Best 2017 antivirus that won't bog down my Win7 PC?

[Myk Rian]

FWIW Newegg has Kaspersky for free after rebate. I'd jump on that if I needed AV.

Got a link? It seems to be MIA.

[Todd Willhoit]

I have been using Kaspersky for several years. It seems to be light on resources.

[Matt Meiser]

Knock on wood, we are using Microsoft's AV plus a paid subscription to MalwareBytes Anti Malware and the combo seems to be effective. The latter blocks stuff that isn't technically a virus but still often very undesirable.

[Jim Tobias]

Been using BitDefender for 7 or 8 years. Reasonably priced and works great.
Also, renew price is always considerable cheaper than the first buy.

Jim

[Kev Williams]

Back in '06 I started using AVG. It did it's job, but it started becoming a resource hog...

So when MS trashed XP I found Avast. It worked like AVG did in the old days.

--then it got like AVG did in the new days, but took less than 2 years. It got to where it was 'analyzing' EVERYTHING, including System Restore whenever it was creating a restore point in the background. System Restore would time out and then the whole computer would die in slow motion. All 5 of my XP computers did this. Found the errors in the event logs, wasn't sure what was causing but I suspected it was Avast.

So I came across Panda AV, downloaded their free version on one computer, and Voila. Faster computer that didn't die. So now it's on ALL my computers.

It pops up one nag most days, sometimes a second one. Most times I don't see them anyway. What I like about it is, after almost 2 years with it on every computer, it only noticeably slows down the computer while it runs an automatic background scan or downloads virus info. But they ALL do that to some extent... Otherwise, unlike AVG and AVAST that just kept getting worse over time, Panda hasn't changed. It doesn't affect normal operation. It never tells me it's doing anything unless it catches a virus. It is by far the least intrusive AV program I've ever used. And since it HAS caught a few nasty things, I assume it works okay

[Andy Giddings]

I purely use Microsoft's built in capability for anti-virus/anti-malware and firewall and have been doing that since Win7 first arrived all the way through Win10.

+1 on Windows Defender and Win 10 - we still have to use Win7 on our work laptops which is a real PITA :-)

[Justin Ludwig]

I'm happy with Bitdefender.

[Bruce Page]

+1 on Windows Defender and Win 10 - we still have to use Win7 on our work laptops which is a real PITA :-)

I'm still using Win7 primarily because my 3 year old CNC router uses Win7 and WinCNC as the control software. I use my office PC to write programs for the CNC and have heard of compatibility issues using Win10, thus my reluctance to update. That, and the fact that Win7 has been bullet proof.

I have decided to stay with Avast Pro despite the occasional "Buy Me!" nags that drive me crazy. It has performed well over the last 3 years.

[Bill ThompsonNM]

I've been through almost all anti virus. For the last 7-8 years I've been using Vipre Antivirus because it always gets great results in the competitions and seems to impact my computers the least. I have it on two machines at home. One machine at one workplace and 15 machines at my major workplace.

For my home machines, they offer a "lifeTime" version. A little extra but upgrades are forever free.

Bill Thompson

[Yonak Hawkins]

It's possible Vipre Antivirus is not available on a lifetime basis anymore. At least, although there was such a link on Google, there didn't seem to be the availability on their site after checking, at your suggestion.

[Tony Gomez]

Talking with the network guy that just help us install a new server, he pulled up data which had Kaspersky and Bitdefender really well rated and microsoft relatively poorly rated. I've used AVG free in the past. It's fast but I hate the popups so I got rid of it. Norton really bogged down my system when I had it. McAffee worked well and had a moderate system impact, but nothing major. We now use Bitdefender. It's impact is low on the system and there have been no issues. We use the Gravity Zone Business one here on all computers. While it is administered through the net, I imagine it would have the same resource impact as the home version (minimal). When I need a new one for home,that's the route I'll go. I'd also have no hesitation with Kaspersky.

[Michael Rector]

The AV I recommend to people is based purely on their computer habits.

If someone is a savvy computer user and is judicious about what emails they open or websites they go to then Windows Defender is more than sufficient.

If someone has a tendency to randomly open strange emails or browse the web in the less savory parts of town I recommend a combination of Kaspersky and MalwareBytes.

[Mike Null]

I'm a long time user of AVG Free. It has done the job flawlessly on 4 pc's for at least the past 12 years if not longer. The pop-ups aren't so frequent as to be a serious nuisance.

[Mike Baker 2]

I use Avast. It catches pretty much everything. Was using Norton for the first few years I had a PC, but I had to basically wipe my computer and start over at least 5 times in as many years because it missed something really bad that could not be extricated from my computer any other way.
I have been using Avast for a very long time. I don't like that it scans everything, and it also slows down boot up. Takes about 3 minutes for my laptop to boot up completely, and when I go to task manager, Avast is the culprit.
But ,having said all that, it keeps my computer safe. Period. And if I had problems like I had with my old XP system, but in Windows 8, there is no way I could get into the registry and other places I would need to in order to weed it out of the system, much less wipe and start over.
So I will keep Avast, warts and all.

[Ole Anderson]

My concern is my (any) virus protection going to protect me from the most recent outbreaks. How quickly do they write the protections and how quickly are they automatically updated on my computer. WannaCry is just the most recent example. I have Norton Security Suite (free with my Xfinity/Comcast internet provider). A few years ago I got hit a few times with ransom ware, I was able to bail before it encrypted any files. It took a while for Norton to be able to react to it. I hope they are on top of it this time. My computer runs slow (still on Win 7), but not sure I can blame it on Norton. When new it ran fine even with Norton running. Norton seems to be in the background, very seldom do I ever get any pop ups from them, usually just a reminder if I don't do a backup.