Anti_Virus?

[SteveWWD]

I am going to need to run windows when I get my new Mac. Every mac magazine that I read keeps telling me that I will need all this antivirus software. the other day i called Mac and they said becuase it is still on a mac environment that I will not need to have any anti virus protection. So which is it? I will be doing alot of downloading and data transfer on the windows side.

 

[dtravis7]

If you are running Windows, either in BootCamp of Parallels, It's Windows. You still need an AntiVirus just as you would if it were on a PC. Having it on Apple Hardware makes no difference at all, it's Windows, and if on the Internet or a Network, you need AntiVirus and Spyware protection.

OSX itself has no Spyware and no Virus's as yet but you can download files on the OSX side with Windows Virus's and if you transfer it to a Windows machine, the virus will be there.

 

[jaster]

I use avg for my windows in bootcamp. It's free, small, and easy to use. The windows partition on the disk is just like having a native windows machine. It has all the benefits as well as vulnerabilities as any other windows machine and needs the same protection as any other windows machine. The mac side will be safe and virus free, although if you get a windows virus on the windows partition, I am not sure what, if anything, that would do to the mac side.

 

[al_roverMG]

Second vote for AVG. was using it on my Vaio laptop (until the screen died this weekend) and never had any problems. Is also worth looking at some anti spyware software like adaware and spybot S+D to be on the safe side. Best bet is just not connecting to the internet with the windows software open though.

 

[SteveWWD]

I knew that guy at apple was full of it. I guess I will get Norton and just turnoff my airport when I have parallels open. Does Parallels run Windows Vista? Not that i am going to actually buy the OS, just wondering.

 

[bobtomay]

Don't get Norton - why pay for this memory hog - you have two votes for AVG above and I will make it a third. Have been using their anti-virus for over 5 years, has a relatively small footprint and best of all it is free for personal use. It can be found here.

Next thing to get for windows is to install Spybot and turn on Teatimer during the install process. Teatimer will notify you anytime a program attempts to make a change to the registry. Allows you the option of allowing it all the time, just this once or never.

As an addition get Adaware and run a full scan once a week with it and Spybot. Between these three, all free, it is relatively easy to keep a virus, adware and spyware free machine.

 

[Brown Study]

Random observation: Never use a soft hyphen with Teatimer.