Windows built in virus scan works well for general purpose. When i got infected with some spyware phishing virus ( with software i paid for!) Norton was the only virus scan to detect and remove the threat. I had tried all major brands, no sucess till Norton. Norton has a free trial, which only requires an email address to activate. So you can just keep switching the email address when the 3 month trial is over, making it effectively free.

Virus scan and internet should be disabled when using your computer for daw work. Any virus scan is going to use resources and those little (or fairly large) spikes can cause issues.

Ive seen norton as low as 10$ per year, and it comes free with my comcast internet service now, tho i have purchased it in the past.

You've got to ask yourself if keeping your nice new pc, and priceless audio files safe, is worth a (comparatively) small fee for a top notch virus scan. It should not be expected that a free virus scan will be as powerful and up to date as a premium one.

Beyond that it depends what your doing. For just simple web browsing, streaming, uploading to youtube, and music software official site downloads, the free windows defender should be fine. Anything beyond that really should be done on another computer, and merits a top notch virus scan, especially using the music pc. With dual core laptops available for under 130$, cromebooks for 100$, and tablets as low as $40, i cant justify using a custom music pc for the internet.

kmetal, post: 462695, member: 37533 wrote: Windows built in virus scan works well for general purpose. When i got infected with some spyware phishing virus ( with software i paid for!) Norton was the only virus scan to detect and remove the threat. I had tried all major brands, no sucess till Norton. Norton has a free trial, which only requires an email address to activate. So you can just keep switching the email address when the 3 month trial is over, making it effectively free.

Virus scan and internet should be disabled when using your computer for daw work. Any virus scan is going to use resources and those little (or fairly large) spikes can cause issues.

Ive seen norton as low as 10$ per year, and it comes free with my comcast internet service now, tho i have purchased it in the past.

You've got to ask yourself if keeping your nice new pc, and priceless audio files safe, is worth a (comparatively) small fee for a top notch virus scan. It should not be expected that a free virus scan will be as powerful and up to date as a premium one.

Beyond that it depends what your doing. For just simple web browsing, streaming, uploading to youtube, and music software official site downloads, the free windows defender should be fine. Anything beyond that really should be done on another computer, and merits a top notch virus scan, especially using the music pc. With dual core laptops available for under 130$, cromebooks for 100$, and tablets as low as $40, i cant justify using a custom music pc for the internet.

I used Norton many many years ago when Bioshock (2007) first came out. I know this because I had issues loading the game and 2k told me to use Avast and I just swapped between Avast and Avg over the years sticking mainly with Avast. In the past Norton was a hog but by today's standards? I have no idea. Very rare I do anything dodgy unless it's to watch one thing, TWD. I'll be honest and say I have 1 program which isn't official because of the cost (I will buy it eventually but it is £300 and no demo was available) apart from that, everything is legit. Never really bothered with Windows defender because it just seems to sit in the background doing... Something. I think I'm going to try a few free ones and see how the lag is on my system with audio and games and go with that. Its surprising over the years that not many people go to the Anti Virus being an issue with audio recording. I did hear that Bitdefender was better than Norton but I guess it's all a matter of opinion and what works well for you in certain situations.

I used avast in the 2007 era because of its reputation and free cost. I had no issues with CPU usage on a frail dual core laptop running norton while also running youtube and a daw. Its the only virus scan i know of that comes with a money back guarantee, and there is probably a good reason my ISP would contract with norton instead of all the others.

Either way only you can evaluate what your systems security is worth to you. I generally find you get what you pay for.

Since my audio pc isn't used much for anything else, I kept windows defender, but once in a while I scan with CCleaner free and Malwarebytes free...

Norton was once very hard on ressources, now it's better..
We sold Kaspersky to many businesses (easy to remote manage)
Eset was one of the lightest I tried.

When working on a dense projects, many will deactivate the network or unplug the wire or disconnect the wifi, then deactivate the antivirus and other security softwares.

pcrecord, post: 462710, member: 46460 wrote: Since my audio pc isn't used much for anything else, I kept windows defender, but once in a while I scan with CCleaner free and Malwarebytes free...

Norton was once very hard on ressources, now it's better..
We sold Kaspersky to many businesses (easy to remote manage)
Eset was one of the lightest I tried.

When working on a dense projects, many will deactivate the network or unplug the wire or disconnect the wifi, then deactivate the antivirus and other security softwares.

When I disabled Avast my system was still clogged until I uninstalled it. Maybe some of them differently to others? Eset is one programs that seems to get mentioned a lot along with Bitdefender. I took some time yesterday to test Bitdefender and Cubase 10 along with some buffer settings and wow. What a difference a da...... Virus protection makes. I'm now running a lower buffer with a lower latency (6-10ms seems to be fine). I tried a project using at least 10 guitar tracks 1 bass track along with a piano track and around 4 tracks for that orchestra feel and 1 vocal track. All this comes with delay, reverb etc. With Avast I press play and it would stutter and in some cases stop with a error message. With Bitdefender the project plays wonderfully with zero stutter. I ran it a few times and nothing. The only time I got stutter was when my buffer was down to 64. Buffer around 200 mark seems fine. The audio performance was hitting around 3/4. My less demanding projects were hitting just short of half way. I may even reconsidered keeping my Eleven Rack although I only use it for a audio processor.

jamie Lofts, post: 462711, member: 51509 wrote: I took some time yesterday to test Bitdefender and Cubase 10 along with some buffer settings and wow. What a difference a da...... Virus protection makes. I'm now running a lower buffer with a lower latency (6-10ms seems to be fine).

Good to know !! (y)