Re: Best antivirus
I have no idea why a 4-year-old topic was dragged back from the dead, but it is an interesting one, so I'll add my two cents.
I personally use both Esat Smart Security and Clamwin. The reason for this is that, by itself, Clamwin doesn't have real-time protection, but does do a good job with catching things if you're doing manual scans. Plus, it has a scheduler now, so if you want to forget about it and stay reasonably protected, you can do so.
With Smart Security, I had read that Vipre was no longer very good, so, when my license was up this past January, I ditched it. I really didn't want to, since the interface is very accessible, but I would much rather have a half-accessible antivirus that does its job than a fully accessible one that only gives you an illusion of security (cough-cough-Security-Essentials-cough.)
Seriously, Microsoft has stated that Security Essentials is not to be used as more than a first responder, if you will. I do under
stand that there are a ton of circumstances in which a person might not be able to pay for an antivirus, and for us blind people, it really sucks. We're kind of caught between a rock and a hard place. You have three options: A. use Security Essentials, and know you're at risk; B. use any number of free programs, which may or may not work well, but you'll never know it, because they're not accessible; or C. shell out some cash for something like Smart Security or Nod32. The difference between the two is that Smart Security includes a firewall, which was something I personally wanted, but most end users can get by just fine with Nod32, if that's the path they choose to take.
I say all of this because antivirus solutions are an ever-changing game, especially for blind folks. What's accessible this month may very well not be with the next update of the program, and, by the same token, if you really care about the security of your computers, you'll
read the latest benchmark scores about antivirus software to see how they are rated. Certain programs tend to score consistently well, but some, like Vipre, have really fallen over sideways.
I guess what I'm trying to say, in this very disorganized ramble, is that you probably have to make some compromises, and try to make an informed decision if possible. Read about them, compare feature lists. Get an idea of how well they're supposed to work. Test out demos of programs if you're unsure. If it seems to bring your system to a grinding halt, or just takes up more system resources than you would like, doesn't work well with your screen reader, costs too much, seems overly passive or aggressive, I would say just keep trying until you find one that meets your needs. The one thing to keep in mind, though, is that a lot of these programs, Norton and Avast in particular, from what I remember, tend to firmly implant themselves in your system once they're on th
ere. So if you want to get rid of them, you may very well need to boot into safe mode to make sure they're gone, which is not a fun task for most people.
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