What Antivirus programs have no toolbars or stupid optimizers?

I just got banned for posting a great review about Emsisoft Anti-Malware! No warnings, nada, posted a link to the review which I had on my site and BAM, I was terminated on the spot!

I immediately uninstalled it although it was the best I've used as I will simply not deal with a company that doesn't respect its customers especially when they are praising it everywhere and tweeting good things about it all the time!

So I thought hey, let me use my Bitdefender Antivirus Plus license which has been collecting dust for 2 years (2 more years remaining for 5 devices)..

I installed it and boy was I shocked! I usually opt for the least product in any AV vendor's product list to avoid any bloatware but whoa...... this thing has:

- Password manager with Firefox extension called Wallet
- Disk Optimizer / Defragmenter
- Junk Files Cleaner
- Registry Cleaner (which when I tried just to see what it finds was almost gonna nuke my entire Windows OS! all valid entries being flagged)
- Browser privacy cleaner

I only know of 2 AVs that have no bloatware, ESET NOD32 which I will never use as it's the biggest resource hog and Emsisoft Anti-Malware.....

Now Kaspersky AV doesn't have any bloatware but only useless browser addons.....

anything else I'm missing?

Oh F-Secure also doesn't have toolbars.... but it was too heavy for my liking and has a major bug which is beyond the scope of this thread
============================================

Verdict:

- Eset Smarty Security / Eset NOD32
- Avira Antivirus PRO (not sure until when though as they were about to introduce a registry cleaner and optimizer before I stopped using it 5 months ago)
- Bitdefender Free Antivirus
- 360 Internet Security
- F-Prot
- Emsisoft Anti-Malware / Internet Security
- F-Secure Anti-Virus
- GDATA Antivirus
- Ikarus
- Clamwin
- Immunet
- VBA32

- Windows Defender / Microsoft Security Essentials

 

and so the wheel turns.

Try F-Prot.. But then again, don't expect earth shattering protection, but with your ASUS router, do you really need earthshattering protection? Your choices are pretty limited.. Nod32 I guess also.

 

Bitdefender free Av - great basic av . Qihoo360IS - also great Av with more protection and no bloat .

 

you know all my stories, some people think I just like to complain....I don't....I was actually praising them and recommending them everywhere (Emsisoft) but they gave me a slap in the face with this ban!

 

yeah I'm leaning towards Bitdefender free actually. The paid one is a joke! a circus of optimizers, cleaners, toolbars, everything under the sun, they put in there but the free version is only an AV.

Thanks for this, I'm gonna use that then

cheers

 

I run Bit Defender and ClamAV on the gateway, so having those on endpoints is .. Pointless for me. (or any product using their engines)

But I agree, there is no perfect AV in my opinion. A few come close to what I like, but fall short in some way. I keep praying FProt experiences a resurrection or something.. I know.. Keep dreaming right?

 

Just because it has these features don't mean you have to use them, turn them off and just run the AV.

 

Just when I thought I found the perfect AV (Trend Micro AV+ Security), it turned my happiness to a nightmare due to it crippling my Firefox browser and now, I do not like turning things off to make an AV work like it should... I hope they fix this so I can use Trend Micro again it was awesome

 

Why would they ban you for no reason?
Maybe you broke some of their terms?

 

I think Bullguard Antivirus has the limited functionality you are looking for; antivirus, spam filtering, and browsing protection. If you can stand an interface that shows all the capabilities that you don't want with buttons to click to upgrade, you might want to give it a shot. You can see a picture of what I am talking about at http://www.bullguard.com/products/bullguard-antivirus/tech-specs.aspx .

I have a license for Bullguard Internet Security that I am not using right now and it is a decent product. It does fine in the standard tests and seems to be actively developed with lots of new releases. I am currently running ESET Smart Security which is very light on my machine. Is it blasphemous to suggest trying NOD32 again? Programs change all the time and maybe it would work better for you now.

 

They did give a reason "Spamming the board" it wasn't like I was posting links to scams or any other product! it was an external link to my personal forum where I posted a great comparison of all the Antivirus I used and how Emsisoft Anti-Malware beats them all in lightness and protection. I post this in the feedback subforum, right where it belongs!

 

oh no Bullguard for me, the interface looks like a little child drew it in his dreams and all those upgrade buttons for higher features like cloud storage and what not, no thanks

I have a NOD32 license for 5 users, everytime I try to use it, the moment I install it (on a cleanly installed system btw with no previous AV), I would notice something wrong with my system immediately, either huge slowdown, or it would crash upon trying to mess with the scheduled tasks (I usually disabled the task of automatic startup scan on user logon)

Believe me I check daily on the ESET website to see if they have a new version to download but it's been like this with this buggy version since more than 6 months now! horrible

 

emsisoft investigated
http://blog.emsisoft.com/2015/01/17/has-the-antivirus-industry-gone-mad/

HTH

 

yeah I read that a while back, very scary, my options are limited now I must say:

1) Use Bitdefender Free
2) Use My KAV license
3) use my NOD32 license - NEVER!

eeny meeny miney moe

 

How about MalwareBytes Pro supplemented by an on-demand antivirus along with Trend in your router?

 

Great Idea! I actually have a lifetime license for MBAM Pro! Thanks for reminding me

 

I have Eset on 3 PCs and 2 Macs. Works like a charm and no added crap like you are talking about.

 

yeah I know! seems like ESET is the only company which have kept it clean with no toolbars or buttons to upgrade to higher suites or extensions.....only wish I might give it another try and if it fails, MBAM Pro it is

 

you can always install one of the older versions if you wish

 

also if you install the new version just leave the scheduled tasks alone. Honestly my friend, I have never seen a issue from there.

 

which one works with Windows 8.1 Update 3 ? I know a few AVs causes issues after update 3 unless they were updated.

 

honestly version 6 was my fav and then 7

 

v4 was my favorite.....v6 was great too, then 7 onwards it spoiled.....

The thing is, with Windows 8.1, I don't think they are compatible

 

Come to think about it, you could run JUST MBAM with that ASUS router..

Heck, I could run just MBAM. I need to consider that, if they had not killed all of my legit keys for MBAM. (grrr)

Would our ESET licenses work on the OLD versions?

 

Mortal Raptor

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/wind...rVersion=6&Type=Software&tempOsid=Windows 8.1

Mayahana

Yes