I've just bought a vista...

[Craig18]

I was looking for ZoneAlarm and Kaspersky but the man in the store said that Norton 360 is the most widely used? Apparently other companies don't have the licence yet?

Are Spyware Blaster, SpyBot S&D and other freeware programs good to use for Vista or only XP? My parents have an XP laptop.

Thanks for the help.

[Thrax]

Norton 360 is a piece of junk, and it's one of the worst programs you can install on Vista. Kaspersky has a license, I know that for a fact, and it's also very good.

[primesuspect]

Use Kaspersky. The "man in the store" is wrong. Norton blows.

[GrayFox]

Both are far too bloated check out avg free (http://free.grisoft.com/) if you have a older pc.

[stoopid]

Windows defender is all I've been using in Vista, but then again I avoid the usualy internet haunts where people catch malware. Vista is just as vulnerable as XP, but I just do see myself encountering problems.

On my HTPC/server I've been using AVG Free for about a year. Kaspersky 6 was too bloated and slowed some networked processes down. We use/support Kaspersky at work for managed customers and encounter similar issues. Often it has little to do with how fast the PC is, but rather what they're using the PC for. The networking monitoring filters/services in Kaspersky just aren't any better than the other guys. So I would recommend straight Kaspersky AV but not the internet security suite.

Of course, not doing things that would get you infected in the first place would preclude the need for anything more than AVG free ;).

[Lincoln]

Both are far too bloatedOf course Kapsersky has more overhead - it's more effective and has a lot more functionality than AVG. If you're a savvy minimalist, AVG is fine. If you want complete protection, get Kaspersky.

[GrayFox]

Vista is just as vulnerable as XP
Thats not entirely true, they did fix a few buffer overrun's and ie7 offers mildly increased security (IE7 is also on xp).

Plus right now vista has some security because not all malware is fully compatible (Mainly ones that use old unmaintained rootkits, Such as sony's DRM.)

[Leonardo]

but the man in the store said that Norton 360 is the most widely used?Sure, because it's bundled on lots of new machines and stores recommend it - because they SELL it and make MONEY off it. Sellers make no money off the free versions of AVG, Kaspersky, and ZoneAlarm.

Be kind to your computers: Keep them away from Norton and McAffee. :)