Is "Avast free" .... free ?

SPnomore

After suffering with AVG for too many years, especially with all this horrible ZEN nonsense, I decided to look around. Been using Avira for a few weeks but that suddenly started playing up, even after a full reinstall. I'm now using Avast which seems to be playing nice but already I am getting warning about 30 days coming to an end and I "MUST register" for a 12 month license. What exactly do they want from me after 30 days and what happens after a year. Don't want to waste my time seeing if their "free" product works for me, if it is not actually "free".

P.S. My AV needs are minimal. Bitdefender was next on the list

esuhl

Yeah; it's free. Avira require you to register with an email address to get a licence. Weirdly, it expires after a year, then you need to reactivate it by clicking a button or something.

It all seems a bit pointless. You could create a disposable email address if you want, but I never got any emails from them (that I can recall).

forgotmyname

Yeah the Avast expiring each year may get those that do not know about computers to accidently click the download the full trial version not the free basic one. The link to the free one does seem to be a bit harder to spot these days.

GunJack

Couple of points:-

1. the current version of Bitdefender free isn't as lightweight as the version from a couple of years ago (I'm running both on different machines) but still slightly the lightest.

2. Avast have bought AVG and there's now starting to be some crossover within the products.

3. Gaming Mode in avast keeps nagscreens down to a bare minimum

forgotmyname

You installed the full version trial not the free one. The free link is easy to miss grey on grey.

GunJack

SPnomore wrote: »

I clicked on the big bold orange "DOWNLOAD FREE ANTIVIRUS" button on their homepage and it downloaded "avast_free_antivirus_setup_online" and it says "avast free antivirus" on all the page headings" !

you probably forgot to register it then, if you don't it reverts to "30 days to register or buy"-type thing. Avoidable f you'd have registered when you installed it

GabbaGabbaHey

What's wrong with just using Windows Defender?

GunJack

GabbaGabbaHey wrote: »

What's wrong with just using Windows Defender?

err.....'coz it's the poorest of the mainstream av products out there maybe??

dosh37

My experience with Avast is that it is ok(-ish), but it seems to consume an awfull lot of processing resource from your PC. So much that it sometimes seems worse than a virus!

dosh37

I tend to agree with gabbagabbahey.
Windows Defender in Win 10 seems to be pretty good these days, so probably not much to be gained by using 3rd party tools like Avast unless you vist dodgy websites.

GunJack

dosh37 wrote: »

My experience with Avast is that it is ok(-ish), but it seems to consume an awfull lot of processing resource from your PC. So much that it sometimes seems worse than a virus!

this can be reduced by not using all the !!!!py added tools, all you really need is the 3 main shields and disable or custom install without all the "added value" extras