Avast is meant to be good. Only just switched to it last week haven't had any problems with it. The resident scanner is a hell of a lot better than avg's updated one.
Oh, no. Every time you turn up something monumental and terrible happens.
I don’t think I have the stomach for it.
--Raziel (Legend of Kain: Soul Reaver 2)
Avast is meant to be good. Only just switched to it last week haven't had any problems with it. The resident scanner is a hell of a lot better than avg's updated one.
I can thoroughly recommend it and it's a lot less resource greedy than Nortons.
I used to use AVG but stopped after an update about a year ago, I can't remember why but there was something about it that made it too annoying.
I use Avira AntiVir Personal now. It is okay, I don't hear much from it so it is fairly unobtrusive and I believe it is one of the lower resource using ones around.
Someone else might know of a better one than Avira though. I did try Avast for a while but something about that irritated me, which again I can't remember.
I know some guys that swear by Kaspersky...They say it catches more overall than any others and that it doesn't slow machines down as much as the others.
There's some trial versions on the downloads tab.
Not too sure what a trial version would really tell you unless you have some dodgy sites to test it on..........(or unless the trial version lasted for a few months)
"I should use simulator loosely 'cos I don't think it's quite like this on the beach with helicopters and fires and the jumping beach buggy" - paulisthebest3uk 2020.
i use mcafee enterprise. not free and very resource heavy. okay for multi-core cpus. to be honest, my work pc's i do not use any, because i do not connect to the interweb on them. the pc's run so much faster with out any anitvirus. my wife's pc is an old dud, with no antivirus. if it gets infected i format and reinstall 2k. no need for driver up dates or anything - if that is any good.
Avast
Pros: Free, complete protection including anti-rootkit, low in resources
Cons: You must register (for free) after 3 months of use, might slow down your PC if it's updating its database during startup, good detection rate but is know for detecting lots of false positives.
AVG
Pros: Free, fast
Cons: No rootkit protection, free version is very basic. Lower detection rate when compared to Avast. Update window is annoying.
Avira
Pros: Free, super fast. Not so good detection rate when compared to the other free anti-virus programs.
Cons: Last time I checked there were too many reminders to buy the paid version, register, etc. Even more annoying than AVG.
Kaspersky
Pros: Best detection rate in the market last time I checked, complete security solution.
Cons: Not free. Not user-friendly (too much tech-babble). Some users might get confused when it finds what it considers to be high-security risks but doesn't fix them nor tells you how to do it.
McAfee VirusScan/Norton AntiVirus/Norton Internet Security
Pros: All of these are user-friendly. If someone doesn't know a thing about computers but his/her PC has enough resources to run these without crawling, any of these do the job.
Cons: Not free. High in system resources. When any of these programs have an internal problem it can become a nightmare. Some viruses target these programs and know how to disable them.
Personal experience:
I've seen many computers with anti-virus programs installed and updated (be it free or paid versions) and they still had viruses. Why? You can have the best anti-virus program with the best features and the best detection rate, but if you push it to the limit you will eventually get a virus. A good anti-virus program doesn't protect you 100%. It reduces the chances of getting an infection. Another reason for some anti-virus programs not being able to do their job is when the user installs them after a problem appears. Anti-virus programs are meant to be installed before, not when the system is already infected. It may be possible to install cleaning tools in infected systems and maybe even complete a full virus removal, but then you have stuff that has to be manually fixed... sometimes it's not worth the effort, but it all depends on how bad the O.S. is. It involves registry editing and I only do it if I'm told a System Recovery isn't an alternative (because they don't have the Office CD anymore, etc etc.).
Avira
Cons: Last time I checked there were too many reminders to buy the paid version, register, etc. Even more annoying than AVG.
I use Avira myself and, with a little tweaking, you can disable the advert popups. Instructions here: http://www.elitekiller.com/files/disable_antivir_nag.htm - note that the path has changed slightly on recent editions of Avira - the folder you want is now called "Avira Desktop" (or similar) rather than "AntiVir PersonalEdition Classic". The file to disallow is still called avnotify.exe though.
We are still using PCTools AntiVirus - its also FREE. I've only ever had one PC virus and that was a while ago (years). I also use an online scan, once a month with Bit defender.
Used AVG Free previously but swapped purely because I fancied trying something else out there. Now use Avira and very pleased with it. Low system resources, free and the ad-popup doesn't bother me in the slightest.
.......You can have the best anti-virus program with the best features and the best detection rate, but if you push it to the limit you will eventually get a virus. A good anti-virus program doesn't protect you 100%. It reduces the chances of getting an infection.......
I coudn't agree more.
If you leave your house windows open someone or something is going to climb in.
Seems the same for PCs except you can't fully close the Windows on a PC..........
"I should use simulator loosely 'cos I don't think it's quite like this on the beach with helicopters and fires and the jumping beach buggy" - paulisthebest3uk 2020.
I coudn't agree more.
If you leave your house windows open someone or something is going to climb in.
Seems the same for PCs except you can't fully close the Windows on a PC..........
There's always the off button, or format then install something else ;-)
Oh, no. Every time you turn up something monumental and terrible happens.
I don’t think I have the stomach for it.
--Raziel (Legend of Kain: Soul Reaver 2)
I know some guys that swear by Kaspersky...They say it catches more overall than any others and that it doesn't slow machines down as much as the others.
There's some trial versions on the downloads tab.
Not too sure what a trial version would really tell you unless you have some dodgy sites to test it on..........(or unless the trial version lasted for a few months)
I use Kaspersky and I think its the best Anti Virus and total security solution I have used.
It seems to catch everthing.
When I visit a website that tried to inject a trojan into my machine Kaspersky warns me and prevents the file from executing (though if I beleive this to be a false positive I can allow it to run).
If I've downloaded apps, exe's and it is scanned when first run to check that its not trying to do anything dodgy like capture my keystrokes and send them elsewhere, (very usefull when dowloading from P2P systems).
It also manages to capture things that contain viruses even before they have completely downloaded aborting the process and removing the file.
Usually its virus scanner never picks up much as the tool has such good proactive defence that viruses and malware rarly get into my machine.
I brought 3 year long licences for Internet Security Suite 9 for only £35. It's worth it when you considder how good it is. I will say it's not perfect but it is better than all the others.
the past few years ive held avg in high regard, not anymore, ive fell out with it bigtime, for the past week ive been battling viruses.......a really nasty one (disables your security programs, security centre, crashes windows when you go into their folders etc)
taken me a week to get to a stable (almost clear point) and in not one way did avg help, it never noticed the virus when it got onto my system, it never noticed when i knew i had one and i scanned with it, when it did find one it couldnt get rid
so ive installed avast........it found it in about 10 seconds, booted into an avast before windows boots up and deleted it (it also found some others on other opartitions that avg never told me about)
also im fed up with spybot..........im using malwarebytes now.......thats what first got me going from a completely parylised state to usuable (mind u i had to rename the exe...eventually to run it)
i also have threatfire and superantispyware on (not 100% of those yet mind
Professional Mel-the-Bell Simulator................"So realistic, I found myself reaching for the Kleenex King-Size!" - Richard Darling
Spybot search and destroy should be used regularly on your computer
as should Hijack This
they scan for bots, etc rather than viruses, but do give you a good idea of what's wrong on your PC
not for idiots tho!
I've seen many PCs with a messed-up registry because of Spybot S&D. Powerful tool? Yes. Dangerous to your O.S.? Might be.
Hijack this is nice, but when I need to fight malicious software manually I use a combination of things: Malwarebytes anti-malware, Autoruns and Process Explorer (both free from Microsoft (!)) . I also have lots of fun using regedit to remove malicious startup entries, re-enabling things that were disabled by viruses (screensaver and desktop tabs, etc.), resetting browser settings or disabling bad add-ons, removing .HTML stuff from Active desktops, deleting files on startup, deleting stubborn viruses hidden as non-plug-and-play devices, etc. :) I'm always happy when I'm able to "fix" Windows 100% and avoid a System Recovery.
I've seen many PCs with a messed-up registry because of Spybot S&D. Powerful tool? Yes. Dangerous to your O.S.? Might be.
Hijack this is nice, but when I need to fight malicious software manually I use a combination of things: Malwarebytes anti-malware, Autoruns and Process Explorer (both free from Microsoft (!)) . I also have lots of fun using regedit to remove malicious startup entries, re-enabling things that were disabled by viruses (screensaver and desktop tabs, etc.), resetting browser settings or disabling bad add-ons, removing .HTML stuff from Active desktops, deleting files on startup, deleting stubborn viruses hidden as non-plug-and-play devices, etc. :) I'm always happy when I'm able to "fix" Windows 100% and avoid a System Recovery.
Nod32 = too many false positives last time I checked. Was a favorite among many people a couple of years ago.
i liked spybot...never messed my system up, but i removed it as i didnt quite think it was up to the job this time.
malwarebytes is better by far..........saved my system, i was unable to do anything...till i managed to rename the exe and get it running, then it started the ball running in removing nasties, once it removed the first nasty my system got more stable :)
on a side note...in achat room i gave somebody the addy for avast, and like me they said it found and removed a trojan that avg didnt find
Professional Mel-the-Bell Simulator................"So realistic, I found myself reaching for the Kleenex King-Size!" - Richard Darling
Comments
I don’t think I have the stomach for it.
--Raziel (Legend of Kain: Soul Reaver 2)
https://www.youtube.com/user/VincentTSFP
Bytes:Chuntey - Spectrum tech blog.
I use Avira AntiVir Personal now. It is okay, I don't hear much from it so it is fairly unobtrusive and I believe it is one of the lower resource using ones around.
Someone else might know of a better one than Avira though. I did try Avast for a while but something about that irritated me, which again I can't remember.
http://www.kaspersky.co.uk/homeuser?thru=reseller%3D44001
There's some trial versions on the downloads tab.
Not too sure what a trial version would really tell you unless you have some dodgy sites to test it on..........(or unless the trial version lasted for a few months)
Pros: Free, complete protection including anti-rootkit, low in resources
Cons: You must register (for free) after 3 months of use, might slow down your PC if it's updating its database during startup, good detection rate but is know for detecting lots of false positives.
AVG
Pros: Free, fast
Cons: No rootkit protection, free version is very basic. Lower detection rate when compared to Avast. Update window is annoying.
Avira
Pros: Free, super fast. Not so good detection rate when compared to the other free anti-virus programs.
Cons: Last time I checked there were too many reminders to buy the paid version, register, etc. Even more annoying than AVG.
Kaspersky
Pros: Best detection rate in the market last time I checked, complete security solution.
Cons: Not free. Not user-friendly (too much tech-babble). Some users might get confused when it finds what it considers to be high-security risks but doesn't fix them nor tells you how to do it.
McAfee VirusScan/Norton AntiVirus/Norton Internet Security
Pros: All of these are user-friendly. If someone doesn't know a thing about computers but his/her PC has enough resources to run these without crawling, any of these do the job.
Cons: Not free. High in system resources. When any of these programs have an internal problem it can become a nightmare. Some viruses target these programs and know how to disable them.
Personal experience:
I've seen many computers with anti-virus programs installed and updated (be it free or paid versions) and they still had viruses. Why? You can have the best anti-virus program with the best features and the best detection rate, but if you push it to the limit you will eventually get a virus. A good anti-virus program doesn't protect you 100%. It reduces the chances of getting an infection. Another reason for some anti-virus programs not being able to do their job is when the user installs them after a problem appears. Anti-virus programs are meant to be installed before, not when the system is already infected. It may be possible to install cleaning tools in infected systems and maybe even complete a full virus removal, but then you have stuff that has to be manually fixed... sometimes it's not worth the effort, but it all depends on how bad the O.S. is. It involves registry editing and I only do it if I'm told a System Recovery isn't an alternative (because they don't have the Office CD anymore, etc etc.).
You mean this?
I use Avira myself and, with a little tweaking, you can disable the advert popups. Instructions here: http://www.elitekiller.com/files/disable_antivir_nag.htm - note that the path has changed slightly on recent editions of Avira - the folder you want is now called "Avira Desktop" (or similar) rather than "AntiVir PersonalEdition Classic". The file to disallow is still called avnotify.exe though.
as should Hijack This
they scan for bots, etc rather than viruses, but do give you a good idea of what's wrong on your PC
not for idiots tho!
I coudn't agree more.
If you leave your house windows open someone or something is going to climb in.
Seems the same for PCs except you can't fully close the Windows on a PC..........
I don’t think I have the stomach for it.
--Raziel (Legend of Kain: Soul Reaver 2)
https://www.youtube.com/user/VincentTSFP
I use Kaspersky and I think its the best Anti Virus and total security solution I have used.
It seems to catch everthing.
When I visit a website that tried to inject a trojan into my machine Kaspersky warns me and prevents the file from executing (though if I beleive this to be a false positive I can allow it to run).
If I've downloaded apps, exe's and it is scanned when first run to check that its not trying to do anything dodgy like capture my keystrokes and send them elsewhere, (very usefull when dowloading from P2P systems).
It also manages to capture things that contain viruses even before they have completely downloaded aborting the process and removing the file.
Usually its virus scanner never picks up much as the tool has such good proactive defence that viruses and malware rarly get into my machine.
I brought 3 year long licences for Internet Security Suite 9 for only £35. It's worth it when you considder how good it is. I will say it's not perfect but it is better than all the others.
the past few years ive held avg in high regard, not anymore, ive fell out with it bigtime, for the past week ive been battling viruses.......a really nasty one (disables your security programs, security centre, crashes windows when you go into their folders etc)
taken me a week to get to a stable (almost clear point) and in not one way did avg help, it never noticed the virus when it got onto my system, it never noticed when i knew i had one and i scanned with it, when it did find one it couldnt get rid
so ive installed avast........it found it in about 10 seconds, booted into an avast before windows boots up and deleted it (it also found some others on other opartitions that avg never told me about)
also im fed up with spybot..........im using malwarebytes now.......thats what first got me going from a completely parylised state to usuable (mind u i had to rename the exe...eventually to run it)
i also have threatfire and superantispyware on (not 100% of those yet mind
i advise
avast
kaspersky
or nod32
and as a bonus ball....comodo
I've seen many PCs with a messed-up registry because of Spybot S&D. Powerful tool? Yes. Dangerous to your O.S.? Might be.
Hijack this is nice, but when I need to fight malicious software manually I use a combination of things: Malwarebytes anti-malware, Autoruns and Process Explorer (both free from Microsoft (!)) . I also have lots of fun using regedit to remove malicious startup entries, re-enabling things that were disabled by viruses (screensaver and desktop tabs, etc.), resetting browser settings or disabling bad add-ons, removing .HTML stuff from Active desktops, deleting files on startup, deleting stubborn viruses hidden as non-plug-and-play devices, etc. :) I'm always happy when I'm able to "fix" Windows 100% and avoid a System Recovery.
Nod32 = too many false positives last time I checked. Was a favorite among many people a couple of years ago.
i liked spybot...never messed my system up, but i removed it as i didnt quite think it was up to the job this time.
malwarebytes is better by far..........saved my system, i was unable to do anything...till i managed to rename the exe and get it running, then it started the ball running in removing nasties, once it removed the first nasty my system got more stable :)
on a side note...in achat room i gave somebody the addy for avast, and like me they said it found and removed a trojan that avg didnt find