new anti-virus for windows vista

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my mom's anti virus keeps on saying there is a virus but when I do a scan for her the notice keeps coming back say that there is, so fanilly we decided to uninstill the current one. but what anti virus should I get download on her pc running vista?

Ubuntu.

Dont be a zea... just kidding Orwell!

Shugo974, it is often advisable to run two different virus scanners at once. As well, unplug or disable the network access and do the scan in safe mode. You can get to safe mode by pressing F8 key as the computer boots up. select safe mode from the list that appears. When you are done the scans(hopefully resolving the issue), reboot and it will come back to regular mode automatically.

If that does not work, then professional help may be required. ie: pay to have it fixed.

Is it a laptop or desktop style machine?

Lol, just kidding anyways. Referencing an xkcd comic that I can't find now... the one where the guy is at a computer store asking for Vista, and the salesperson rattles off all the different versions of Vista and then recommends Ubuntu.

But seriously, I've always used some Unix-like system or other, so never had to deal with viruses. Sorry I can't be of any real help, shugo.

xkcd is a virus sir! Dont you believe it.

Actually, If I recall, I posted that and it wasnt an xkcd at all. You went and read them all again, didnt you?

Let me see if I can find it.

AVG free

Orwell, I cannot find it at all now. I think it was an image in an url that I posted here, rather than a direct link.

Asked for which anti-virus program and you suggest Ubuntu...

Running in safe mode will disable some of the functions for a virus scan as some need modules that safe mode doesn't load up.

Oh I didnt know that! Thanks.

Avast free edition,AVG free [though there are a lot of issues with it in vista currently,and its not as light as it used to be] and also the housecall scan is good for extra scanning backup- http://housecall.trendmicro.com/ is based online so no programs are needed to be downloaded.

Vipre

Norton or Avast if your limited financially.

A lot of the security suites I've tried are garbage. Mcafee slowed down my computer and was a PAIN to cancel my subscription. Norton also slowed down my computer and all kinds of support for it is crap and was VERY hard to uninstall. ZoneAlarm disabled my internet. Kaspersky was nice for the first week, then disabled my internet. Also the rebate is a scam. Panda just sat on my desktop and didn't catch anything. After I uninstalled Panda and installed Trend Micro and after a scan it found 6 tracking cookies. So now I buy Trend Micro every year because it seems to actually pick stuff up.

One I haven't tried is Windows Live OneCare.

Other ones I like are avast!, AVG, and PC Tools Antivirus (they also work and pick stuff up)

It is possible for a Virus-Scanner to detect a file as infected whereas it isn't at all. It does happen. I've had an old game detect as a virus and the software was 100% genuine.

If it is a real virus though it can keep reappearing due to a spyware infection downloading it again each time its removed. Rootkits can do the same.

I had a computer once that had a "downloader" type spyware infection, a virus and a rootkit that were all tied together. If you removed any one part one of the others would reinstall it. I think originally he got the spyware from a drive by download through his browser, which installed the rootkit which installed the virus.