Thinkpads Forum

Hi, just got my first ThinkPad, a T510, and really pleased with it. It came with a 30 day trial of Symantec Norton Internet Security which I am currently running but I wanted to get advice as to any particular anti-virus recommendations that people have found have worked well with ThinkPads. When I say worked well I'm particularly interested in software that wasn't resource hungry and slowed a laptop down. My past experience with Norton and McAfee is that both hog the machine. I have been running Microsoft Security Essentials recently and have been pleased with it.

The trial version of Norton also seems to be interfering with the Fingerprint Reader and I'm having to repair the fingerprint software every few days.

@chilipalmer: Welcome to the forums! I think the T510 is a gem so you've made a good choice.

I didn't install the Norton AV stuff as I have not been impressed with their offerings. Instead I installed MSSE which works a treat.

Ditch Norton. Its detection rates are garbage, and it's both buggy and intrusive.

MSE (free) or Avira (free/paid) are vastly superior.

Thanks for the quick replies guys, have gone with MSSE as per suggestions and recent experience.

I've honestly have had great luck with Norton since they re-wrote in 2009... it's also been well reviewed. I've been using Norton AV 2010/2011 on my T61p and it's never caused any trouble with my fingerprint reader. If you are looking for a free one though, I wholeheartedly agree with everyone else in recommending MSSE

ThinkRob wrote:Ditch Norton. Its detection rates are garbage, and it's both buggy and intrusive.

MSE (free) or Avira (free/paid) are vastly superior.

Exaggeration, exaggerations... I cannot stand the home versions of Norton (due to it being intrusive, as you said), but the Symantec Corporate Antivirus (which fundamentally uses the same or a very similar scan engine) is quite good and is one of the least intrusive pieces of software I have used.

While it is true that under certain cases certain antivirus programs can have slightly better detection rates, between this and claiming they are "vastly" superior is quite a distance.

dr_st wrote: Exaggeration, exaggerations... I cannot stand the home versions of Norton (due to it being intrusive, as you said), but the Symantec Corporate Antivirus (which fundamentally uses the same or a very similar scan engine) is quite good and is one of the least intrusive pieces of software I have used.

I said "Norton" for a reason... it *is* far more intrusive and buggy than the corporate version.

I stand by my assertion that it's intrusive and buggy.

Now as far as detection rates go, I gotta admit: I was wrong. I went back and checked AV Comparatives, and Symantec has been scoring quite well recently -- better than MSE, as a matter of fact.

Now given the small difference in detection rates and the aforementioned annoyances, I still believe Norton's a waste of money... but that's another matter.

ThinkRob wrote:I said "Norton" for a reason... it *is* far more intrusive and buggy than the corporate version.

Never argued with that.

ThinkRob wrote:Now given the small difference in detection rates and the aforementioned annoyances, I still believe Norton's a waste of money...

Can't disagree with that either.

I've been running Kaspersky 2011 for the past while and it seems to work fairly well. NOD32 is a good bet. Avira has a free version though.

Colonel O'Neill wrote:Avira has a free version though.

An ad-supported free version. That's important to note, as the ad can be a little annoying. It's easy to disable it, but still.

Hi everyone

Just thought to update my EXPERIANCE here with this 'virus' apps

Few days ago , I got a NEW T410s (company demo laptop) and as usual
i proceeded to preserve the FACTORY HD and install new Intel SSD (yes T'Rob) its the new new intel , which not many pple have seen yet)......Fresh install of LINUX, Win7x64, OSX etc etc ,,,,,,, and I decided to check the 'latest' MS Offerings >MSSE virus for windows 7....
To my suprise; I found after MSSE install - for some reason MSSE DELETED the PREVIOUSLY stored FP reader DATA!!! (at reboot I had no FP 'data' ....and said FP reader didnt work! )

Uninstalled MSSE (time ill-spent for me) and install SYM - Nortons Corporate version , and never had any issues......
not that I would ever use any free-ware....as in my view = YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR ,,, when it come to windows virus apps ,,,,,and I never been a fan of WINDOWS or should i say "Lindows" lol

cheers!
(edited after loss of power! )

I've recently bought a T500 and as with my home PC setups I have eset nod32 installed on it, along with malwarebytes antimalware, and spybot search and destroy. I'm pleased with the results I get from these apps and I personally haven't come across an individual app that covers all scenarios (although there may well be one lol).

Although I was happy to pay for these apps I'm led to believe that for a freebie, MSE is rated well.

Regarding the Fingerprint reader issue.. AFAIK certain AV programs will flag as potentially malicious a programme that is coded to wait for certain input information (because of things like keyloggers etc. I imagine). In eset nod it puts these potential 'threats' in the quarantine folder. It may be possible to add the FP app to the 'exclusions' section of your AV software if it has one.

Another string to my security bow is using an online virus checker for certain files I may feel are dubious and that's sites like virus total. Virus' and antivirus has always been a game of cat and mouse and your AV is only as good as it's last update, even then, malware etc. is BIG business these days and a very complex industry because of the amount of money/data it can glean.

HI 'Bob.. thanks for input > just as a FYI ....NO VIRUS or Anti-Virus apps that I know can or does SCAN any Movie/Picture/or related files ie mpeg, mov, mp4&3 etc .... and I have seen few 'virus' and 'excutables' loaded and happly work away in peoples 'windows' computers. These files are mostly obtained via 'torrents' and or download sites that proport to have 'working sets of windows OS & other MS Apps; movies , software etc etc ,,,,,

One of my first few comments on this forum years ago was about this topic and at that time - seems everyone jumped at me saying i was scare-mungerings about use of 'torrents' etc etc ,,,,,,,,

Couple of the best freeware I can suggest ( have always used these on all my laptops (even of Corporate Policy police gets [censored] @ me)
1) McAfee Beta (corporate version) - used on all non work laptops also!
http://www.mcafee.com/us/enterprise/dow ... index.html
2)cCleaner ( much better and improved version for win7)
http://www.piriform.com/

In summary; - YOU GET what you PAY FOR - and in genral and all things considered - but than am always keen to see new freeware or GPU relase sofwares/apps....

Cheers

ausmike wrote:HI 'Bob.. thanks for input > just as a FYI ....NO VIRUS or Anti-Virus apps that I know can or does SCAN any Movie/Picture/or related files ie mpeg, mov, mp4&3 etc .... and I have seen few 'virus' and 'excutables' loaded and happly work away in peoples 'windows' computers. These files are mostly obtained via 'torrents' and or download sites that proport to have 'working sets of windows OS & other MS Apps; movies , software etc etc

While it is certainly possible for a video file to contain an exploit (presumably a malformed stream designed to exploit a flaw in some decoder), I have never, ever heard of such an exploit in the wild. There have been exploits for various image decoders, and the malware that used such exploits is, in fact, picked up by antivirus/antimalware software.

I have heard of (and observed first-hand) malware which makes use of Windows Media-specific meta data to launch IE and direct it to a malicious site upon playing a specially crafted "video" -- but even that is pretty tough to get bitten by: you'd have to be running a pretty old software stack and never have changed (or upgraded) your browser/media player.

.[/quote]
..... There have been exploits for various image decoders, and the malware that used such exploits is, in fact, picked up by antivirus/antimalware software.

I have heard of (and observed first-hand) malware which makes use of Windows Media-specific meta data to launch IE and direct it to a malicious site upon playing a specially crafted "video" -- but even that is pretty tough to get bitten by: you'd have to be running a pretty old software stack and never have changed (or upgraded) your browser/media player.[/quote]


NAME ONE ?? a "virus Apps" that scans and picks up that "malware" and or "Expolite in META DATA of mpeg; and or Mp3/4 file etc"....
still NOT SEEN an commercial everyday apps that does that..but then what would I know !

ausmike wrote:virus Apps" that scans and picks up that "malware" and or "Expolite in META DATA of mpeg; and or Mp3/4 file etc"....

I don't know of any malware that uses ID3 tags or MPEG-4 atoms as a transmission vector, nor did I claim that any did.

There is, however, malicious software that makes use of Windows Media-specific formats to propagate itself. W32.GetCodec.A is one such example. From Sophos's description:

The worm has the functionalities to:

- Search the infected computer for files with the extension of .mp3, .wmv, .wma .mp2 and .mp3
- Convert the located files to wma format without modifying the original filename and extension
- Insert the functionality to download code from a remote website into the converted wma format files.

It is detected by Sophos and other AV solutions.