Free versions of Avira, Avast and AVG are very similar in protection, Microsoft uses to be a little bit behind, but not much.

The lightest of the four are Avira and Avast, so if Avast works for you there is no reason to change. I use to put my daws in the exclusion list at the antivirus' real time protection settings. Also auxhost.exe (jBridge).

All the main free antiviruses are tested daily here:

http://www.westcoastlabs.com/realTimeTesting/article/?articl eID=1#item1

Today Microsoft and Avast win, but it changes every day. It's fun.

Well...moderately fun.

Yeah I'm not saying its not better, but 'better' isn't why the competition was pissed. The average person out there will just stick with what they have because it is too much of a hassle to switch. This is why Norton gets bought by so many, because it comes bundled and is just the easiest thing to do for grandpa.

I can't remember how many protection apps I've been through but have dumped them for reasons ranging from weak to completely hosed my system. I've been running MSE for about a year now and I'm really happy with it.

Avira is about the best, with Avast a close second. *

Nod32 is great too, but you only get 30 days free - worth it if nothing else just to see what you are missing out on. It nags like a granny. Sometimes that is what you want.

Don't forget your anti-malware next to your anti-virus. You are more likele to have a ruined system by trojan/ransomware than a classical virus.

See:
http://www.emsisoft.com/en/ - very highly regarded in the security field.

You want to be doing something more than getting a false sense of security by installing AV though. HIPS is where it is at - Comodo Firewall being the best and the most free, but not the most easy to use. Though fairly simple for some folks...

You are not likely to get a HIPS for free bundled with AV, though some exist.


What I would recommend personally for you?
Avira free anti-virus - configured for real time and start up.
MalwareBytes On demand scanner once every few days, or every week.
Emsisoft on demand, same time scale.
Hitman Pro - cloud scanner utilising a few different AV engines. Checks for lots of other nasties too. It's free, it's quick.

Please consider the ESET Nod32 for free for 30 days though - it picks up all kinds of stuff. Avira is more compatible with these programs than AVAST - but AVAST is excellent too.

If you want a warm fuzzy feeling about being safe at night, then consider USER ACCOUNT CONTROL. Implemented slightly differently between XP and Win7, but still easy to do none the less.

Also consider EMET - Enhanced Mitigation Experience Toolkit - from Microsoft themselves - easy to set up. This is what people talk about when they say "I don't need an anti-virus- they are useless against zero-day exploits - I use system hardening". Emet is part of that.


I also run PREVX Free - it is fast - super compatible and will tell you if anything nasty occurs - you will have to pay if you want anything cleaned though. It costs nothing in price and system resources so I run it.

Hitman Pro you can use and when you get a nasty - it will activate and then clean and then you get thirty days free - then you have to pay.

Well worth the money.


Too much information. I know.
The answer to your question was AVIRA - real time.
Malwarebytes, Emsisoft and Hitman Pro on demand.

Don't run as Admin EVER.
And mitigate against zero-day with EMET.


EDIT:
I would just add - Have a system recovery disk to boot from if things go wonky.
AVG do an excellent one. If you get a virus/malware that does not allow you to boot even into safe mode - this little puppy will get you up and running to check for and eliminate nasties.

Get a Linux based distro for recovery of valuable files - your system may not boot, but so what, if you can get your valuable .wavs off there...

Kaspersky is good. Bit Defender too.


http://www.squidoo.com/the-best-free-antivirus-rescue-cds

if you want to learn more...

* When I say the best, I mean the lightest on resources, with the best detection rate, with the greatest compatibility.

I don't actually run Avira anymore on my machines because this balance has been upset. But for other people when I do a system for them, it usually works fine. Then again I don't run ANY anti-virus on my main system, because it is hardened to ****. But I am just boasting now. Greater men than me have been bitten on the arse. Then again Anti-Virus would not have helped them either.
Last edited by codec_spurt on Mon May 14, 2012 2:27 pm; edited 1 time in total

Happy with Avast Free on one PC, happy with MSE on another.

Not an anti-virus, but I just want to publish this: Whatever you do, DON'T install something called Advanced System Care from IObit. In my experience, it does nothing useful, hogs resources and potentially messes things up.

Haha after that last big post I think I'm gonna ditch my computer and go buy a banjo

Probably best

The answer to your question was Avira.
Everything else was fluff.
Useful fluff.
But there you go.


Seriously, you don't say if you are surfing the web with this computer.
Or if it is totally stand-alone.

And if you do surf the web, do you surf porn?
I'm serious.

Then again surfing body-building sites can get you as mashed up.

You gave next to no information about your circumstances, so I filled in the
eventualities.

Maybe someone else would find it useful, I don't know.

If you have any more questions?



Last edited by codec_spurt on Mon May 14, 2012 2:36 pm; edited 1 time in total

happy MSE user as well here.......I use to use Kaspersky and a few others before, but been using MSE for about two years now and never had a problem with it.
rsp

I run MSE and MalwareBytes on my Win7 machine. Since running MSE, Malwarebytes has not found any malware on my machine, but I still run it, just to be sure.

On my old WinXP machine I ran CA MySecurityCenter and for the last 6 months of its life, my old machine suffered 12 or 13 malware attacks. MalwareBytes was my saviour.

Just a question about MSE. Isn't its full system scan rather slow? I think I remember reading something about this.

I would never advise against someone using some softwares. I am not an expert for a start, just an enthusiast, so my opinion should not be taken seriously.

Certain softwares do quite badly on some tests. That doesn't mean that you don't otherwise have good hygiene habits and are safe. You could also be riddled to **** because your oh so wonderful av does not pick that up.

I have no vested interest. I really don't care. I go mix it with the big boys when it comes to security and I am a minnow. I've seen people fly by the seat of their pants - no av - surfing porn - click happy etc... and like Robert Duval in Apocalypse Now, they just never get burnt. I have seen others - system hardened, security techniques too layered and too advanced to go into here, turn up at Wilderssecurity.com and say: eh, eh, I just go burned. They are usually ok coz they have imaged their disks. Still got burnt though. No one is immune.

So what about defrag utilities? Any suggestions there?

I would never advise someone to not use certain software, because... I don't care!

When I see certain people using certain software, I realise they have not taken the five or six months out of their life to research the best methods and the best software to implement those methods to protect their machine and their work.


AVG rescue cd is about as slow as it gets. Painful. But thorough, will pick up things everything else misses. Superb. It's desktop version is an incompatible pain in the bum hole that keeps third-rate computer repair technicians in work.

It is not about how slow, but how thorough and effective it is.
To give a hint - some things can be slow and innefective at the same time.

Windows' own. Don't touch any other, they use to be too risky.

Avira, Norton, Avast, Eset and some others are relatively fast and also are at the top in detection tests. If you want something painfully slow try Vipre...