30 replies to this topic

[jballi]

After reading that AVG 7.5 Users Must Upgrade To 8.0 By May 31, 2008, I spent a few hours this afternoon upgrading to v8.01. The new version replaces the old version of AVG Free AntiVirus as well as AVG Anti-Spyware and AVG Anti-Rootkit.

The good news is that the new version is chocked full of new features. The bad news is that the new version ate my 4-year old P4 1G computer alive! Anytime I wanted to even look at an executable, the CPU would skyrocket to 100%. Compiling an AutoHotkey script usually failed on the first try because the virus scanner wasn't done working on the executable when the compile routine was ready to update it.

It took me about 40 minutes to figure out that the new version of AVG Free AntiVirus was unacceptable. I just wanted a small and unobtrusive antivirus program but the new version appears to try to do too much. Can you say "Bloaty bloppity bloatware?"

I recently read a good review on Avira AntiVir Personal Edition so I uninstalled AVG Free AntiVirus v8.01 and downloaded and installed the latest version of Avira AntiVir Personal Edition. Although I've only been using for a few hours, I'm fairly sure that I've found my new anti-virus software. It's going to be a few days of tinkering and testing to be sure but the performance of my machine has skyrocketed back to a "just like new" level. If Avira AntiVir Personal Edition doesn't work out, I'll give Avast! a try.

Them be my experiences. Your thoughts and comments are welcome!

[PhiLho]

I understood that the new version displays ads now, or something like that.
I switched from AVG to avast! 4 family edition, and I am happy with that.
I also replaced the Norton AV coming with the computer of my wife with avast, despite her worrying about using a free software instead of payware (we bought one year sub of Norton).
Same for the Vista powered laptop we bought for her business.
The only very minor drawback is that it wants us to do a license request once a year (or every few months, I don't recall exactly), which is free and quite fast, so not a problem.
Good interface, not in the way, quite lightweight, a pleasure.

[Icarus]

Them be my experiences. Your thoughts and comments are welcome!

Hey thanks for sharing.

I am constantly in the search for a non-bloatware antivirus which is reliable enough, and considered AVG.
After seeing the download size, I passed.

I (Like PhiLho's wife) am not crazy about the idea of free antivirus software, because someone needs to pay for all the employees that are updating the virus signatures, and all the servers and bandwidth that provide the updates. So, if it is free it implies that there are not enough employees, and not enough servers (if any).

Norton / McAfee have been dead for me for years, because of their "lets see how stupid our users are" policy and bloatness. I think they invented bloatware.

The other paid one I have tried, Kaspersky caused me to have to unghost my computer. It was terrible.

So far, I am quite happy (although not there yet) with BitDefender. It is relatively stable, safe and usually light (usually = some versions they had in the past were CPU-chewing).
Using it for over three years now.

But I must say this to you - the real test is not if your system performs well, but if it stays clean. Especially if you have a fast finger on the download-stuff-i-dont-know button.

[corrupt]

In case anyone is interested... I've been using PC Tools AntiVirus (free version) as an alternative for a while now without any issues...

[Oberon]

I (Like PhiLho's wife) am not crazy about the idea of free antivirus software, because someone needs to pay for all the employees that are updating the virus signatures, and all the servers and bandwidth that provide the updates. So, if it is free it implies that there are not enough employees, and not enough servers (if any).

AVG is owned by Intel which is a very large company. Contrary to what Philhos wife believes free does not mean substandard quality, the open source world proves that. In fact I would be weary of commercial vendors like McAfee and Symantec as they willingly accept and whitelist trojans created by the FBI, sorry but I don't want to pay the government to spy on me.

[neXt]

@Guest, FYI free products make money of enterprise editions and free versions for regular users is just a very clever way of marketing their product. But hey, if you wish to pay for something that can be obtained for free, go for it.
I already fell for this "paid AV is better" once, after all those great reviews and advises from IT specialists on Trend Microsystems i bought it, and guess what? All those employees with their servers failed big time in protecting my PC.
Ok, so i found NOD32 to be a good paid AV, but then just felt like this is ridiculous to always crack their program and look for free update servers when there are free antiviruses. Long story short, i installed Avast and i'm very happy that i did, because it already proved to me that it can detect and protect my PC from viruses.

[corrupt]

AVG 8.0 merged three huge database engines into one: their former Anti-Spyware + their former Anti-Virus + their former Anti-Rootkit.

Unfortunately, that's the problem, by the sound of it. Some of us had and still have absolutely no interest in the other 2 engines . To be honest, I haven't tried the latest version of AVG yet (I will... soon... the current version keeps nagging me enough that I likely won't forget anytime soon... ) but the main reason I was using AVG in the first place is because an entire machine doesn't suddenly slow to a crawl once the anti-virus engine is installed and active. If there is a noticable speed decrease on a machine after upgrading to the latest version then it will definitely get deleted and replaced with something else. I don't currently care enough about real-time anti-spyware and anti-rootkit detection to sacrifice performance...

[jballi]

If you still haven't decided which antivirus program to go with, Lifehacker just posted a new article on the Five Best Antivirus Applications. It includes a poll so you can vote on your favorite. If you have time, read the Comments at the bottom.

[corrupt]

...I've been using PC Tools AntiVirus (free version)...

...that should be...PC Tools AntiVirus Free Edition

I guess so... Once installed the application doesn't seem to mention "Free Edition" except for the License section. The license code says "Free Edition". It seems to be the same application with a few less features enabled...

[Red Hat Boy]

For two years I ran McAfee...I'm much happier with the free ones. They do a better job. Besides, running McAfee on a non-internet pc is a real pain. It not only asks for an update...it demands it. Piece of crap I will never install again.
Since I frequently reinstall XP (due to issues with it messing up my bootloader or the registry just being too bogged down...currently I get a blue screen of death 1/10th of the time when I turn on my pc) I've ended up trying all three top freeware antivirus progs. AVG (pre-8.0) was not so great. I've used avast before, and it's okay, but last time it nagged me for about two months to register with them or something, which I had previously done. (Also, you must register again after about a year?). Fortunately, near the end of the two-month period, I was due for a reinstall.
Avira Antivir is the flavor of the day, and I think it's my favorite.
All three of them have now "fixed" the issue with me being able to kill their processes from the task manager, meaning I can no longer free up memory and precious resources when playing Vampire: TMB. How sad.
I also tried scanning with Clamwin (Portable) on my dad's pc, which was infected. It didn't help much. I tried installing Avira, for that matter, (along with Spybot S&D) and the problem still didn't go away completely. One of them did point me to the malicious file, though, and I had to boot it into safe mode to erase the little bastard.
Whew. Well, there's my puny two cents.