Avast One Essentials?

Discussion in 'other anti-virus software' started by Scott W, Jan 18, 2023.

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  1. Scott W

    Scott W Registered Member

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    I'm thinking of installing Avast One Essentials (Avast's free offering), so if any of you are using it (or have used it) I would really appreciate learning about your experience.
     
  2. Jimmy9190

    Jimmy9190 Registered Member

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    I have tried it a couple of times. It looks strange, the GUI is full of cartoon characters, but that has nothing to do with how the AV works I guess. It works well and has the same engine as Avast Free but there are not many settings to tinker with. Essential is really more like a suite with a lot more components and bloat you might not need like software updater and privacy cleaner. The firewall is very basic and really does not do anything more than the built in Windows firewall.

    Essential also still has upsell ads like Avast Free does but the ads are more subtle. I never had any trouble with Essential but it is strange in how it is put together. It's like it was designed as a set and forget AV but it still includes suite components. The security part of it works very well but I never could get used to the GUI or the upsell tactics. That said, I do use the free Avast Essentials Android version on my phone. It sort of looks the same but it is the best Android AV I have found.

    The Essentials PC version is easy to use and has been tested to give really good malware protection. It's very good in the anti-malware/antivirus department but it has aspects about the GUI and other components that I just did not need and could not get used to. I would say try it and see how you like it.

    Jimmy
     
  3. Bunkhouse Buck

    Bunkhouse Buck Registered Member

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    You have to go through a bunch of steps for Avast to recognize your printer with the paid edition. Absolute nonsense and I unintalled it because of it. Forget the protection, others are as good and at least Defender sees your printer on your home network.
     
  4. Hiltihome

    Hiltihome Registered Member

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    Strong antivirus protection but poor privacy track record.
    The data-selling scandal tarnishes Avast’s excellent malware detection rates.
     
  5. Scott W

    Scott W Registered Member

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    Hey guys, thanks for the feedback - although it isn't quite what I expected. So if not Avast, which Free AVs provide reliable all-around protection (without introducing other issues)?

    Fwiw, I ran MS' Defender on my Win10 x64 laptop for several months and (while it may be effective) I just don't like it.
     
    Last edited: Jan 18, 2023
  6. Moose World

    Moose World Registered Member

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    Hi,

    https://
    avlab.pl/4-polecane-darmowe-antywirusy-na-rok-2023/

    Here are your choices,have fun.....
    Just giving you insight.

    selabs.uk/reports/endpoint-security-eps-home-2022-q4/
     
    Last edited: Jan 19, 2023
  7. Jimmy9190

    Jimmy9190 Registered Member

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    Bitdefender Antivirus Free has very strong protection and uses the same engine and core components as the paid Bitdefender AV's without the extra modules and components you may not need. It stays out of the way and has no pushy upsell tactics. Once in a while it will alert me with a message when I use a financial site that it would be more secure with a VPN and asks if I want more info. It also alerts if I visit a site like Facebook that has had a recent data breach. Bitdefender uses more memory when you first install it but during the first day or two of use it will adapt to your system and begin to use a lot less memory.

    Kaspersky Free Antivirus is also very good, it has some of the best malware protection you can get and also uses the same core components as the paid Kaspersky AV's and suites, and it has no upsell tactics that I know of. Kaspersky still has offices in Moscow and some people have stopped using Kaspersky because of the Russia/Ukraine situation.

    The free Avast/AVG are not terrible AV's, at least for now anyway. Their protection is very strong and they do include some modules and components you can actually use. Avast Free and AVG Free both use the same core AV components as the paid versions and you can select which modules you want to install. The main problem with the free versions is they really push hard to get you to upgrade. Norton recently bought Avast/AVG and some people are kind of put off by that and worried the quality may go downhill but nothing has changed at Avast/AVG yet. Avast sent out a cryptic email to its users just last week that said "something big is coming soon" but no one knows what that something is yet.

    I think Bitdefender Antivirus Free is the best of all the free AV's. It is also the only free or paid AV I have ever seen that includes a very complete and easy to understand online owner's manual and setup/troubleshooting guide. I think that is a very good user-friendly approach. There is also a friendly online support forum community and tech support by email, chat or phone even for the free version. I use Bitdefender Free with their Trafficlight browser extension in Firefox on a basic store-bought laptop with 8 GB RAM on Windows 11 22H2 and everything runs nice and smooth, fast and snappy.

    Jimmy
     
  8. Bunkhouse Buck

    Bunkhouse Buck Registered Member

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    Everything but MS Defender has annoying pop-ups from time to time and that is even after they have been minimized according to the vendor's instructions. In other words, they are nagging at you almost like you have been infected by malware. I have tested them all- and for me, nearly silent is better and Defender provides that.
     
  9. monkeylove

    monkeylove Registered Member

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    They fixed the privacy issue by following EU requirements.

    I tested Avast One using Novabench, and it's even heavier than Windows Defender. The lightest is Avast Free.

    I don't know if Bitdefender free includes anti-ransomware.

    For Kaspersky, the security cloud was upgraded to the new free antivirus, and according to the comparison chart, does not include virus removal. It also comes up with popup for upgrades once in a while even if I disable all possible notifications for that.
     
  10. Rasheed187

    Rasheed187 Registered Member

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    Thanks for the feedback, I was looking for a Win Defender replacement, and Bitdefender looked cool to me, but now that I read about those stupid alerts, I'm already turned off. Why is BD monitoring your website usage in the first place? They probably sell it to advertisers, that's the problem with free AV's. That's exactly why I have always sticked to WD. This post should probably be moved to the Bitdefender thread.
     
  11. Scott W

    Scott W Registered Member

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    Thanks again guys (esp. Jimmy for his rundown). Avast/AVG doesn't sound so good to me anymore and because of Putin's horror show I won't even consider Kaspersky; so I'm going to install BD-Free and give it a tryout...
     
  12. Jimmy9190

    Jimmy9190 Registered Member

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    I only saw the BD warning about a compromised site/data leak one time, that was when I went on Facebook the very first time after installing BD Free. It was just a small informational window that said Facebook was involved in a data leak. I have not seen that window since then. I also do not see the financial site window very often either. BD is not trying to push me to buy anything. There is also a setting in Bitdefender Free where you can turn off special offers and recommendation notifications if you don't want to see them.

    I have never read or heard anything about Bitdefender collecting and selling user data. Everything I have found indicates that Bitdefender is a very ethical AV provider. It is true Avast got caught three years ago selling user data. They apologized extensively and shut down their data collection subsidiary, it was called Jumpshot. Avast has moved on since then. From what I understand Avast does not sell user data now but they do try very hard to get you to buy their AV products. And Avast does have a lot of products to sell. Their upsell offers and scary warning windows are relentless. The Avast forum has a lot of threads from people complaining about it.

    One thing I noticed with Windows Defender in the last few weeks is that if I was online and opened up another app, like Media Player or a spreadsheet WD would throw a fit and just hammer my hard drive for about five or ten minutes. It would stay pegged at 100% in task manager. MS Antimalware Service would run up to about 200 MB of memory and it really slow down my laptop. That does not happen with Bitdefender. Firefox integrates very well with BD too. When I tried Avast Free a while back it hijacked the Firefox DNS and security settings and popped up a message that said "your browser is being managed by your organization". I did not like that at all and have seen nothing of the sort with Bitdefender. One other nice perk I found with Bitdefender is for some reason my laptop battery lasts longer.

    None of this is intended to disparage Avast, AVG, Norton Microsoft or any other AV. This is just my experience and my take on antivirus. I like Bitdefender and will keep using it. It has what I need and nothing I don't.

    Jimmy
     
  13. Brummelchen

    Brummelchen Registered Member

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    same owner -> Norton LifeLock (NLOK)

    does not matter which one you buy, internal it's close to same and thus all have same security issues if occuring.

    i dont care about man-in-the-middle attacks of almost all antivirus suites. they are not able to control content as eg. uBlock can do in browsers. and any download content, either downloads or cache (!!!) and more are scanned anyway and blocked. and this is different from memory attacks (payload less) which need dll injection into processes. Defender is able to perform this.

    waste of money.
     
  14. SeriousHoax

    SeriousHoax Registered Member

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    Avast & AVG are the same product underneath, not Norton which is completely a different product inside out. Owned by the same company is a different thing.
     
  15. waking

    waking Registered Member

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    Perhaps it's a reference to this new product/service announced via email circa Jan 11 2023:

    ASI 1.jpg

    ASI 2.jpg

    ASI 3.jpg
     
  16. Jimmy9190

    Jimmy9190 Registered Member

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    That is the first I have seen of the something new from Avast. I don't know much about Norton but I wonder if this is the Avast version of Norton LifeLock. I guess time will tell.

    Jimmy
     
  17. Hiltihome

    Hiltihome Registered Member

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    Give all of your personal information to Avast.
    The will take care of you.
     
  18. pvsurfer

    pvsurfer Registered Member

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    I highly recommend considering WiseVector StopX. It is free, AI-based, very light on PC's resources and (imho) provides a complete anti-malware package.
     
  19. Chuck57

    Chuck57 Registered Member

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    Agree with pvsurfer. If you're looking for a free av, you can't go wrong with WiseVector StopX. It's as good as some and better than many paid antivirus programs.
     
  20. monkeylove

    monkeylove Registered Member

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    Avast follows GDPR, etc.

    https://blog.avast.com/avast-chief-privacy-officer-qa-avast

    Kaspersky moved its data processing processes for users to Switzerland:

    https://www.kaspersky.com/about/pre...re-certifies-its-data-services-by-tuv-austria

    When I tried KSC free, I was upgraded to free antivirus:

    https://usa.kaspersky.com/free-antivirus

    which does not include "Existing Virus Removal".

    According to this, BD free lacks anti-ransomware protection, but you'll have to verify this:

    https://www.pcmag.com/reviews/bitdefender-antivirus-free

    Finally, don't forget the idea of "eyes":

    https://restoreprivacy.com/5-eyes-9-eyes-14-eyes/
     
  21. monkeylove

    monkeylove Registered Member

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    Also, don't forget to check online tests. For example,

    WiseVector StopX Tested 7.21.22

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJVgKO2LDUA
     
  22. Jimmy9190

    Jimmy9190 Registered Member

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    BD Free does not have the ransomware remediation function that is part of paid BD versions. That is what they are talking about in the magazine review. Remediation is supposed to roll back and restore files that are encrypted by ransomware. I have no idea of the efficacy of the remediation function. BD Free will protect against malicious apps and other malware, including ransomware.

    https://www.bitdefender.com/solutions/free.html

    Kaspersky did move its servers to Switzerland. I think they did that to improve their reputation and image. Kaspersky still has their main office in Moscow. Kaspersky has been fighting to improve their image since long before the Ukraine invasion. There has been a stigma about Eugene Kaspersky being a KGB operative and all of that.. There are a lot of varying opinions about Kaspersky.

    There are a lot of choices available for antivirus. I myself always take the AV reviews with a grain of salt. Some reviewers are paid by the AV vendors so you may not get 100% accurate test results. For my own use, I have tried several AV's in the past and found that BD Free works the best for me.

    Jimmy
     
  23. Scott W

    Scott W Registered Member

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    Well, having dismissed Avast/AVG and Kaspersky for reasons discussed above I decided to install BD-Free (as recommended by @Jimmy9190) - it was a smooth and very simple setup. BD-Free seems to place very low demands on my laptop's cpu and memory (MS Defender is disabled), but it's way too soon to draw any other conclusions - time will tell...
     
    Last edited: Jan 20, 2023
  24. Brummelchen

    Brummelchen Registered Member

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  25. SeriousHoax

    SeriousHoax Registered Member

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    Good find, I missed it. So I guess the reason in this case is that they have integrated other non-security related features into one another. All these are bloats which we hate. This security bug must be related to those components. But it's important nonetheless. So a bug in one of these bloats would affect the other indeed.
    If we talk about malware protection features then Avast/AVG, Avira and Norton are different products with different protection layers. Avira received some features like Behavior Blocker from Bullguard but so far no other change has been announced or noticed by anyone including myself for the other products yet. So they are still different from each other with different level of protection and performance impact.
     
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