Ask Leo!

CA Anti-Virus - solid, reliable anti-virus protection.

Home » Recommendations » Software

Summary: Everyone should have trustworthy anti-virus protection installed on their PCs. CA Anti-Virus is one solution that's been solid and reliable.

One of my most common requests is what anti-virus software people should be using.

There are many good packages out there, but I've used CA Anti-Virus for many, many years. It's been rock solid, quietly updating its virus definitions and scanning my computers for threats every night since before I left Microsoft.

Yes, before I left Microsoft.

And that's one of the reasons I began recommending it: then called "eTrust", it was the corporate anti-virus solution within Microsoft for a few years prior to my departure. In fact, as part of Microsoft's security strategy, we were encouraged to take it home and use it on our computers there as well.

Which I did.

My logic then was simple: if it's good enough for Microsoft to recommend and license for me to take home, who am I to argue?

That was several years ago, and I continue to run eTrust and its successor CA Anti-Virus on several of my machines today.

CA Anti-Virus is a solid, reliable product that does what it does well, and with minimal interaction. Quite literally, I set it up once when building out a machine and then proceed to forget all about it, knowing that it's doing its thing.

The current version of CA Anti-Virus supports up to 3 PCs right out of the box, perfect for most home use. Daily updates, email scanning (which I actually don't use), real time and scheduled scanning (which I do use) and more make this an easy to recommend package.

One caveat: I generally do not recommend all-in-one packages. If you try CA Anti-Virus make sure that you're getting the anti-virus program, and not the larger security package also offered by CA.

Let CA Anti-Virus do one thing, and one thing well.

I recommend it.

Related:

Article 12747 | Posted October 20, 2008

Recent Comments
8 Comments

Dear Leo
I know that you have been recommending CA antivirus and you will always be recommending that and it seems to be a really solid package as you say. But what do you think about Norton Antivirus and What do you personally think about Avast free version?

IMO Norton has a lot to overcome in its exceptionally bad reputation. Others have commented here that the latest version is much better; I'll believe that after it's had more time in the field.

So far what I've heard about Avast has been good, but I've not tried it myself.
- Leo
21-Oct-2008

Posted by: Arjun Ramesh at October 20, 2008 9:47 PM

From what I've read, CA has one of the worst detections of all security products, usually hovering around 60 to 65 percent in tests. Moreover, the suite package looks like it was hobbled together at the last minute with little integration.

Side note, the new Norton is spectacular, departing from its stigma as a resource hog. And as for Avast!, highly recommended for its superb detection and blocking malware. Cleaning is a different story, however.

Posted by: Chris at October 20, 2008 10:00 PM

I truly agree with you Chris.. The Norton Antivirus 2009 Products including the internet security suite seems to be really efficient and does not eat up on your systems limited resources and hence does not slow your machine even a bit. Even the installation procedure is really simple and LiveUpdate is a breeze!!!
However avast antivirus is always the one i would prefer because its all free of cost and seems to do the job well - equivalent to paid software for that matter!!! east or west AVAST is the best

Posted by: Arjun at October 21, 2008 3:35 AM

I have been using CA solution for 2 years now. No problems. I have the more comprehensive package. I don't understand why Leo is against it. I like it though. Now and then it tells me it saved me from a zillion threats but I can't say anything about its performance regarding cleaning as I never had to clean any of my PCs during the 2 years I have been using it.

Based on the questions a comments reported here on Ask Leo! for the past 5 years I've taken a position against all all-in-one security solutions. I don't care who makes them. I see many more problems with the integrated packages than I do with people choosing appropriate individual solutions.

- Leo
22-Oct-2008

Posted by: Rahul at October 21, 2008 8:28 AM

I've been running CA on my XP machines and it's worked great. Unfortunately, when my new laptop came, it was loaded with Vist (64 Bit) and CA doesn't have a 64 bit version. I had to switch to Norton. It's been running only a few days, but so far so good.

Posted by: Mike Santarcangelo at October 21, 2008 3:48 PM

I've been using BitDefender and I like it a lot, it even stop the virus I don't remember the name exactly xp 2009? from downloading it quarantine right away and protected my computer, it's very well quoted too, one of the best, I recommend it.

Posted by: Ron at October 21, 2008 8:17 PM

What about Avira AntiVir Premium or Avira Premium Security Suite? Please advise....

Rgds/hassan

Have heard good things on Avira free. My comment on suites stands, no matter where they come from.
- Leo
23-Oct-2008
Posted by: Hassan at October 23, 2008 4:12 AM

have installed the trial version of CA AV but seems that my pc is now slow down a little bit and not feeling good with it, don't know why! and checked with some virus files which was detected by kaspersky, bitdefender, avira... but CA does not notice anything.. hmmm what to do now?

rgds/hassan

Posted by: Hassan at October 23, 2008 11:16 AM

Post a comment on "CA Anti-Virus - solid, reliable anti-virus protection.":






(Email Address will not be published.)

Remember Me?

By popular demand...
my tip jar
Cuppa Joe
Buy Leo a Latte!

(you may use HTML tags for style)

New!

RSS feed Subscribe to the RSS Feed specifically for comments on this article.

Before commenting, please...

Please wait. Your comment is being processed ...


Ask Your Question:


ask-leo.com
Web

Stay Informed

Weekly Newsletter

Archives

By Category
By Date

Advertisers

Advertise on Ask Leo!

««   »»

Question? - Ask Leo!
Who is Leo?
Link to Leo!

Terms, Conditions & Privacy