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I have a Mac OSX running Parallels desktop with Windows 7. Do I need an anti-virus program? And what free program would be the best if I do? It is also shared on the network.

Jasjeev Singh
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user199807
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    You do need an anti-virus – Jasjeev Singh Feb 16 '13 at 19:05
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    **Possible duplicate** of [Is my host machine completely isolated from a virus-infected virtual machine?](http://superuser.com/questions/289054/is-my-host-machine-completely-isolated-from-a-virus-infected-virtual-machine), and related to [Tuning Windows 7 for use in a VM](http://superuser.com/questions/251599/tuning-windows-7-for-use-in-a-vm). – Breakthrough Feb 16 '13 at 19:11
  • TL,DR: Yes, you need an AV program. There are many questions already on Super User concerning the "best" & free AV programs for Windows. – Breakthrough Feb 16 '13 at 19:15
  • His question is different from your first link. Your mind-bending search-for-duplicate algorithm failed. :) Muhahaha! –  Feb 16 '13 at 19:17
  • Might I ask what the difference between them is, @Radoo? – Breakthrough Feb 16 '13 at 19:24
  • If you read carefully you can see that guy wanted to protect the SO where the VM relies, where this guy wants to protect the VM from viruses, I don't think he cares about viruses on OSX. –  Feb 16 '13 at 19:27
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    I guess I wasn't explicit enough. I was talking about protecting the VM not the OSX. I do have anti-virus on the OSX but didn't think it checks the VM. Thanks Radoo for your answer. My problem with MSE is that it has failed the AV test twice in a row now and has lost it's certification from AV-test Certifications. – user199807 Feb 16 '13 at 22:01
  • I've updated my answer. –  Mar 31 '13 at 22:06

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You mean an anti-virus program... :) Yes, it's best you have one, just in case some little virus tries to sneak in from an USB or from a downloaded file.

You can use Microsoft Security Essentials. It's free. I use this on all the PCs I have, or I helped configured. It's not the best there is, but I haven't had any issues with viruses until now, and it's not popping out annoying windows like some other free anti-viruses I know.

Also, make sure you have the Windows Firewall enabled. And User Account Control (UAC).

There are some other tools which can help you on the web side, like anti-spyware software. The one that I like best, perhaps because it's passive, is SpywareBlaster.

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Later Edit:

If you think MSE is too little of an antivirus, and as you seemed to check the AV-test site, than I would recommend anything that's not free as in pop-ups appear each hour bugging you to upgrade to a deluxe version. You could try BitDefender Antivirus Free.

  • Only problem with MSE is that apparently in official tests it fails miserably http://www.tomshardware.com/news/Microsoft-Security-Essentials-AV-TEST-Malware-Certification-Bitdefender,19452.html – Simon Apr 23 '13 at 11:41