Oh man... so many bad AVs getting mentioned. McAffee has LONG been crap. I've never used bitdefender but it even gets mentioned in manuals as being intrusive on a DAW. AVG will choke your system. Seriously Microsoft Security Essentials is the way to go for a DAW system. It is MORE than enough protection and it is resource friendly. It's also really easy to configure and use AND it's FREE. You shouldn't be using your DAW for general web surfing anyway. It's okay to download programs and updates and browsing SAFE sites but anything beyond that is just asking for heartache. If you use Firefox with AdBlock+ and NoScript in conjunction with MSE and avoid the underbelly of the internet you'll be fine. You can get really great surfing laptops for very little these days (I love my little Acer). I don't know much about recording but I spent a LOT of time researching internet security because having to remove computer critters or wiping a system is a PITA and with the right tools and some common sense is quite avoidable. In the past 7 years or so since I've really plunged into the wonderful world of computers I have yet to be infected (touch wood). Cheers.

Beepster is correct. I have had no problems with MS Essentials. Also it works!

Howdy, John. :-)

Yep, MS Essentials here too. AVG was a major hog when I used it.

Hiya Beep!

Avast is great too! Has a gaming mode, where you don´t feel it at all..
and it´s free!

http://www.avast.com/en-us/index

Thank you all for your advices. 

I should have asked before taking the decision, but at least i know now that i have a good alternative. When I'm recording i turn off the AV and the internet connection, but in other situations i do not.

Currently I'm using a laptop and planning to get a desktop, so probably i will dedicate the laptop for web surfing.  

im an avast man myself.
a report i did for school last year(with a small group of people and i)
showed me everything i need to know about anti virus and how foolish you are if you pay for anti virus...unless your paranoid and soliciting questionable sites.
avg and avast are the best out there,but i would put security essentils right there with them.

Yeah Avast is really good too and I prefer it on my web surfing computer but the automatic updates will choke out the system a bit when they happen (you can set these to update at specific intervals or just turn them off and update manually though). It is a very very good AV. Supposedly it's not quite as light as MSE however but if your system is powerful enough it shouldn't be a problem. I'd say if you actually do use your system for a lot of web surfing it might be a better option... just make sure you disconnect from the web and turn the auto updates off when you are in session. Cheers.

jaws44


I was Using McAfee and shifted to Bitdefender. Im not saying one is better than the other, but on my system it was.

I posted this for others to check if their AV is causing crashes. The crashes here were happening every single time i try to load a preset or even when i close a project and try to open an existing one from Sonar X2.

Maybe my settings of the AV were not right, but it crashed Sonar and now im relieved. 

 

I reported the same crashing problem the other week and I'm a McAfee user. 
The crashing seems to have stopped now but at the time it was instant and repeatable. I sometimes get the impression that Sonar "heals itself" and problems go away .
 
I'll have a look at the AV options when my McAfee subscription dies, but I'm not going to stop using the internet.
 
Grum.