advice or recommendations on anti-virus applications

[the-edmeister]

Avira Free went to hell as of April 1st. Damn thing now sucks up a total 639,000K @ 100% CPU when it is running its updates every two hours (default setting) which takes almost 5 minutes to complete, although it looks like that time setting can be changed in prefs. That amount of RAM consumption is indecent on a 32-bit operating system - like what - 20% of total available?

Anyone have a recommendation on a different Free AV application - one that doesn't carry any of those silly Firefox extensions that need to be updated every time Firefox is updated?


Ed

[LoudNoise]

No suggestions for free ones. We use a number of different AVs on the installation test machines at work and I have yet to discover a free version of any AV that doesn't cause problems. Both AVG and Avast take exception to stuff they don't know about by simply throwing up trojan.generic.32 or some sort of nonsense. KIS is the one I like from a paid subscription point of view.

That said, almost all of the free av s are going to thrust things on you if you are not careful. If your business plan includes stuff that most folks are not going to pay for then you either have to be altruisticly rich or have to get your money somewhere else.

I would search PC Mag for some reviews.

[the-edmeister]

Doesn't KIS have a bunch of Firefox add-ons, some of which never seem to get updated version after version?
Or can those extensions be disabled or removed?

From past experience, most reviews concentrate (rightly so) on how well the program recognizes and blocks viruses and really doesn't mention the aggravating add-ons at all.


Ed

[LoudNoise]

They can be avoided at installation assuming that you are paying attention. All of them can be uncheck when the very clear "do you want to install" screen is reached. "Safe Money" is the only one that is both tripe and likely to cause problems.

[the-edmeister]

Thank you.

[psaulm119]

I've had Microsoft Security Essentials running for a few years now (also with MWB pro) without problems. Its been as trouble free as any free av program has ever been for me--and no annoying nags or popups after an update.

No FF addons required (or that I've ever seen for MSSE).

[LIMPET235]

ed,
If you found that Avira was getting too big for it's britches....stay away from the latest Avast.
It's now doing, "app out-of-date" checks..plus a heap of other "un-needed stuff", unless you uncheck the box's at install.

Perhaps, take a gander at Comodo AV?
> http://www.techsupportalert.com/best-fr ... _Antivirus

No need to mention...Watch those installation screens.

[the-edmeister]

psaulm119,
MSE is not an option for WinXP. I am currently in the process of building a new PC and have considered using a Win7 OEM Builders licensed version, but the prices are too high for my tastes. So for the Windows partition I'll probably install TinyXP which I have been using since 2008 on 2 different desktop boxes here.

LIMPET,
Yeah, I don't need the Avast! "app out of date" check. I am still using Firefox 2 a few evenings a week for a few hours, and currently I have everything between that and Firefox 40 installed.
Overall, I have had no issues with Avira Free until this month. The problem started on April 1 with an update of the new version 15 which was upgraded from v. 14 in early March. Right now I am thinking that I should have down a fresh installation of 15 - but that wouldn't have avoided the problem I am now having with the all too frequent updates or the "CPU load" during toe update procedure.
So now Avira Free updates every two hours, even though I changed the update interval to 4, 8, or 12 hours in both LUA's trying to get it to the point where the updates happened when I was AFK (this PC runs 24/7). But it does what it does regardless of the user setting I selected - I wonder if I should have restarted Windows after tweaking the frequency pref?. And before that April 1 update I couldn't even tell when an update was occurring, it used so little resources for the updates - but now it uses 100% CPU for 5 to 6 minutes every 2 hours. Overall, that 100% CPU thing for 5 or 6 minutes just has to be a Bug - but since Avira shut down their user support fora last year there's no way to "share" or commiserate with other Avira Free users or get advice.

Comodo looks to be more acceptable - Kasperski seems to have too many issues with their Firefox add-ons going for months without getting updates, but if the option to not install those add-ons is available with a Custom installation I might consider a paid application - (although I just had a stabbing pain in my left buttock [wallet side] as I wrote that)

Ed

[LIMPET235]

Ed,
"...So now Avira Free updates every two hours, even though I changed the update interval to 4, 8, or 12 hours in both LUA's trying to get it to the point where the updates happened when I was AFK (this PC runs 24/7). But it does what it does regardless of the user setting I selected...
"

You were lucky.
Avast now does "Streaming Updates" & it cannot be turned off or modified in the free version.
It also does the same thing with it's damn pop-up adverts.
Take up about 1/6 th of my 19 " wide screen & no way to shorten the display time.
Stuck there forever, until you close them.
Proper PITA.
There's a long thread on their forum, trying to get the ad pop-ups time on screen reduced or removed.

Stay safe.

ps. I've used Comodo's free firewall for a few years & it just does what a good firewall should, with no probs.
So...their AV should be good as well.

[makaiguy]

Ed - I've been using free version of AVG for years. Gave some problems when they first added a couple of those new bells and whistles a few years ago, but I disabled them then and have had no problems since, despite quite a few updates.

You can select not to install them when installing AVG, or disable them after the installation. The services are "Safe Search" (if installed, disable via FFox Add-ons | Extensions), and "Link Scanner" (if installed, disable via AVG control panel)

[the-edmeister]

I have decided to give Comodo Anri-Virus Free a trial.

Thanks for all the responses.



.

[jimfitter]

Ed, I've been using Bitdefender Antivirus Free Edition, for about two years now. It has a small footprint, rarely throws any pop-ups, and gets great reviews.
It's pretty much on auto right after your install. Nothing to configure. Just toggles to turn on/off auto-scan and the virus shield. I hardly know it's there.

[the-edmeister]

I installed Comodo Anti-virus free on one WinXP box that I use everyday, and so far it's working fine. On the other WinXP box an older Dell (that my mother uses), I installed AVG Free to replace Avira 15 Free. Really can't comment about AVG other than the custom installation (the same with Comodo) was smooth and I avoided installing what I consider "unwanted extras" - toolbars / extensions - with both programs. I was able to shut off a few "nags" that I saw with AVG Free in the first hour or so after installation.

Comodo seems locked to once a day updates (and doesn't have those "nags" or anything "crawling" out of the System Tray), which for now is alright by me given what I went through with Avira 15 Free for the last couple of weeks. Overall, the Comodo updates are barely noticeable as far as not hogging the CPU and the timing seems to be tied to the time I installed it, which coincides with a time I am not usually using this PC. It does seem to use more RAM at times than the older Avira 14 did, but a hell of a lot less than Avira 15 was using (that was big change from Avira 14). I'm gonna stick with Comodo to evaluate it more on this box until I get the new PC I am building completed in the next week or so. With the new one i won't have to worry about having only 2 GB of RAM or CPU load on a 2.1 GHz single core CPU (7 years old) with onboard video. I am putting in 4 GB of RAM to begin with (DDR3 1866 dual-channel)), with a separate video card with 1GB on it, and have a 3.7 GHz 4 core CPU.

[Omega X]

I switched from Avast to Comodo after they falsely accused the software forum they believed to be compromised when it was their admin who was at fault. Before then, it was steadily getting worse with performance issues and bad updates.

Comodo does have the occasional popup. So be aware of that. Also it WILL nag about software its never seen before. SO updating 3rd party software can be an occasional annoyance. Also, its scans are a bit more intensive but other than those things, I haven't had a complaint.