Free AV question

I just finished cleaning a system that had no AV on it and I need some advice.

Right now I have installed Antivir so they will have some protection but I noticed that Antivir trows a popup now and then for an upgrade and the license expires in Nov (bt it looks like it will automatically renew?)

My question is, out ov Antivir, AVG and Avast (this is the only one I have used before), which is the best suited to just be on "cruise control" with minimum user interaction?

 

i would say avast as it has a greater feature-set than the other free antivirus softwares.

 

I would agree with Avast also, I have installed it on several machines which need minimal user interaction with great success. AntiVir has the nag screen when it updates, which is annoying, and at times (during program updates) their servers can become extremely slow and even completely dysfunctional. Avast is pretty much trouble-free all the way...

 

I have not done a comparison, but my experience with Avast makes me choose it.

Jerry

 

Not to be nitpickey (is that a word?) but the only issue I have with AVAST is once the key expires you have to re-register to get a new key. Also the winamp look is a little different and you can't schedule a scan so a scan would never get done.

Another pet peeve with avast and antivir, it looks like when they find a virus, they want an immediate answer what to do with it. Can't just let the scan run to completion and decide at that point. I think AVG is different in this respect.

Is AVG so far behind the other two in detection that I should not consider it because that is the one I was leaning towards (from a hands free perspective)

 

are you sure you dont mean avira, i heard users mentioning the licence runs out after 3 months with the user needing to ask for another.

See Here

good luck and hope that helps.

 

The Avira appears to be a four month subscription which automatically renews itself. Yes Avast is a year, but then you have to register again to get the new key via email and enter it in the appropriate screen in the program. From what I can see, Antivir and AVG generate their own key at installation so there is no user intervention required.

 

i dont think aviras is automatic, 4 months.

ive heard people complaining on here that their av no longer works and is expired.

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as for avast, if your really too lazy to send in an email to get another key after a year, there is nothing else to be said

this is even less than the paid users have to do when they renew, every year.

 

Agreed, but again its not my PC and with all the crap they had on it, I would rather be able to set it up to do a weekly scan.

 

ok, with all the posts......

i think you had your mind made up before you made the thread,

 

CSJ: avira's license does update automatically. What doesn't work is downloading a hopelessly outdated installation (with invalid key) and then expecting it to update the key. For such cases they offer a direct link to the license file for download though.

 

Hi, with AntiVir you can right click the tray icon >configure antivir >expert mode. Hope this helps.

 

How hard can it be to enter your name and email addy into a web form and then check your email for the new key every 14 months?

I have used all of them, and would pick Avast or Avira over AVG any day. I have heard way too many people say they were using AVG and it failed to catch something. So yes, IMO it is that far behind the other 2...

 

I think it is a choice made upon an individual's surfing and downloading habits as well as the main usage of the computer. For instance:

Gaming with a cpu other than the Intel Core 2 Duo > AVG

Gaming with the Intel Core 2 Duo > Avast (during my tests, Avast edged out AVG on disk activity by 0.02% on an Intel C2D -whoopeedoo)

Safe surfing > any of the top four (Antivir, Avast, AVG, AVS)

Not so safe surfing > Avira, AVS

Dangerous surfing > Ubuntu Firefox loaded from the CD

Business or school use > any of the top four

That's my story and I'm stickin' to it.

SourMilk out

 

Yep, good point, use of the PC is important. I for one would and could pretty much do without any AV here, being what I would call a safe and intelligent user. So I might put anything on just to silence the XP security center, what difference would it make? That's why I guess it's best for each and everyone to try several out under their own conditions and then make the best choice for themselves...

 

Not so, I think the post by timcan showing the config screen for AntiVir has swayed me to Antivir.

 

Thats just for On-Demand scanning... All payable versions have this feature...

 

I'm not if this has changed, but last time i used AVG free it was just so restricted. Updates can only be done at certain times - you have to pick 2 hrs of the day to do updates. For some reason, when I right click and scan and it found viruses, it didn't clean them, just let you know. To clean them you'd actually have to do a custom scan through AVG Free's console. AVG free also has a popup telling you the database is updated, and you can't turn off the popup in the free edition. On the plus side, it was extremely light, but too many restrictions for my liking.

My sister's comp has avast free currently, and its certainly less intrusive, but does use more RAM than AVG. Also, the renew every year thing is a bit annoying cause my sister couldn't careless about AVs and security. But the benefits outweigh the cons: better detection than AVG, automatic updates with zero-popups, a http scanner. Also re: the winamp look, just don't install the skins and it looks fine.

Antivir -> would use it on my sister's comp, but she has xp home -> so the avnotify.exe trick won't work properly like it does on xp pro. Otherwise - antivir is also non-intrusive.

 

nope, you were always swayed this way.

looks like a spam post to me



other than its heuristics, avast is superior in every way for the free versions, i really do believe this post was meant as spam, but the first 4 replies or so stating avast prompted you to 'nitpick'

 

With Avast, you can "disable skins for the simple user interface". That should get rid of the 'media player' looking scanner . It also has the http scanning and a boot time scanner. I'm not sure about scheduled scans, but I know that it has a fairly configurable screen saver scanner. I've not used the others, (my disclaimer) but only read about them on forums. The fact that I don't here much about Avast is music to my ears. No news is good news .

Use whatever you like. Try all of them, after all they are FREE. I've just found that Avast is a well balanced AV. Stable, decent detection, nice features and highly configurable. It just works and that is what's important to me.

peace out

 

Not at all, I use Avast on one of my PC's and those are the things I don't like about it. I have never used AntiVir or AVG and (for me at least) its tough to get a feel in a two day period and I have to give this PC back. I use avast on a laptop, so not being able to schedule a scan doesn't bother me but for a pc that is always connected I think scheduled scans are important so I was not considering avast. Plus I am a tinkerer, these people are not. Just trying to do right by them and give them something they won't be intimidated by. If I can convince them to put more memory into their machine - they have 256 MB, then they can look at a paid subscription.

I was actually hoping someone would give me a solid reason to go with AVG because that looks like the most "intuitive" to me with features like a big button that says "Scan my Computer".

But I am honestly not spamming. The right answer I guess is to let them try each for a few weeks instead of trying to figure out which they would like better.

And PS - DR WEB put the finishing touches on the cleaning of their machine getting rid of 4 items that neither AVG or Antivir could so I am really glad someone introduced me to that tool!

 

EXACTLY - you can lead a horse to water ...........

 

ajcstr, have a look here. http://wiki.castlecops.com/AntiVirus_Comparison

 

You probably installing AV in order to protect PC.

Because of that I would install AntiVir because of its better detection rate.

 

avast is only a couple pecent behind avira if you use the latest virus test results such as av-comp, but avast also detects adware/spyware, so i would say avast has the better detection.

also it has email scanning which avira does not, and also a non-intrusive http scanner/monitor which again, avira does not.

there are other features too, infact LOADSSSSSSS, which avast carries over avira, and also no stupid popups and a 'feel safe' approach that its actually working, also no update errors on crappy servers!

if i worked for avast, id feel quite insulted that avira free or even avg free, has been put in the same category for comparisons.