There are now three Antivirus / Anti-Spyware solutions approved by Microsoft for use with the Microsoft Windows 7 Beta 1 test program:

1. Avg 8 For Windows 7
2. Kaspersky 8 Windows 7 Beta Preview
3. Symantec Norton 360 v3 pre-release (beta)

After Hands on Testing Inlcuding Spyware and Virus Removal Here Are My Short Takes On Each:

AVG v8 for Windows 7 Beta and Windows Vista

This is the only one of the group that’s actually fully released.  I trust this solution because it was able to find and resolve a few things that other products didn’t.  It doesn’t feel like anything is running on your computer at all.  It never bothers you and it does it’s job very well without needing you to manage it.  It’s focused on protecting your PC and it does it very well.

Kaspersky 8 for Windows 7 Beta Preview

A company renown for quality solutions gets even better in the latest Kaspersky 8 for Windows 7 Beta technical preview.  They’ve got an updated scanning engine that can catch a lot more things including polymorph and mutating virus.  I have no doubt it’s a good product and it will be very good when it ships, but does it have to nag you ten times a day to buy it while you run it in preview mode?

Norton 360 from Symantec for Windows 7 Beta Pre-Release

The idea behind the Norton brand name is just that, it’s a brand.  Since it’s the most popular it’s also the one that all the virus and spyware can instantly defeat.  It’s the one that malware authors target and render ineffective.

Norton 360 v3 wants to ‘clean my registry’, ‘optimize disks’, ‘backup my files’,  scratch any itch and generally accomplishes very little.  In fact, my test pc was easily infected with common spyware within minutes of exposure.  Clearly Norton is an idea sold to consumers and not a valid technical solution.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it here again, there appears to be two Symantec Corporations.  There’s the one that produces the really excellent Symantec branded products and then theirs the Norton branch which is a marketing medusa.  Beware the snakes.

Conclusion

So having tested these guys, which one did I re-install on my Windows 7 beta  personal desktop?  Give me a dollar and I’ll tell.

Ok, I’ll tell for free since our readers are a bunch of really cool people and all….

AVG version 8 is the one I still use and yes it did clean up the mess that Norton left my computer with.  I installed also the excellent PC-Tools Spyware Doctor which always manages to surprise me with what it and only it can find.  I consider the two together to be the ultimate solution.
Additional Note:

Many many of your favorite solutions are known to work under Windows 7 Beta and that includes at least the following:

NOD32, Anti-vir, Symantec Corporate and last but never least, PC-TOOLS Spyware Doctor with Anti-virus (which I also use and fully endorse)

Get the free trial download now AVG Internet Security v8 Download

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