Which free antivirus to choose?

[Harbinger]

Hi,

I am looking for a free antivirus for a PC running Windows XP Pro.
Till now, I have found Avast Home Edition, H+BEDV Antivir and
Grisoft's AVG. I have used AVG in the past, and I am not too happy
with the level of protection it offers, so I guess I must choose
between the first two or a different one I don't know about yet.

What would the people in a.c.a-v recommend?

Cheers

 

[Conor Turton]

Hi,

I am looking for a free antivirus for a PC running Windows XP Pro.
Till now, I have found Avast Home Edition, H+BEDV Antivir and
Grisoft's AVG. I have used AVG in the past, and I am not too happy
with the level of protection it offers, so I guess I must choose
between the first two or a different one I don't know about yet.

What would the people in a.c.a-v recommend?

Paying for one...

 

[optikl]

Hi,

I am looking for a free antivirus for a PC running Windows XP Pro.
Till now, I have found Avast Home Edition, H+BEDV Antivir and
Grisoft's AVG. I have used AVG in the past, and I am not too happy
with the level of protection it offers, so I guess I must choose
between the first two or a different one I don't know about yet.

What would the people in a.c.a-v recommend?

Cheers

If you are determined to stick with free stuff, stick with Avast. A couple
of questions, though: Was your XP Pro system free?
No? Is the data on it worth anything at all to you? Yes? What about your
time? Shitty AV products and malware can cause corruption to your data
as well as cause you to waste time cleaning up their mess. Think about it.

optikl

"Freeware; it's a gift, not an entitlement".

 

[Gregg Cattanach]

If you are determined to stick with free stuff, stick with Avast. A couple
of questions, though: Was your XP Pro system free?
No? Is the data on it worth anything at all to you? Yes? What about your
time? Shitty AV products and malware can cause corruption to your data
as well as cause you to waste time cleaning up their mess. Think about it.

Despite the comments above, I've found absolutely nothing 'shitty' about
Avast Home Edition. Any suggestion that Avast is malware is ridiculous.
They have written a full featured Pro edition that can compete with anything
else on the market, and they're free Home Edition uses the same engine as
the Pro. They've just removed some of the more exotic features of the Pro
version.

I used AVG for quite a while but the programming effort did seem a bit
second-drawer. Since using Avast, I heartily approve of their product and
think it is excellently written and has worked perfectly and trapped all
viruses that have come through my e-mail. It also appears they have a
functional repair facility (which was sadly lacking or at minimum barely
functional in AVG.) All of their updates are incremental, so you only have
to download (which is fully automatic, even with dial-up) files in the 10s
of KB, not multi-MB.

I've also used Norton, PC-Cillin and Mcafee, and all three are bloatware
that all end up slowing down your system and being a big headache.

If you don't want to pay, Avast is the way, IMHO and I think it's better
than lots of expensive products. From their website: "Home edition is a
full-featured antivirus package designed for home usage. Our company offers
Home Edition free of charge, since in our opinion, it is possible to avoid
global virus spreading by efficient prevention. However, many user are not
able or do not want to pay for antivirus software. "

Gregg C.

 

[rt]

If you are determined to stick with free stuff, stick with Avast. A couple

Despite the comments above, I've found absolutely nothing 'shitty' about
Avast Home Edition. Any suggestion that Avast is malware is ridiculous.
They have written a full featured Pro edition that can compete with anything
else on the market, and they're free Home Edition uses the same engine as
the Pro. They've just removed some of the more exotic features of the Pro
version.

I used AVG for quite a while but the programming effort did seem a bit
second-drawer. Since using Avast, I heartily approve of their product and
think it is excellently written and has worked perfectly and trapped all
viruses that have come through my e-mail. It also appears they have a
functional repair facility (which was sadly lacking or at minimum barely
functional in AVG.) All of their updates are incremental, so you only have
to download (which is fully automatic, even with dial-up) files in the 10s
of KB, not multi-MB.

I've also used Norton, PC-Cillin and Mcafee, and all three are bloatware
that all end up slowing down your system and being a big headache.

If you don't want to pay, Avast is the way, IMHO and I think it's better
than lots of expensive products. From their website: "Home edition is a
full-featured antivirus package designed for home usage. Our company offers
Home Edition free of charge, since in our opinion, it is possible to avoid
global virus spreading by efficient prevention. However, many user are not
able or do not want to pay for antivirus software. "

Gregg C.

Avast has 3 registration pages. Page 1 is name/address/e-mail, which has
to be entered before access to pages 2 and 3. I'd rather not fill out page 1
until I know what is required on pages 2 and 3. Do you know what other info
is required on pages 2 and 3?
tia,
rt

 

[Harbinger]

If you don't want to pay, Avast is the way, IMHO and I think it's better
than lots of expensive products.

Gregg,

thanks for your answer; it has certainly given the reassurance I
needed to use Avast Home instead of renewing the license of NAV.
Considering that in these parts a software license can and will
cost two to three times as it does in the US after taxes, budget
considerations must drive all purchases.[1]

[1] E.g., you can buy Office 2003 Pro for about US$600 after sales
tax in the US, same package here costs about US$1100 *before* sales
tax, and we are talking a percentage in the high teens...

 

[Gregg Cattanach]

Avast has 3 registration pages. Page 1 is name/address/e-mail, which has
to be entered before access to pages 2 and 3. I'd rather not fill out page 1
until I know what is required on pages 2 and 3. Do you know what other info
is required on pages 2 and 3?
tia,
rt

I don't specifically remember, but it wasn't anything especially nosey, and
I don't recall being worried about giving up a bunch of personal
information. I'm sure it's really no problem.

Gregg C.

 

[optikl]

Despite the comments above, I've found absolutely nothing 'shitty' about
Avast Home Edition. Any suggestion that Avast is malware is ridiculous.

I never suggested Avast was malware. Reread what I wrote. " Shitty AV
products AND malware can cause corruption..." I do think it's sort of a
shitty, buggy, product. And yes, I've trialed it.