Avast Avira or Avg??

fiddiwebb

Avira for me, it's the least resource hungry of the three.

I tried Avast the other week installing it on my sons new laptop but found is was not as "simple" to use as Avira so uninstalled it.

I hate AVs that take over your computer and are in your face all the time, that's why I've stuck with Avira for the past few years, it's simple, it's fast and it runs in the background without bothering you untill it is needed.

Avira is not 100% perfect, it does throw up a nag screen when updating (this can be removed) and it has had some issues in the past with major updates when servers have become busy but it is reliable and does what it says for a free version.

Combine it with Malwarebytes and it is a perfect setup.

patman99

In response to #11.

PCPro did a test of the 10 most popular AV progs., they built a web server then infected it with every known virus (over 78,000 at the time). They then installed fresh copies of Win HP on 10 client PC's, and on each they installed a different AV prog.
The whole thing was left to run for 48 hours, then each of the AV programs was run. The results put Kaspersky 1st with 98%, and Avast 2nd on 97%. AVG (paid-for) only detected 72%.

As for the market leaders, Norton & McAfee only picked-up 66%, and Microsofts' livecare a poultry 52%.

What you need to remember though, is that AV program development is continuos (as is virus creation), so what tops the charts today, may be the worst tomorrow.

From memory, Avast is the only program to do hourly updates, all the rest do dailies.

Another thing to remember is that not all AV programs pick-up the same viruses, but it is not wise to run 2 AV programs on the same PC at the same time as you will have no end of problems.

If you are running a network, then you can direct all you traffic through a dedicated hardware firewall running it's own AV program. This gets over the 'one per PC' issue.

fiddiwebb

PCPro did a test of the 10 most popular AV progs

Are we talking about paid for or free versions?

patman99

The link in post 12 is to a document that is 6 months out of date.
As for Norton hitting 98%, I don't think so, if it did, then how come I keep getting asked to fix slow-running PCs that all have Norton AV on them, and in every case, are full of trojans and malware.

I always boot their PCs from UBCD$Windows, and scan with the built-in Avira AV. The most viruses detected on an up-to-date Norton-protected PC?, 1,567 (including 3 key loggers and a rogue dialler (not mutch use on a bb connection)).

As I said earlier on, developement of AV programs is constantly on-going, so what doesn't work one day, will probably work perfectly well the next.

patman99

Unlike av-comparatives, PCPro DID include one free AV program, it was 'Avast'.

fiddiwebb

And the debate rages on...........

The OP was specific about his/her question Avast Avira or Avg??

and I assume the OP is refering to the "free versions"?

spud17

My twopenworth.
AVG has become bloated and has lower detections.

If the person is someone who doesn't click on everything, and is what could be termed a safe surfer and is security aware, then I recommend Avira

Anyone else, especially if there are kids around, I recommend Avast.

[Deleted User]

fiddiwebb wrote: »

The OP was specific about his/her question Avast Avira or Avg??

My original post was specific to these 3 products...

Gers

KingL wrote: »

I'm using avira now which seems fine. There is one nag screen each time it does a virus definitions update. Apparently you can disable that with http://www.elitekiller.com/files/disable_antivir_nag.htm

Done all that -many thanks! :j

Now I can rate it more highly.

Taffybiker

In my opinion, Avast is the best and I use it on my desktop. As mentioned above it does have a boot scan option which is lacking in Avira. There are also no nag screens and it provides more regular updates. Having to re-register each year in return for the product I can happily live with.
On my laptop I use Avira. It just sits there quietly and only wakes up when it wants to be fed updates or discovers something it wants to tell me about. The laptop runs faster with Avira than with Avast.
I also have a very old laptop running Win ME. This long bearded old timer has a single function in life and does not require any OS update. Avira would not install on it, stating the OS was too old. Avast is not so ageist and loaded straight in.

As for AVG, I used to use it in the past but would not go back. IIRC, it was just being a pain for most of the time. It may be better now, I don't know.