivirus license on the DAW and I keep it turned off when X2a is running, what do you think are the chances that my X2a experience will not degrade?  Grateful for any advice on this.
 
 

IMO, the most important aspect of internet security is to sit behind a firewall, which is typically a NAT firewall living in your modem/router.  In addition, Windows has its own built-in firewall.  These protect against malicious inbound connections, port scanning attacks etc.
 
Due to this inbound protection, the only way malicious software can get a foothold on your computer is via an outbound connection you make (unless you do something really crazy like run a nasty executable).
 
So as long as you're careful enough to not visit dodgy websites, open obviously su****ious emails etc. (and especially not clicking any links in such), all should be well.  In addition, I would suggest not to open any ports though your firewall (i.e. don't provide external services) unless you know what you're doing.
 
I personally just use the built-in AV software that comes with Windows 7, ' Windows Defender' I think it's called, and it's never caused any performance issues for me.  A reasonable policy would be to always make sure your AV software is active if you're accessing the internet, but otherwise you could disable it if you find that it affects performance of the DAW software.  A regular scan of the file system's not a bad idea either, schedule it for when you're not using the computer.
 
[edit, why the hell is 's u s p i c i o u s' dumped upon by the forum's word filter? :-(
edit 2: I think I know why now, that really is quite far beyond stupid]

I have Windows Defender active on my machine all the time and I don't think it's caused any degradation in performance. There really is no need to install any 3rd party virus software these days. People rave about Avast and the like, but I don't believe they offer any advantages to Microsoft's stock antivirus. 
 
The only other advice I could give you would be to make sure you add your plugin folders to the exception list in your antivirus. If you don't, you're in for some long waits whenever Sonar scans your plugs (which is upon every startup I believe)? I learned this from my Pro Tools days, when the program would take upwards of a minute to launch until I figured this out. 

I have MS security essentials on the music computer for w7.  And use the windows defender (default) for w8.
 
I do use the music computer to surf for music stuff.  Especially this forum when needed. But most web action takes place on other computers.  I do not use the music computer for email.
 
I use a NAT router, and the windows firewall is enabled.
 
Never had an infection on the music computer, in 13 years+.
 
In all, in 29 years of computing I prolly have had about 8 ****ty infections.   Mainly this has happened when accidentally clicking the wrong spot just as the requester for installation was displayed. And when mistyping a website address.
 
The first infection was about 12 years ago that came in with a friend's infected email message. Norton issued an update about 20 minutes later.
 
Only have had 2 infections that required extreme actions: using restore points.  Most all others were eradicated using Spybot, super anti spyware, mal ware bytes, and Kaspersky scanners.
 
 

Microsoft Security Essentials is light, free and effective (it was recommended to me by Cakewalk). It does not seem to interfere with my DAW at all and I do not disable it nor have I changed any settings. Another REALLY good idea is to use a browser that you can add Adblock+ and NoScript to as add ons. They will stop a ton of unnecessary crap from loading while surfing the net and they really clean up the pages. You do need to set these up a bit though so learn how to use them. For example there is a setting in Adblock that allows some ads to get through. Disable that. In NoScript go to the Whitelist section and remove any websites/domain names that you know you aren't going to use, then if you want you can add the site you do want to use but I usually just allow stuff as I surf. Some things are necessary like here I have to allow the main Cakewalk domain to make the login bubble work. On Youtube I have to allow the youtube main domain AND a domain called ytimg.com (which I believe stands for You Tube Image). It does take a little experimenting but is WELL worth it and blocks tons of nefarious crap.
 
On my heavy internet usage I use Avast though because I think it's a little more powerful but I cannot confirm that. On the DAW I hardly do anything online unless I have to and the sites I got to are trusted/verified so MSE is fine.
 
Another thing that a lot of people overlook is creating a system image of the hard drives of their working system. If something catastrophic happens like a virus or a hard drive failure you can go back to that point in time. It will wipe out everything else like any viruses, new programs or bad registry changes. It does however get rid of any new files as well so back those up. Another option is recovery points. This will leave your files intact when you restore it to that point. It will only remove new programs and registry changes which is generally where viruses are going to be. System images take quite some time to save and eat up a lot of hard drive space so they aren't something you want to do all the time but restore points are quicker and less capacity eating.
 
A few other tools to look at for scanning your system are Malwarebytes, Spybot Search, Destroy, CCleaner (this is just a registry cleaner but a good one) and HiJackThis (which is confusing and hard to use but the most effective of the bunch so worth learning). Always be very careful with those types of programs though because they can remove things you NEED and screw up your system.
 
If you think you have a virus it's good to run these scans in Windows Safe Mode instead of when the system has booted up fully. That way any viruses/malware doesn't get a chance to interfere with your AV software.
 
As far as Bitdefender... I've never used it but I do know that MSE is probably the lightest AV out there so it really is likely the best choice for a DAW.
 
I hope that is helpful. Many people have many different opinions of this stuff but I learned all I know from some serious computer freaks and one guy in specific who teaches advanced computer stuff to people getting into the IT field.

+1 for Microsoft Security Essentials or for Win8, Windows Defender. It doesn't interfere with anything while I'm on the DAW (on my older machine, it does its updates around 4am when I'm in bed) and does everything in the background.
 
Malware Bytes is also an excellent free program to have. 

The only time I experienced any issues with Bit-Defender with X2a is while recording 16+ tracks simultaneously. It would merely stop X2 (drop-outs) occasionally, but slightly more frequently than with it disabled, but it was much worse when recording multiple takes in a single session of 16+ tracks simultaneously. I ended up disabling BitDefender, and making each take an entirely different project in Sonar. I also disabled Auto-Save, which, for some reason, seemed to be the last thing that I disabled and got no further drop-outs. Could just be a coincidence.
 
Although I could not determine for 100% certainty whether BitDefender or something else was to blame for the drop-outs, changing the buffer settings in Preferences for Recording didn't help, and I was able to finish the session out by keeping each take separate Sonar Project files.
 
Next time I record Live, I'll perform some other tests here to see more of what was causing the issues.
 
My advice is to learn how to quickly disable BitDefender when tracking. Then re-enable it afterward.
I stopped using BitDefender altogether, and simply just use Microsoft's own protection software.

Another thing I'll say is if I cannot download a program directly from the manufacturers website I will use CNET.com for the download. They also have a ton of useful info and reviews on these programs. Another couple good sites for computer related info and security are tomshardware, bleeping computer and the HiJackThis forums. The HijackThisForums will actually allow you to submit the report HJT creates and the guys there will analyze it and tell you what to keep and what to remove because it lists EVERYTHING running on your system. That makes it very difficult to interpret for the average computer user. I have never submitted a report though but have identified unnecessary process by googling the process with the term HiJackThis added. This is not limited to viruses either. You can have little tidbits from old programs or if your system came preloaded with bloatware you can get rid of that stuff. Even a fresh install of Windows will have unneeded gack like Internet Explorer redirects and other nonsense. It's kind of interesting in a really dull geeky way.
 
;-)
 
Edit: I should probably mention that if you have MSE, a browser with Adblock and NoScript installed and set up and make sure you have a good system image and some restore points and only do minimal surfing on trusted sites then 99.9999999999999% of the time you won't need to worry about any of that other stuff. It's more for really heavy internet users or repairing machines where the user wasn't taking proper security precautions.

Hmmm...
 
Here's my setup:
 
I use Norton Internet Security. It's a fairly comprehensive product - it's works with your browser to detect bogosity and trojans, works with your email (I use MS Exchange Outlook), and of course works as an antivirus, both automatic and manual scans. Contrary to popular belief, it's not a resource hog, and it doesn't impact the Daw as far as I can tell. Norton keeps their product up-to-date, and there is usually a discount on the annual renew. It's a subscription, one of the few I'd recommend. I'm quite satisfied with it.
 
 

+1 to norton. I think it gained a reputation as a resource hog, but that is not deserved now

It works well here. If I have clients in, then I turn it off. It's not caused any problems before, but I do it just in case.