AVG or AVAST ?

[bm]

I recommended AVG to my son and he has had it on his system for a year but
recently he wished to increase the memory on his system and got a local
'expert' to fit it When he was there he recommended taking AVG off and
installing AVAST in its place
I have used AVG for some time with no problems and before I tell him to
revert to AVG I thought it wise to ask here if I am right
Blair

 

[(PeteCresswell)]

Per bm:

I have used AVG for some time with no problems and before I tell him to
revert to AVG I thought it wise to ask here if I am right

I've been using the freebie version of Avast for 5+ years and
have been 100% satisfied.

And the price is definitely right....

 

[Peter Taylor]

I recommended AVG to my son and he has had it on his system for a year but
recently he wished to increase the memory on his system and got a local
'expert' to fit it When he was there he recommended taking AVG off and
installing AVAST in its place
I have used AVG for some time with no problems and before I tell him to
revert to AVG I thought it wise to ask here if I am right
Blair

I much prefer Avast as it is rated higher than AVG and has a boot scan
you can program which will scan for viruses before Windows boots.

 

[Bruce Hagen]

I recommended AVG to my son and he has had it on his system for a year
but recently he wished to increase the memory on his system and got a
local 'expert' to fit it When he was there he recommended taking AVG off
and installing AVAST in its place
I have used AVG for some time with no problems and before I tell him to
revert to AVG I thought it wise to ask here if I am right
Blair

AVG has been found to be the culprit in a few issues with all Windows
e-mail client programs lately, while Avast has not. Not many people
reporting this, but enough for me to say Avast.

Whichever you choose, they should be installed in custom mode allowing you
to opt out of e-mail scanning when offered.

Why you don't need your anti-virus to scan your email
http://thundercloud.net/infoave/tutorials/email-scanning/index.htm

And then there is another option, MSE. Anti-Virus, Anti-Malware and
Anti-Spyware all in one.

Microsoft Security Essentials
http://www.microsoft.com/security_essentials/default.aspx

 

[Jim]

I recommended AVG to my son and he has had it on his system for a year but
recently he wished to increase the memory on his system and got a local
'expert' to fit it When he was there he recommended taking AVG off and
installing AVAST in its place
I have used AVG for some time with no problems and before I tell him to
revert to AVG I thought it wise to ask here if I am right
Blair

I like Avast better than AVG , also Avast gives audio and visual
warnings of any ( potential ) bugs .

 

[Daave]

I recommended AVG to my son and he has had it on his system for a
year but recently he wished to increase the memory on his system and
got a local 'expert' to fit it When he was there he recommended
taking AVG off and installing AVAST in its place
I have used AVG for some time with no problems and before I tell him
to revert to AVG I thought it wise to ask here if I am right
Blair

AVG for some reason is nowhere near as good as it once was. Also, there
was a period when PC's with AVG installed on them crawled (even with
e-mail sacnning turned off).

Avast is superior by far. Avira is at least as good as Avast. Some
people have reported that MSE is quite good.

This site has comprehensive comparative ratings:

http://www.av-comparatives.org/

A PDF of the May, 2010 test:
http://www.av-comparatives.org/images/stories/test/ondret/avc_report26.pdf

Interestingly, in that particular test, AVG and Avast were rated
similarly; Avira was higher.

 

[The poster formerly known as 'The Poster Formerly]

I recommended AVG to my son and he has had it on his system for a year but
recently he wished to increase the memory on his system and got a local
'expert' to fit it When he was there he recommended taking AVG off and
installing AVAST in its place
I have used AVG for some time with no problems and before I tell him to
revert to AVG I thought it wise to ask here if I am right
Blair

Avast

 

[Stefan Patric]

I recommended AVG to my son and he has had it on his system for a year
but recently he wished to increase the memory on his system and got a
local 'expert' to fit it When he was there he recommended taking AVG
off and installing AVAST in its place
I have used AVG for some time with no problems and before I tell him to
revert to AVG I thought it wise to ask here if I am right Blair

Why not let your son decide which he wants to run on "his" system? He's
got to start thinking for himself sometime. (And dealing with the
consequences of those decisions.) The sooner, the better.

Stef

 

[(PeteCresswell)]

Per Bruce Hagen:

Why you don't need your anti-virus to scan your email
http://thundercloud.net/infoave/tutorials/email-scanning/index.htm

"And NEVER open an attachment directly from your email. ALWAYS
save it to your desktop (or another easily accessible folder) and
scan it with your anti-virus program before opening it."

Seems to imply that not running the email scan could result in a
virus/worm/whatever getting through if the user does not follow
the above admonition - and just double-clicks on the attachment
while it is in the email.

Have I got it right?

 

[Hugh Jorgan]

Per Bruce Hagen:

"And NEVER open an attachment directly from your email. ALWAYS
save it to your desktop (or another easily accessible folder) and
scan it with your anti-virus program before opening it."

Seems to imply that not running the email scan could result in a
virus/worm/whatever getting through if the user does not follow
the above admonition - and just double-clicks on the attachment
while it is in the email.

Have I got it right?

No you don't.

 

[Peter Taylor]

Per Bruce Hagen:

"And NEVER open an attachment directly from your email. ALWAYS
save it to your desktop (or another easily accessible folder) and
scan it with your anti-virus program before opening it."

Seems to imply that not running the email scan could result in a
virus/worm/whatever getting through if the user does not follow
the above admonition - and just double-clicks on the attachment
while it is in the email.

Have I got it right?

No, if one were to do that, the AV would kick in and scream, assuming,
of course, that the malware is in the AV's definitions.

 

[Bruce Hagen]

Per Bruce Hagen:

"And NEVER open an attachment directly from your email. ALWAYS
save it to your desktop (or another easily accessible folder) and
scan it with your anti-virus program before opening it."

Seems to imply that not running the email scan could result in a
virus/worm/whatever getting through if the user does not follow
the above admonition - and just double-clicks on the attachment
while it is in the email.

Have I got it right?

I don't worry very much about attachments unless they are from a really
unknown source. But your AV program protects you anyway. Here's more.

Turning off e-mail scanning is safe. See:

Viral Irony: The Most Common Cause of Corruption:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/IE/community/columns/filecorruption.mspx#EOAAC

Why you don't need your anti-virus to scan your email:
http://thundercloud.net/infoave/tutorials/email-scanning/index.htm

Turn off email scanning in your antivirus software:
http://www.oehelp.com/OETips.aspx#3

And this is from Symantec, but applies to all anti-virus programs.

From:
http://snipurl.com/bmf6

Is my computer still protected against viruses if I disable Email
Scanning?

Disabling Email Scanning does not leave you unprotected against viruses
that are distributed as email attachments. Norton AntiVirus Auto-Protect
scans incoming files as they are saved to your hard drive, including email
and email attachments. Email Scanning is just another layer on top of
this. To make sure that Auto-Protect is providing the maximum protection,
keep Auto-Protect enabled and run LiveUpdate regularly to ensure that you
have the most recent virus definitions.

 

[Don Wiss]

I recommended AVG to my son and he has had it on his system for a year but
recently he wished to increase the memory on his system and got a local
'expert' to fit it When he was there he recommended taking AVG off and
installing AVAST in its place
I have used AVG for some time with no problems and before I tell him to
revert to AVG I thought it wise to ask here if I am right

I like my virus program to scan incoming e-mails, but I absolutely do not
want any certify message appended to them. In AVG you used to be able to
turn it off. Then you couldn't. I promptly dumped AVG for Avast. It has a
much leaner impact on your system.

Don <www.donwiss.com> (e-mail link at home page bottom).

 

[bm]

Thanks to all who replied. A great deal of wisdom was evident. Gave me food
for thought
Blair

 

[Guest]

I recommended AVG to my son and he has had it on his system for a year but
recently he wished to increase the memory on his system and got a local
'expert' to fit it When he was there he recommended taking AVG off and
installing AVAST in its place
I have used AVG for some time with no problems and before I tell him to
revert to AVG I thought it wise to ask here if I am right
Blair

I ran AVG for a couple of years, but it started to get rather slowing on the
system so I switched to Avast. This has run flawlessly apart from one
programme update which didn't install properly and took a bit of sorting
out.

MSE was mentioned: I found this slowed my old laptop to a standstill, but
worked well on a newer one. Horses for courses, as they say.

S

 

[bobster]

?I used AVAST! for several years and found it to be very effective.
However, about a year ago, I uninstalled AVAST! and installed Microsoft
Security Essentials. I have been very pleased with MSE and it seems to have
a smaller footprint and is less intrusive than AVAST. Being a MS product,
there are never any compatibility issues with Windows or Internet Explorer.
MSE can be set to update automatically. I also use Windows firewall. I run
SUPERantispyware and Malwarebytes (free and very effective) about once a
week as a double check. They rarely find anything as MSE protects so well.

I know that there are a lot of anti-MS folks out there in cyberspace but I
use what works, not what the ABM (anybody but Microsoft) crowd touts and I
have pretty much trouble free performance.

BTW, I have been using IE9 Beta (with my Windows 7) since Sept 15th and love
it! It is lightning fast and so far, I have found no significant flaws. I
can't wait for the RTM version and the final.

 

[mm]

I much prefer Avast as it is rated higher than AVG and has a boot scan
you can program which will scan for viruses before Windows boots.

I've never understood this. If there is a virus there before it
boots, why didn't the virus checker find the virus before Windows was
shut down the previous time?

 

[Peter Taylor]

I've never understood this. If there is a virus there before it
boots, why didn't the virus checker find the virus before Windows was
shut down the previous time?

Not the point. It's easier for Avast to nuke the suckers if they aren't
actively jumping about in Windows preventing their elimination.

 

[mm]

Not the point. It's easier for Avast to nuke the suckers if they aren't
actively jumping about in Windows preventing their elimination.

Very good.

What do you folks know about Panda?

A friend is trying to get another friend to pay 40 dollars a year for
it. Does anyone else charge nearly that much?

 

[mm]

I like my virus program to scan incoming e-mails, but I absolutely do not
want any certify message appended to them. In AVG you used to be able to
turn it off. Then you couldn't. I promptly dumped AVG for Avast. It has a
much leaner impact on your system.

Don <www.donwiss.com> (e-mail link at home page bottom).

I don't know Don. I have AVG free and it has checkboxes for
certifying incoming and outgoing mail, and within them checkboxes for
certifying the email. And within that for certifying only if there's
an attachment.

I have incoming checked but not certify, and I get no messages.


Hey, I see now that I also have checked Modify subject line of
incoming message by inserting ***VIRUS***. It actually found a virus
for the first time a week ago and the subject line was changed, and I
wondered who did that. It was me! Not the isp.