Best free AV 2018 recommended by AVLab

Discussion in 'other anti-virus software' started by ichito, Feb 16, 2018.

  1. ichito

    ichito Registered Member

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    "Best free Antiviruses 2018 recommended by AVLab for home users and small business"
    English version
    https://avlab.pl/en/best-free-antiviruses-2018-recommended-avlab-home-users-and-small-business
     
  2. zapjb

    zapjb Registered Member

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    Thanks found this interesting. Very succinct & informative. Don't know the veracity of the information but it was set out well.
     
  3. Spartan

    Spartan Registered Member

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    What would I pick out of the lot? Avast Free Antivirus but instead of just hitting NEXT blindly, choose custom installation, uncheck everything BUT the File Shield and Web Shield and Mail Shield, the rest is bloatware.
     
  4. itman

    itman Registered Member

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    The definitely didn't care for Windows Defender:
     
  5. Spartan

    Spartan Registered Member

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    I wouldn't ever touch WD even if you paid me. Because this....

    AV_Comparatives_October_2017_Performance_Test.png

    Also from my personal experience, I feel my laptop is way slower when I use WD, everything that is, installing apps, browsing folders, since WD scans them over and over again and has no whitelisting feature.

    These are my laptop specs so it's not that I have a slow machine, all SSDs:

    MSI GT73VR Titan Pro-425 | i7-7820HK @ 4.4 GHz. | Kingston 2400 MHz. 64GB DDR4 RAM | GeForce GTX 1080 | Dynaudio System with Nahimic 2 Sound Technology | Killer Wireless-AC 1535 | Chi Mei N173HHE-G32 17.3" FHD 120 Hz/5ms Screen [G-SYNC] | 2x Samsung 960 PRO 2TB + 850 EVO 1TB + 850 EVO 4TB + Sandisk 512GB Extreme PRO SD Card | Windows 10 Pro
     
  6. Minimalist

    Minimalist Registered Member

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    I have similar experience with system slowdowns. That's why I usually temporary disable it, when maintaining our customers' systems.
     
  7. ance

    ance formerly: fmon

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    Very interesting, Polish is a strange language. :D
     
  8. korben

    korben Registered Member

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    What is the foundation of your viewpoint?

    Z czego to wznioskujesz?
     
  9. ance

    ance formerly: fmon

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    No offence but it sounds like German in reverse playback. :thumb:

    I won't ever touch Avast again because of all the ads and junk shields. :'(
     
  10. Brocke

    Brocke Registered Member

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    I wouldn’t use avast or avg anymore either.

    I’ve been using fortinet client with a tweaked INI config for Zoo malware and enabled heuristics. Been running well so far and haven’t felt it running.
     
  11. anon

    anon Registered Member

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    AV-Comparatives performance test......
    = #5
     
  12. TairikuOkami

    TairikuOkami Registered Member

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    Those tests never correspond with my tests. Forticlient takes 0,03% CPU and jumps to 4-5%. Avast is also taking 0,03% (just File Shield), but it jumps to 30-40%, not to mention a huge I/O.

    I tend to recommend Forticlient as the lightest free AV, followed by Panda (the best detection) and Kaspersky (the most features). The rest is just too bloated with junk or ADs like Bitdefender.

    Just use Minimal Setup and enable gaming/silent mode, not a single AD.
     
  13. korben

    korben Registered Member

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    @fmon
    you made my day!

    /from the lips of a guy who cannot stomach Germain lingo it is a compliment/

    end of OT
     
  14. Rasheed187

    Rasheed187 Registered Member

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    Yes, but would have been cool if they also mentioned if these free AV's are violating privacy or not. I would avoid them like the plague.
     
  15. hstrent

    hstrent Registered Member

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    I have used Avast extensively in my customer base for sometime and also personally, but as someone else said it really needs to be customized upon installation to eliminate the installation of a lot of bloat features and also to provide adequate protection. The default installation protection level needs to be bumped up to "hardened mode." The thing I really like about Avast that sets it apart from many free products is the built-in boot time scanner, though it is prone to throw a lot of false positives. Two things I don't like about Avast are that it significantly extends boot times unless you ratchet down the startup scan protection settings . . . and . . . all the nags to upgrade to the paid version. These nags really confuse my customers, most of whom are not tech savvy.

    The article linked exposes us to some new free products on the market that look very promising. Thanks ichito!

    But it is also true that there are so many good free products on the market today it may be like splitting hairs trying to decide between many of them, realizing that none are perfect. Find one that works well for you and those you support and stick to it until there is a good reason not to.
     
  16. hstrent

    hstrent Registered Member

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    I also would point out that the analysis of Windows Defender is based on rather dated testing results, from the "second half of of 2016". My sense is that Windows Defender (in Windows 10 at least) is getting better with time and it has the advantage of being nonintrusive. It doesn't constantly bait users to upgrade and it doesn't face non tech savvy users with choices they don't understand.

    In my customer base I'm slowly moving toward using just a combination of Windows Defender and Malwarebytes free. Malwarebytes free, though not a 24/7 scanner, now runs a monthly scan by default.
     
    Last edited: Feb 19, 2018
  17. clocks

    clocks Registered Member

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    Thanks for pointing that out. I didn't notice that. It is probably in avlabs interests to not having people using Win Defender, which makes me wonder if that was intentional.
     
  18. Eggnog

    Eggnog Registered Member

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    Interesting read. I enjoyed it. I'm running a combination of Windows 10 Defender and VoodooShield, with ZAM and Malwarebytes as "on demand" scanners. I've not run into any problems. VoodooShield is amazing.
     
  19. JoWazzoo

    JoWazzoo Registered Member

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    Can you explain/describe what this is? TIA
     
  20. Brocke

    Brocke Registered Member

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    You editing the config file?
     
  21. JoWazzoo

    JoWazzoo Registered Member

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    I don't use it :) Was wondering what you did WRT Zoo malware? By default it does not ID it?
     
  22. Brocke

    Brocke Registered Member

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    Correct you need to enable that in the config file.

    It under the real time section of the config file.
     
  23. ance

    ance formerly: fmon

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    Slovakian version?
     
  24. anon

    anon Registered Member

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  25. TairikuOkami

    TairikuOkami Registered Member

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    Any version, gaming mode disables all notifications/popups, ads including.

    That is why I prefer testing AVs/malware in real conditions, not in VM. Not to mention, that every config is unique, so it is best to choose from 2-3 AV to find the one, which settles properly.
     
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