Used to be Avast Free, but then they became too aggressive with their advertising so I switched to Panda Free.
Avira's been getting good press lately though so I wonder whether I should switch.
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If you thought avast's self-advertising was aggressive, then don't try avira.
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Thanks for the heads-up. I guess Panda is here to stay then :)
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I'd rather recommend AVG. At least it does block some malicious attempts on the computer from time to time.
Unless Panda managed to do a miracle and raise itself from the second worst spot of free antiviruses after MSE in the past few months.
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Ah, there's the thing. Different tech sites, different reviews, and different from month to month.
When I switched a few months ago, Panda was actually nicely reviewed... Which review sites do you consider trustworthy?
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http://www.av-comparatives.org
And wow… you are right… Panda did pull a miracle it seems. And AVG dropped a lot.
Avira sadly is a little misleading, since their paid version is leagues better than the free one, but the free one used to be the best of that category for a good long time.
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I use panda free the last two years, and I had no problem with it, Is the best antivirus I have used in the last decade
AVG always let viruses through, same with norton, avast and avira and they always gave me hell to delete them.
Also the advertising on those annoying as hell. For the paid versions I have no idea though they might be actually good.
Of cause different hardware different result on quality of software :)
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I will never use AVG again since it crashed my laptop a few years back. Had all my pictures on there and didn't have the money for a fancy backup so lost everything except what was on my camera. Basically an AVG update went out, windows restarted and could not recover. Even trying to go to a restore point didn't work... Had to fresh install :(
I realize it's a risk of running with an auto update service but I had Paid AVG for 3 years (actually 2 and got a year free) for the full Internet security works so I feel like they should've tested the update before it went live. AVG turned out to be the virus :(
Needless to say I'm backed up now, scared to run a SSD and instead have like 4 2TB HDDs 2 backups 2 in use.
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It does not necessarily have to be AVG at fault. Maybe the problem was with some other application having a compatibility issue with the AVG update. These things do happen. And even if you don't have a backup, it is still a good idea to put all your data on a drive other than C. That way, if you cant boot and need to reinstall windows, your other drives stay untouched and data intact.
To put it in perspective, a windows update recently made me reinstall windows. Then after a few hours it happened again. Turns out the fault was an outdated application on my PC that would continuously crash with the latest windows update. Updating the application fixed the issue. In any case, I would certainly not call AVG a virus in this instance.
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Anyone who's been paying attention to security software for even the last few years knows that AVG once used to be a great AVS software for the sheep to use but turned into complete garbage in 2013 when AVG partnered with Facebook to do AVG Crowd Control. Ever since then AVG doesn't hold water compared to any now-popular AVS like Avira/Avast/Kaspersky.
Not to mention, does anyone really need to mention the debacle with them tracking and saving the information of everyone that uses the program? Or the Safe Search Toolbar that cannot be uninstalled once it gets installed? There are many other AVS that consider AVG itself to be a virus.
P.S. Did you know even if you pay for a license for AVG it still gives you pop ups to buy paid versions of their other products -- and you can't disable them no matter what? I'd advise anyone/everyone to never use AVG unless you like wasting time.
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http://www.computerweekly.com/news/1280094520/AVG-update-crashes-64-bit-Windows-7-systems
There are a ton of articles on this, look it up if you don't believe that one.
It was for sure 100% AVG... I am not the average computer user and did my research after I got my PC up and running again, problem is I had no other PC at the time so I couldn't find the "Fix" for the infinite loop crash. Safe mode didn't work, restore points didn't work, there was seemingly no way to get it to stop crashing at the time. So like I said my only option was a fresh install and then find out what the heck happened, turned out it was my antivirus.
Mind you, it could've happened from any antivirus company at any time. I will no longer pay for an antivirus for one, two I went out and bought a little hard drive enclosure and an internal hdd and backed up everything, which I still have but is now obsolete.
Again, at the time there was no alternative it was a laptop all you get is a simple 2.5" HDD I think mine was like 500GB at the time, now I'm running a RAID 10 config and am satisfied. Finances and what not.
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Trick: Permanently enable silent/gaming mode in the options and you won't see any popups : )
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I did that, but it stubbornly does that long lower-right-side pop-up, even when I was in actual game (and kicked me to my desktop).
Sooo fuck those guys.
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Yeah? Hmm, never had any such popus myself...ever...but yeah I can definitely see that as being annoying for sure.
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I've been using Avira for a few months now and in all that time I've seen 2 maybe 3 popups and never while in a game. I wouldn't call that aggressive advertising but then this is the first time I've really been using a free AV in 15 years or so so I've no real point of reference.
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I have Avast Free on my old WinXP machine which is only used for my niece to play games on when she comes over, and I haven't had any advertising from it.
I used to use Avira Free years ago when I was running windows XP. It was light on resources and quick to scan, but damn was it annoying with the popups. You got one every time you started your system and every time it updated itself. There were hacks to disable them by renaming or deleting an .exe file or blocking certain parts of it in your firewall, but every major update would fix them this and you'd have to do it again.
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I used Avast since I first bought my laptop 5 years ago, and it had no pop-ups whatsoever.
That is, until earlier this year, when they suddenly start offering you to "increase your protection" using a popup that you have to click to remove, and would kick you out of games even on silent mode.
Went to the Avast forums, and practically every response to an inquiry on this is a rabid fan saying "WELL IT'S FREE!"
So yeah, that's why I said kthxbai.
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I get advertisements from Avast quite often, but it isn't that annoying as it never happens in-game. Also, after a few seconds disappears, so I don't mind it that much. Were it to occur in game, I would really consider changing it.
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Yup, was on Avast for years, then switched to Avira its good.
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Yep, been great at sitting at the lowest possible score on all available charts for years now. :D
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Well, it has never presented any problem for me. I don't download crap to my PC. So it works for me.
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It shouldn't present any problems since it essentially does nothing. Plus it is integrated into Windows, so the smoothness is the best among the unpaid ones, that cannot be denied ever.
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I guess that's true. It's very convenient that it comes installed TBH.
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Well, if you are not installing suspicious programs and don't really surf the shady part of the net, you probably don't need anything stronger. Of course it runs a risk of getting drawn into a zombie network or get some small, not too harmful thing on your PC, but generally it's not too easy to get some really nasty stuff on a computer with average daily use that doesn't involve even some P2P client running on the PC.
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There is truth in that. I also formed my own preference list based on virtustotal reports on files I came across. And,in regards of performance hits, experience on several computers over the years.
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Well, I only check Wikipedia's Comparison - how about that?
Eset Smart Security here by the way :P
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Now, if you’re a geek like we are, MSE and Windows Defender are very usable. If you have good security practices and know what you’re doing, you can manage just fine with this lightweight option. But average Windows users don’t always follow proper security practices and should use a strong antivirus that does well in tests — as Microsoft themselves now recommend.
I'll stick with MSE for now, generally speaking I don't really need an AV.
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Yes, but it is crap. I had to clean a machine twice at work because it wasn't able to prevent infection by through a user with not such a big pc knowledge ...
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360 total security <= sucks
Panda <= Once has suicide
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ESET Smart Security 5. I get free monthly subscriptions with my favourite gaming magazine, so that's cool.
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He is from Hungary, so it is probably PC Guru or GameStar. Not really relevant of you do not speak Hungarian.
Edit: what the hell did my browser do for 7 minutes :o
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+1 I use ESET SS8 though. I get free monthly subscriptions from a friends place of work.
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None. I never used one and I don't see the need for it.
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Avira, as it has been among the top AVs in the last few years for both virus recognition and performance.
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Was using ESET but i found that BitDefender was equally good and had a better price so i changed to it after 4 years using ESET.
ESET lately was having defensive gaps which resulted to my PC's infection by an adware.
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I've always used Norton and I can't say that I've been unhappy with it. I haven't experienced any issues with viruses infecting my PC. My only complaint is due to their pricing in that instead of renewing my subscription, it's usually cheaper to buy a new version. So my order history is like pages of new products. I like that they provide a 5 user license as I can install it on my entire family's computers.
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Same here, but at the next renewal I'm planning to switch to BitDefender. About 5 Euros more for a year, but it's been fighting with Kaspersky for the #1 spot for years now without decline.
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We use McAfee at work and have had problems with it interfering with files (file in use errors). They also scheduled scans to run at 11am which at times makes the computer unusable... might as well go to lunch. Some brain dead person chose that time.
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McAffee is a scam, more or less. They spend almost all of their budget on marketing and lobbying at enterprises, but their product couldn't catch a simple macro virus even if you name it "WipesAllYourDataVirus.exe".
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Used McAfee already more then 10 years and never loose system under this antivirus.
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You can run without any security software without losing a system any time. Viruses that destroy your system files only exist in movies now; that thing stopped in real life like two decades ago. Viruses now mostly either hijack (kinda obvious when it happens), steal data, or run a botnet from your PC in the background. Or display annoying ads, but for that you have to open very suspicius executables yourself, and the average user is not too dumb for that, luckily. (At least hopefully.)
And on top, McAffee is known to slow down systems significantly. ESET is also a close competitor in ridiculous system usage for no reason, but McAffee has been the unofficial king of that since like '96, only briefly losing that to Norton around 1999-2005.
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Yea, "Virus" is a catch all word used by the public. But what is actually a computer "virus" is almost non-existant. You rarely hear about "Worms" anymore either. Most issues are just "malware".
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Used to use McAfee a over 6 years, what a pile of garbage that was. Switched to Kaspersky but it's using too many resources so I'm deciding on what to used next
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For my phone i use 360 Security, dunno about the pc version, but the android version works pretty good, also using an old Droid 4 tho, so the app is a bit much for it (frequently wants to boost memory)
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I use Windows Defender. I haven't been using anything else since it released. Very solid AV IMHO.
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+1
Haven't had a single trojan/virus problem for 2 years with it.
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If you are either a moron, or wander the seedier parts of the internet looking for ill gotten booty.
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Windows Defender and Malwarebytes Anti-Malware is all you need. :)
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for sec.:
avira free
+
spybot search & destroy
ghostery (ff)
noscript (ff)
peerblock (mostly useless)
sandboxie
virtual box
been using avira since always, rightly adjusted i barely
even notice it, would use AVG if Avira would get annoying
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Get rid of SpyBot (I'm surprised people are still using it) and just get a free Anti-Malware instead. Not only finds more spybots, but can clear out other things too, and faster. The free version is completely ad-free even today I think, the only limitation is that it doesn't offer live protection (but neither does SpyBot).
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Microsoft Security Essentials and Malwarebytes Anti-Malware
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NoScript.
I know: it's not an antivirus porgramm. But if your concerned about security (and privacy) it's worth a try.
Run it additionally to an antivirus software. Wouldn't hurt to read about it at least.
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Kaspersky (KIS) is the best.
I used ESET before for a long time but I can't trust an anti-virus that gets uninstalled by a virus, it's completely removed it, quite funny.
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Same here.
I had a disastrous experience with NOD32 (the one AV I trusted back then), and migrated to KIS. I'm supper happy. =D
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NOD32 used to be good, but then ESET switched to cheap marketing (giving away monthly codes with gaming magazines) and used the large user base as a basis to lure in some good customers. They are pretty much like McAffee now, only their reports and blogs are funnier, because they tend to alert people on "new" threats other labs published papers on months ago.
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Yup! I don't use any but I kill viruses with Malwarebytes Anti-Malware!
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DUO. :B Hehe, I use ESET. It's very good. Another awesome antivirus is Emsisoft.
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