Avira: 25 pct of PC users disable antivirus software

http://news.yahoo.com/s/digitaltren...s/avira25pctofpcusersdisableantivirussoftware

 

yeah I'm guilty of turning AV off when gaming

 

i do it when i want to use an online scanner.

 

I bet they never defragged, cleared out cookies/cache/temp files and stuff which was REALLY slowing them down.

 

Well it is true, Avira on a machine with low RAM, has definitely a noticeable impact (I'd say most AVs would). The answer would be to buy more RAM, but the average user probably couldn't care less. In a few years time the problem will disappear as most computers will have at least 1-2 GB of RAM.

 

Gasp! I am shocked! If the survey was taken here at Wilders, that number would be more like 90-95%.

It actually is a frightening number... 25% turn off their AV... and it's not like they are doing so because they are using Sandboxie. Sometimes, doesn't it seem like people ultimately get what they deserve?

 

I never turn them off and when i'm installing them on systems where users could potentially disable them, i lock them with password so they can't do that.
It's for their own good.

 

if you're offline defragging will run a lot faster and be more thorough with your av disabled,even with your utility added to an exclusion list,some driver updates,especially video,do say to disble av software when installing new ones, other than that never turn it off

 

I do it sometimes for gaming too. It's something that will always be a problem because even if years passed Av's by then would require 4GB minimum to run haha They get heavier each year after all.

 

i never have my AV turned on, i use it only on demand and never have it a single virus or infection

 

Exactly!
No Maintenance at all!
No [Disk/Registry] Cleaning & Defragmentation at all!

 

The slower the PC (netbook, notebook), the higher performance impact by AV. AV-Comparatives tested performance on a desktop PC, that is not comparable at all.

 

The survey question should have included a mention of the degree of "experience" in PCs from the participants

As for me, whatever I do I never disable my AV.

 

I disable/exit AV only after disconnecting from Internet and want to do:

- Software installation (software is virus scanned and thoroughly tested in VM and on system with Wondershare Time Freeze before decision of installation)
- Registry cleaning/optimization
- Disk defragmentation

 

I only disable my AV when it conflicts with some clean software's installer - for example some ATi drivers once failed to install while KAV was running. Even in those cases I only disable the AV component though and leave the rest (HIPS, Firewall etc.) enabled.

 

then why don't they release version 11 of Avira that is so fast that you can not notice the diffrience if avira is disabled or enabled ?
if they could fix a NEW release of this nobody will ever disable avira.

 

If an AV does slow down a PC, a person might as well replace it with something else that's lighter or disable certain 'shields', 'components', whatever you want to call it. Tweaking settings might also help.

And disabling AV for a temporary period of time when a PC is known to be 'clean', 'offline' etc is not as much a threat as some make it out to be. Security isn't just about AVs...you've got far worse things to worry about if something bad is already on your system or if anything is allowed to execute by default without permission. No amount of real-time scanning can help to perfection if that's the case.

It's more worrying when a user disable an AV when he/she is about to execute an unverified file from an untrusted source without skills/experience and without any other security mechanisms in place.

 

Turning off seecurity aapps is not really a good idea. But!!!!! this computer I am using was given to me four days ago when my next door neighbors bought a new one, The AV on it was the McAfee trial that came on it and it was never activated or updated for the two and a half years this comp. was used on the Internet. I have run every kind of scan with multiple security apps and it is clean, I can't find any kind of malware at all. Some people are just totally lucky.

 

That wasn't the case for me. Avira Free ran light as a feather for me with a mere 512 MB of RAM. Of course, I'm a tweaker, so I get every bit of my resources. My friends with their new, tricked out 4-8 GB computers just don't understand how mine is faster with vastly inferior specs.

Agree with the person that pointed out the never-ending battle... as specs get better, programs become more resource intensive and consume those specs anyway. So you gain nothing in the end, and lose $. It's a con.

I hope programs like Avira never change and become bloated. I like that it's remained virtually unchanged over time. Keep it simple stupid, and don't fix what isn't broken. Too many people trying to reinvent the wheel these days...

 

I totally agree.

 

You would be amazed at some of the computers out there. One I worked on was extremely slow and after looking at the hard drive it was obvious the owner had never defragged it. Some people don't even know what defrag is.