Avast Pro Vs. Bitdefender 8 Vs Antivir PE

Hi,
Confusion is ringing! I have the licences for Avast Pro and Bitdefender Std 8. I am really confused as to which one to finally install on my computer. Also, one of my friends suggested that Antivir PE (FREE) is another solid product with brilliant heuristics.

Now, what should I do ? Please advise me on the basis of efficiency and performance of these products. Tell me the pros and cons of all of them.

I use a 1.4 GHz Celeron Mobile, 256 RAM notebook which is always connected to the internet through a LAN.

Genuine help will be really appreciated,

Regards,

Abhishek

 

AntiVir PE:- Good detection, bad interface
Avast! :- Good detection, good interface but no heuristics except for email scan
BitDefender:- Great interface, detection is somewhat lesser than AntiVir, and has heuristics.

BitDefender is really light too. AntiVir has better detection than Avast!

Hope this helped.

Best Regards,
Firecat

 

I used AntiVir for years no complaints, no infections, light on resources, I now use EZ Antivirus which seems even lighter and faster.

 

Hi abhi_mittal,

The BitDefender have the better detection rate and GUI of them, but it's also the most heavier on resources...

AntiVir is a very good AV, but doesn't have email clients scanner, and avast! is also a very good AV with a lot of features, even the Home Edition is great and better than some commercial AV...

I think that you should try them and see what it's better for you and your system...

Regards

 

Well thanks,
Can I use Antivir PE as a backup scanner with Avast as my resident AVP? Is there a way I can avoid system conflict? If yes, how?
Also, does the Bitdefender free use the same engine and signatures as the standard version?
Is there any other free product you suggest?

Regards,
Abhishek

 

I recommend you to use avast! on your laptop since you've not too much ram (256)... avast! uses a very little amount of ram so in that way it would be a better option...

I'm not sure if you can opt out the resident scanners in the bitdefender, you might take a look at that and use it as backup scanner

 

But BD was quite light on my PC when i tried it...I guess its my 1GB RAM?

 

You can use avast! as resident with AntiVir as backup without any problem. They are a great combination

The BitDefender Free doesn't have the same engine of the standard because they have a different versions but the signatures are the same...

I could suggestion you the AVG Free but avast! HE and AntiVir PE are much better...

 

I think so, I've 512mb and BitDefender runs sluggy on my system... It's weird but true...
I think AV's runs different on every system... BitDefender and KAV make my computer work like an old 386, while F-Secure runs very fast... On other systems from members here it's just the opposite...

 

Do I need to configure avast or antivir in a particular way so that a conflict doesnt happen?

 

The problem of BitDefender Free is that you have to allways have some processes enable to the program works, and these process use a lot of memory...

 

Just disable the Active Guard of AntiVir and his service process that is not needed...

 

Agree with this, almost forgot that... This why I stopped using this as a backup scanner...
You might use eScan free as backup scanner, wich loads no processes when you don't use it

 

Do I need to configure avast or bitdefender std or antivir in a particular way so that a conflict doesnt happen?
Which has better heuristics- Bitdfender or Antivir?

 

BitDefender has the better heuristics for sure...

 

BitDefender is better, but AntiVir is making a great improvements in this area

 

After running Avast for almost two years, I decided to check my system out thoroughly with other scanners so I used BitDefender, Anti Vir, Ewido, a2, F-Prot, AVG as well as KAV, not a single virus was detected in my system. I get different worms, Trojans on daily basis on my mail and Avast dutifully detects and wipes them all out, the best feature of Avast is its offline scanner which can detect and repair infected system files through its excellent VRDB system. Also the newly added Web Shield is an excellent feature.

 

After all the suggestions, I installed Avast Pro as my frontline resident scanner. I also installed Bitdefender Free and Antivir as my backup on access scanner.
I am listing the results in order of scans:

1) Avast: Scanned around 130000 objects and found no infections.

2) Bitdefender Free: The results were
Scan path : C:\
D:\
Folders : 2896
Files : 245200
Archives : 2056
Packed files : 26333
Identified viruses : 2
Infected files : 2
Warnings : 0
Suspect files : 0
Disinfected files : 0
Deleted files : 2
Copied files : 0
Moved files : 0
Renamed files : 0
I/O errors : 33
Scan time : 00:41:27
Scan speed (files/sec) : 98

It basically found 2 Adware programs in the registry and in one installation file.

3) Antivir PE:

End of scan: Monday, March 21, 2005 18:10
Time taken: 26:37 min


2909 directories were scanned
55712 files were scanned
31 warning messages were issued
0 files were deleted
0 files were repaired
0 detections


Now, I dont understand why each program scans a VERY DIFFERENT number of objects. Why is this happening?
What are the Input/Output Errors in the Bitdefender Report?

 

here is a short review of the 3 u suggested. read all the posts and trial all the 3 and use one that suits u r system..

1-antivirpe
pros
-has win32 heuristics
-decent detection,on par with avast or may be slightly higher as some recent tests points out
-consumes the least of resources out of the 3
-free for home use
-can install without the realtime monitor without any processes consuming memory..

cons
-updates aren't incremental. everytime u have to download 2mb of full updates.thats a problem when u are on dialup
-no email scanner
-updates are also difficult to get as the servers are busy most of the times
-ugly interface




avast
pros
-very good updater ,incremental and small updates and automatic update too.this is one of the very good feature of avast that even some of the giants in this field lack off..
-lots of individual modules and configurability
-good support forum like here in wilders
-decent detection
-ram usage is very low in the newer versions
-very good email scanner and web shield
-avast home edn is free for non commercial usage
-features like bootime scan and vdrb

cons
-heuristics only in the email scanner
-some users here have complained about some issues,but i think they have sorted out.




bitdefender pro
pros
-the av with the best detection out of the 3 u suggested ,and may be 3rd or 4th overall
-good heuristics
-incremental and daily updates very good ,even on weekends..
-though ram usage is high- about 30mb,runs surprisingly light(may be different on ur system,so trial all the 3 and see)
-decent configurability
-very good realtime scanner

cons
-not free
-
Known compatibility issues when using :
---------------------------------------
- Norton Clean Sweep
- ScanDisk
- Disk Defragmenter - and any similar utility applications
- Nero Imagedrive - and other similar applications (only on Windows 9x)

Disable the Virus Shield while using the programs listed above to avoid data loss and/or system instability.
-slightly high memory usage.some people have experienced resource problems with this av though its very light on my system..

my advice -install both antivir and avast ,antivir as backup,do weekly scans with that after updating and avast as the primary av.make sure to disable /not install the realtime monitor of antivir during installation..you can spare all the money!!

hope this helps

 

With reference to this, can anyone tell me why the difference in the number of objects/files scanned? I ran these scans one after the other.
Also, what are I/O errors in the Bitdefender Results.

Regards

 

Depends of the settings that you scan your disk in each AV.

Did you set to scan all the files, or you scan with the default settings?

Other thing is that, for example, avast! scan 7zip archive and AntiVir doesn't, but the result od files scanned should be practical the same...

 

Other thing, is that you can use the excellent online scanner of BitDefender with the 8.0 engine instead of install it on your computer

BitDefender Online Scanner

 

In all the 3 scans I configured the programs to scan ALL files. So there should ideally be no reason for a difference in the number of objects scanned.

Which one of the three has the best Archive support?

 

Like I said before, the AV's have diferrents files(files, packers, archivers) supports, so their is the reason for the different files scanned...

I don't know what have better archive support...

 

The I/O errors are caused b'coz certain Windows files are being used by the system. Such files are 'locked' and cannot be accessed or modified by any other process. Such files are VERY unlikely to ever be infected, so dont worry about I/O errors.

I feel BitDefender has the best unpack engine amongst the three AVs.

Good day

Regards,
Firecat