It seems that the latest batch of AV software is quite inconsistent when it comes to Vista, but it is especially important to secure Vitsa and tie it down in order to take full advantage of all the other high-tech security features built right into Vista.
The only real options for Vista AV are eTrust EZ Antivirus, Trend Micro PC-cillan, and ESET NOD32.
It seems that eTrust and Trend Micro are the only companies taking Vista seriously. Both have offered free trials of their subsribtion, but eTrust gives you a better deal:
You can claim eTrust’s free subscription here, even if you don’t use Windows Vista. EZ Antivirus is a decent product, it is fairly lightweight, fast, and up to date. The subscribtion is for an entire year, and is OS independant.
Trend Micro has been in the game for a long time, but have constantly failed to impress. Their software is not as lightweight as one would like, and tends to bog down the PC after a while, and especially during periods of high disk activity. The trial subscribtion is only until October 2006, and then you’re on your own.
ESET’s NOD32, our long-time favorite AV product for Windows, hasn’t been updated in a while, and has some serious issues with Windows Vista. However, it remains the fastest, most often updated, and lightest solution out there, and so if you still want to give it a try, here’s our guide to getting NOD32 running on Vista, and here’s a link to a 30-day trial if you don’t already have a license.
eTrust EZ Antivirus may be free, but it crashes Windows Vista on a clean install. It’s so bad that I had to boot into Vista safe mode just to get the stuff uninstalled. Good luck on it.
That’s why we only recommend NOD32 🙂
CG, thanks for the info, I installed it on a clean install and everything has been OK so far, I’ll take the advice you offer and have a look at NOD32 as well.
Great!
Let us know how it goes, so we can help & cheer you on 🙂
Yes, I agree with Mike, eTrust is no good for vista beta 2 5384, it craches on almost every second start-up. Mine is a clean install too.
I got rid ooff it will try Nod32, I’ll get back to you with the result.
Cheers.
i use windows live care.. has a 130 day trial and it takes over the firewall and anti spyware, and seems to be quite competent, and integrates tightly with vista.
a good choice until a proper range comes out.
NOD32 2.7 Beta is out with complete Vista support. It’s awesome, I just uninstalled OneCare and put this.
I have Windows Vist Home Premium RTM installed and I can not get any Anti Virus software to install. I keep etting Unsupported Operating system – Windows Vista.
Go and grab NOD32 2.7 Beta – it’s free (for now) and it works 120% on Vista without any hacks.
We’ll be reviewing it soon.
Excelent … Thanks Guyz