Please suggest a good Anti-Virus + Anti-Spyware for Win XP SP2

windows defender is a separate piece of software. it comes preloaded with vista and 7.

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and do mention here what stuff you do on your machine. .

you might be a good candidate to try out ubuntu.

I use Avira + Adaware + Zone alarm firewall. No virus till date.

I have been using avira premium + comodo firewall for the last two years,both provide excellent protection and take very less system resources.

A big thanks to Krish, Meet and Xyx for responding.@Admin,Well let me mention my usage in internet :Email checking, surfing in forums, blogging, browsing, chatting, downloading loads of stuff through P2P. Now P2P is the max usage from my internet. Now I am not sure which one to go for. Avira or Avast or AVG..!However, I am considering to go for Avast + Malwarebytes. Any comments ?

@Zeo,
A big thanks to you for helping me out with the links. Avast Prof Ed looks promising but its a paid one, so I am not going for it.

If you had read the comparison between the Free Edition and Professional Edition of Avast!, there's no important feature missing from the Free Edition except for the script blocker which you can install as a third party addon in Firefox.

By the way, I think Avast does not have an inbuilt Anti-Spyware...Does it ?

Avast! does have Anti-spyware protection. Read the features carefully again.

And does it hog the system ?

I know one of my friends who, has a Pentium-4 1.9GHz machine with 128MB SRAM, is comfortably using Avast! Free Edition without any loss in the performance.

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As an added bonus, Avast! Free Edition has boot-time scan which is missing from majority of the anti-viruses.

Also AVG Free edition doesn't have firewall and rootkit protection.
AVG Free - AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition

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A big thanks to Krish, Meet and Xyx for responding.

@Admin,

Well let me mention my usage in internet :

Email checking, surfing in forums, blogging, browsing, chatting, downloading loads of stuff through P2P. Now P2P is the max usage from my internet. Now I am not sure which one to go for. Avira or Avast or AVG..!

However, I am considering to go for Avira + Malwarebytes. Any comments ?

Malwarebytes free version won't give you real-time protection but will be a good on-demand scanner. I don't know much about Avira but I heard its quite good.

All I can say is if you are connected to the net, better not to go for AVG free edition as it has many important features missing that I mentioned in my previous post.

@Zeo,Well I made a mistake in my previous post. I meant to say that I was considering to go for Avast with Malwarebytes. And I was thinking of using a crack for Malwarebytes since I heard that its a very good Anti-Spyware. Anyways, I think you have given a good explanation for me to choose Avast over AVG. So I have made up my mind to go for Avast. But another deal still remains. I know its pissing but I have to ask this. Is Avast better than Microsoft Security Essentials ?

Avast is a very good antivirus. Malwarebytes do not provide real time protection in free version. But premium version has this facility.

Use Eset Smart Security.Antivirus+Firewall+Anti Spyware.Its easily one of the best.Light on the system too.

A big thanks to Krish, Meet and Xyx for responding.

@Admin,

Well let me mention my usage in internet :

Email checking, surfing in forums, blogging, browsing, chatting, downloading loads of stuff through P2P. Now P2P is the max usage from my internet. Now I am not sure which one to go for. Avira or Avast or AVG..!

However, I am considering to go for Avast + Malwarebytes. Any comments ?

from your usage, i would definitely suggest switching to ubuntu full time.

you won't have to worry about any form of malware. and you can still do what you do with the tools available on linux.

@Zeo,

Well I made a mistake in my previous post. I meant to say that I was considering to go for Avast with Malwarebytes. And I was thinking of using a crack for Malwarebytes since I heard that its a very good Anti-Spyware. Anyways, I think you have given a good explanation for me to choose Avast over AVG. So I have made up my mind to go for Avast. But another deal still remains. I know its pissing but I have to ask this. Is Avast better than Microsoft Security Essentials ?

I would better not advise you to use a "cracked" anti-virus as anti-virus is the sole software on your PC which you trust and you don't want something which will make it vulnerable.

Also if you do not want to use a free anti-virus, I would recommend you to try out ESET Smart Security which I'm currently using.
Its extremely light on resources at the same time a powerful beast which doesn't allow any sort of nasty stuffs to ruin your PC.

I have no idea about Microsoft's Security Essentials as I've never used it nor I've heard any reviews about it personally from any of my friends.

P.S.: What's you PC's configuration?

@Admin,I dont mind switching to Linux but I am not sure if my PC config would support that. You can check that at the end of my post. And even if I switch to it, I would have to go through the hassle of installing my internet connection [the USB driver for my modem] again.@Zeo,Thanks a lot buddy for your reply. Well I am very much interested in using a free version of AV + AS. I think I will review ESET since you and kooldude have suggested it.PC Config :XP Home SP 2Intel 2.0 Ghz P4 384 MB of RAM

oh well you can always play around with Wubi.

Wubi - Ubuntu Installer for Windows

give it a couple of hours. install linux through wubi and check if you can get connected. search for your modem and linux drivers.

this could be the best alternative for you. no more worries about internet malware!

Well Wubi seems good. But how come the file size is only about 1 MB ? :O:O

coz it downloads the version of ubuntu you want to install! it also comes included in the ISO file of ubuntu if u have that.

Oh..I see, so thats just the installer. Well fine...I will give it a try.