Favorite Anti-Virus

[Match]

I think AVG Anti-Virus Free isn't too bad...would anyone agree?

 

not many with any knowledge on the subject, AVG Free is great for telling you that you have an infection and that you will need the payed AVG to remove it.

 

Personally I would go with one suggested by Tootech as they prevent infection, and remove them without having to upgrade, and they are hardly noticable on your PC's resources while they are working

[muppet rebecca]

One of my really thinking moments here but imagine how long that poll would be if you could include every different version of anti-virus on it....Pages and pages full.....A couple of months down the line and I'm still sticking with Eset for paid and antivir for a freebie...

[Starbuck]

Running 4 systems.... 2 with Avast and 2 with Avira.

Not really much to chose between them, neither has let me down.

Avast is free version... Avira is Premium Suite.

But when Avira runs out, i might try MSSE.

[Plastic Nev]

This is all rather interesting, the poll has been up now for some time, just short of two years in fact.

I see most written opinion in the thread itself is against AVG, yet that is the poll leader at the moment, which I find rather strange! We, as some sort of expert in one field or another, who have made comment, are in general against AVG, myself included, so why are folk voting for it?

My own preference is for Avast, or Avira's Antivir, both in their free versions, though at the moment running Avast, should anything go wrong with it, Antivir would be the next on my system.

 

I also think this poll should perhaps be split between paid for against free, with both types being in the original poll, we don't really get a good idea of what folk think of the free versions in comparison with the paid for versions.

Nev.

[maynardvdm]

That is strange ;)

 

I hear Microsoft Security Essentials is very good, and can even be compared with NOD32 and Kaspersky, the only "big" difference is, it is Free ;)

[RandyL]

I think AVG had an early lead back in the old days. Better marketing. I'm seeing a lot more Avast and Antivir installed these days so AVG may be losing ground in the FREE race.

 

Maynard if you would kindly install Microsoft Security Essentials I'd appreciate it. I've heard it might be good too.

 

After you install it I'll send you some links and files so you can test it. :p

[Match]

I think AVG had an early lead back in the old days. Better marketing. I'm seeing a lot more Avast and Antivir installed these days so AVG may be losing ground in the FREE race.

 

Up until AVG 9 AVG was good and I think it was one of the first to use a free version for marketing, however since then they seem to have changed their strategy slightly with AVG 9

 

Apparently if you used or upgrade to the paid version it will remove a lot of the infections that the free version will only detect and not remove, I think that this is a marketing ploy to get people to upgrade.

 

However I think that this is backfiring in there faces as their are other AV applications that in there free form provide better protection and removal.

 

I personally would be marketing an AV as free to home personal users, and making it as good as possible so when the MD or CEO of a company uses the product at home he is so impressed he returns to work and asks why the companies systems aren't protected by it.

 

as IMO most of the more serious viruses are caused by corporate, government and terrorist espionage, I think its only fair that the home personal user should have protection against the petty criminals that are interested in identity theft and credit fraud for free.

 

and IMO AVG 9 shouldn't display a message saying your system has been infected try upgrading to remove the infection, it should say Sorry we deliberately allowed your system to get infected so as to extort money out of you.

[Plastic Nev]

Long before joining here I was and still am a frequenter of a few general purpose forums, the sort where folk can natter about whatever they like. In most cases they have a sub section for computer problems, with also some decent techy types helping out. AVG, even in the days when the free version would remove junk, there were multiple problems with it, with many forum members asking how to resolve whatever the problem was they were suffering.

I have taken notice of all that over a period of several years, so AVG being a poor program is not new.

[muppet rebecca]

I was read somewhere in a review for AVG on CNET...can't remember exactly where...anyways someone said they ended up re-formating their whole entire os to get rid of it off the computer because it wouldn't uninstall....

Now though there are quite a few new anti-virus programs that are popping up...I still think some of the old ones are the best though

[Armageddon]

I have 5 computers and use Mcrosoft security essentials on them all , I have used Norton and I hated it I used AVG it wasn't too bad till 9 reared it's ugly head

[Match]

got to say I'm hearing a lot of good things about MSE, but I have Avast and that's working great for me, but I think if I have any Issue's MSE will have to be tried Edited March 4, 2010 by Match