i was wondering if i need to install one. i recently created a file from excel for mac and sent it to a friend. he complained that his windows pc shuts down due to a virus detected from my file. as such im contemplating on installing an anti virus apps for my mac, just to make sure. Any recommendation on this? thanks
A lot of people here say there is no need to install one. Your mac can get a windows virus and wont show the symptoms because the viruses wont run in the mac OS. However, you may infect pc users. Its just like you're a asymptomatic carrier which of course isnt good. However, i think a mac antivirus will work for mac viruses and not for windows viruses (people, correct me if im wrong) so you may end up protecting your mac but still infecting others. You can try clamXV. Mcafee also has one. I think there was a previous thread regarding antivirus software.
You can try ClamXav. It's freeware. So far, it's been doing a good job on my Mac. If you want, you can also try Norton AntiVirus 10.0 for Macintosh. I've used it before and I had no complaints. It's relatively "heavier on system resources" as compared to ClamXav and it's NOT freeware. You have to buy a CD or purchase a subscription code online. Both applications work well so it will just boil down to your preference. I hope this helps
If you need to spend for it, don't bother. Hmmm, your friend's PC shuts down because his anti-virus detects a virus from your Excel file? That's weird. Isn't the anti-virus supposed to just offer to "clean" the file and not panic and shutdown the PC? Also, you created the Excel file on your Mac right? How can it have been infected by a Windows virus? Do you have Windows on your Mac and opened the file from there?
thanks for the replies. yeah actually i find his narration weird...i created the excel file in mac excel and emailed it to him as attachment, then his windoes pc shuts dwn daw when he opened my file. should i install one then and will it work to prevent virus in other notebooks/pc whether mac or windows?
No need at the moment. If your friend has a decent AV installed, it would've detected the macro virus in your Excel file. Macro viruses are pretty much extinct as most of the techniques to infect via macros have been tried and are being detected. Tell your friend that it's him/her that needs to pony up on a decent AV and anti-spyware. I'm pretty sure if you run an AV on that machine it'll fill up the screen with multiple infections. Sph1nx
one last question (pardon for my being paranoid already ) - are we to conclude that mac users dont need any anti virus apps installed then?
i dont have any anti-virus programs for my mac. everything is well protected for me well i think most mac users dont have any.
As of the moment, no need to install one on your Mac. We'll let you know when the time comes that we need to install anti-virus on our Macs
its 1 of the reasons why i love mac OS, i dont need to install any antivirus / internet, worm & adware protectors / pop-up blocker, etc. etc. etc. i dread the day when i would need to.
McAfee stopped supporting Virex, which is their antiVirus sw for the Mac. You won't be able to find any download link to their site unless you are a corporate customer. You can search google and find where this is still being supported.
i use norton antivirus. since im online most of the time. you may never know. plus it has an auto update feature. which is cool.
i have no antivirus installed because i cant afford it as of the moment, i just keep an updated backup of my files, so i dont have to worry when i am online.
Since there are available antivirus sw for macs, does this mean macs do get affected by viruses now? cos one of the reasons why i switched was because of this..
