Help out an amateur SysAdmin, please?

[TygrBright]

Our laptop died because SOMEONE (evil eye at esposo) did not realize that when running with the POWER CORD plugged in, it needed to be surge protected.

Anyway. Water under the bridge and all.

Today the new laptop arrived, a nice, fairly inexpensive Lenovo IdeaPad Y550. The mobile half of the partnership is coming home to collect it on Thursday, so I have to have it ready to go by then.

This includes:

"Configuring the system" (Mostly unchecking boxes and clicking "no" to Fabulous Free Offers!!)

Letting Vista update itself

DLing Revo Uninstaller and cleaning off the mountains of crapware that come with it. (Including Norton, sheeeeesh, why, Why, WHY!?!?!)

DLing and installing security software

Switching over the web browser to Firefox

DLing and installing various freeware and shareware we use often

Purchasing and DLing the various application software we use

Configuring various application software

So, quick question: Mostly we use AVG on the desktops, but I have heard that Avast is better. Maybe time to switch? If so, I could pilot it with this installation. We also use MalwareBytes and Spybot S&D, so whichever I pick has to play nicely with them.

How say you, DU Computer gurus?

hopefully,
Bright

[BlueJazz]

1. According to PC World Tests.. Avira is the best Free Anti-Virus software.

I even use it and I'm a Nod32 man. :)

http://www.pcworld.com/article/170674/free_antivirus_software.html

[TygrBright]

2. I've heard it's good, but doesn't it pop ads at you? n/t

[BlueJazz]

4. About every half hour, it will ask if you want to upgrade to the paid version.

It's not much of a bother.
Hell, I surf a lot and close ads and crap all the time....

[RoyGBiv]

3. AVG has become bloated ...

... at least from what I've seen. But do take that with a slight grain of salt. I don't use any of the mainstream anti-virus products on a daily basis.

I've started installing Avast on machines I service or build for people, and it has been working well. That said, to my knowledge, none of the systems on which I've installed AVG have had any problems either. At least, no one has told me about them.

I switched it on my Windows box because AVG was having a lot of update server problems at one point. When I did change it, I noticed a slight increase in performance.

All this is anecdotal. I've run no systematic tests.

[CK_John]

5. I would go with Avast and TweakUAC, I'm not sure Sysbot S & D is ready for Vista.n/t

[TygrBright]

6. It seems to work just fine with Vista on the desktop. n/t

[Statistical]

7. Avast is the best and lower resources then AVG. No reason not to use Avast.

Avast is only antivirus so it will ignore MB & SSD.
Avast is one of the only AV to get the VB100 award mutiple times.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virus_Bulletin

AVG "was" the best but they slipped IMHO using more and more system resources and playing game by hiding the free version on their website (at one time).

BTW Did I say I like Avast? I bought the pro version mainly just to support the company. I don't even use the "pro features".

[SKKY]

8. We use McAfee here (DoD Enterprise Network)...

...I can assure you, Anti-virus overhead is the least of our problems. Use what you're most comfortable administering. All have their benefits/draw backs. I've heard good things about Avast though.