PC Tools AntiVirus Free 7.0.0.545

Yeah, I had already cosidered that but didn't think it would entirely account for such a 'chasm' between them.

 

Lol, but that's the fact. I think PC Tools will learn from this incident. But this result is from 3 months old PC Tools engine version. They have updated in betwwen and I wish we will see a good result this november.

 

I think that's the reality On-demand detection seems to be good, but as Matthijs said: There are no proactive features in the free version!

All the other freebies have better proactive features ...

 

No.. Proactive defense means heuristics is there in free version. Only BB protection from Threatfire part is absent. That can be installed separately.

 

But where? All the proactive shields are not available.

 

Oho, heuristic engine is itself within the file guard.

 

Great heuristic engine

 

This is not their present heuristic engine. Lets hope it is better now.

 

I recently installed this program (PC Tools AV Free 7) on my desktop because I got infected with a nasty case of Licum/Tenga virus and wanted to reinforce my defenses. I was able to clean the infection, but lost 2 days on that computer, plus I need to reinstall Matlab now.

For on-demand scans I prefer a2cmd and ClamWinPortable. The thing I like about this program is that it gives you decent real-time protection for free, but you can also turn it off completely when you don't think you need it.

On the minus side, it took me 3 attempts to fully install/update it (mind you I was partially infected at the time - I had restored a clean image of the system partition, but the virus was still present on another partition). Also, I had problems booting/running the computer with it active (maybe conflicts with other programs/firewall) - anyway, it seems to be okay for now (after a bunch of whitelisting).*

Question: What would be a better free choice for real-time protection that can be turned on and off (not just semi-off), that is, on-demand real-time malware protection?


* other protection: Prevx Free + Look 'n' Stop firewall (probably configured badly) when I got infected + Rising PC Doctor for on-demand real-time stuff plus system vulnerability fixes. After virus I switched to Online Armor Free for firewall, and added PCTAV and Trend Micro RUBotted. (Currently I keep Prevx off when PCTAV is on and vice versa). a2cmd and others for on-demand scans.