Looking for an alternative to Avast--any recommendations?

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Dreadful Romantic

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My paid subscription to Avast is ending in the next couple of weeks and I think I want to switch programs. I've been using it on my two-year-old Toshiba Satellite (Windows 7); I installed Avast when I bought this computer because I liked how it performed on my old machine, which ran Windows XP.

I hate Avast now. Haaaate it. It doesn't seem to play well with Windows 7--for instance, it has rebooted itself when I try to run a full system scan, and about a year ago it caused a lot of problems that involved having to restart my computer in safe mode to fix it. The error message I received that time said that my version of Avast was configured to Windows XP. I wish I could offer more information about that little incident, but I'm ignorant as to the particulars.

So I'm looking for a new AV program. I don't mind paying for it--I'm not tech-savvy enough to maintain a bunch of free programs working together. I don't care for McAfee or Norton, either. A few years ago I installed AVG Free on my husband's netbook and found it to be a huge resource hog that slowed everything down, so I'm a little leery of that as well. Essentially, I'm looking for the kind of anti-malware program that Avast used to be. I also have SuperAntiSpyware and MalwareBytes installed (free versions) and haven't had any issues with them.

I've read good things about Avira and a friend of mine swears by it, but I'd like some other recommendations as well.
 

zarada

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avast was very slow for me, i uninstalled it. avira works fine on XP and Windows 7. i prefer and recommend superantispyware, which i keep on every one of my computers, even if another av is installed.
 

Torgo

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Microsoft Security Essentials. Free, no hassle, just works. I think it performs nicely compared to other free solutions, too.
 

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Microsoft Security Essentials. Free, no hassle, just works. I think it performs nicely compared to other free solutions, too.

I agree.

But be sure to uninstall completely any other anti-virus/malware software before you install Microsoft Security Essentials.

And I'd occasionally scan with Malware Bytes or similar malware apps using a USB drive with the current software on it.
 

Calliopenjo

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Once upon a time I had MSE. I no longer want MSE. Why? It allowed a virus to come through. That may be my personal experience and it might not have happened to everyone. It happened to me.

AVG was recommended to me by a tech company and I had that for a while. For me, it worked great. When it came time to update my license, i started searching for other AV programs. There's a bunch out there.

Right now I have Bit Defender 2013 and I love it.


I Googled best AV programs and here are some links to browse. All you have to do is click the name and it should take you to the site in question.

1. 2013 Compare The Best Antivirus Software Products

2. PCWorld

3. The Top 10 Antivirus Programs 2012
 

Jersey Chick

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I'm another user of Microsoft Security Essentials. I had Norton on an old machine and it slooooooooowwwweeed it down so much that I had to get rid of it. It did weird things as well - like whenever I'd try to log on here, the machine would get caught in a loop.

When I replaced that laptop with my current one, I had Trend on it, which I think cost about $50/yr. I let it expire when I got a virus on the machine. My computer guy recommended MSE and here we are.
 

Krystal Heart

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*Raises hand also for Microsoft Security Essentials*


I've had it on 5 different computers now. I haven't had a problem with a virus coming through in my computer and I haven't heard from the users of the other 4 computers complaining they had a virus, either.
 

Reziac

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F-Prot. Relatively lightweight, and with a long history of excellent protection (rated #1 for both in a recent comparison).

F-Secure if you want a whole suite.

Definitely not AVG, which has a long history of coming in dead last in the protection department.

Definitely not Norton or McAfee, either of which is guaranteed to slow your computer to a crawl.

ALL antivirus products occasionally fail to protect against new viruses; it's the nature of the game.
 

Torgo

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Once upon a time I had MSE. I no longer want MSE. Why? It allowed a virus to come through. That may be my personal experience and it might not have happened to everyone. It happened to me.


Well, nothing's 100% effective. My experience vs. your experience doesn't really make any odds, as you say. I occasionally check stats and things and don't see too many good reasons to switch.

My main thing is, I like a resident AV/spyware solution that keeps out of the way and doesn't mess about with other programs. For most of the time I was running XP, I was using stuff like Comodo and AVG and Avast that used to butt in to everything I did, or nag me for upgrades, or generally annoy me in tiny but accumulative ways. When MS had an antivirus that seemed to work, I jumped on board and have never looked back. I guess now might be an appropriate time to check the tests, though...
 

SophieB

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AVGs great but their real-time protection will slow down your connection speeds a bit. I've used Malwarebytes alone for a year with no problem, just weekly sweeps.
 

J.W. Alden

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I experimented around for years trying to find a suite that I liked, and ultimately settled with ESET Smart Security. I'm very happy with it. Been using it for about three years now, and never had any problems.

I should add that I'm not the type of user that's bothered by a program that wants to tell me everything that's going on with my system, whether it's suspicious programs, something wanting network access, etc. In fact, I prefer it. That being said, ESET essentially lets you choose how much it bugs you, from not at all to every time something wants through your firewall. I also like that it will generally tell me when there's a Windows update--usually before Windows itself does. But I get that's not the kind of thing everyone wants in a security suite.
 
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EMaree

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I'm using COMODO with Malwarebytes after getting tired of Avast, AVG and Avira. I can't actually remember what made me choose COMODO over MSE, but I like it. It's unobtrusive but effective.

I can also agree with all the recommendations for MSE.
 

Pj Little

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I bought Norton 3 times and it worked on one PC. I didn't have any trouble with AVG. I had another that was awful that was crippled. They sent two pages of code to "fix" it with NO direction.

Clam X is free for Mac. ClamWin is for PC . It works pretty good for what it is. http://www.clamwin.com/
 

Izzie

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I have an unnecessarily powerful desktop (hand-me-down from techie-as-career dad) running Windows 7 and a low-end ThinkPad running Ubuntu. The desktop is only used for TV - we don't log in to e-mail, shop, etc. Someone could snag the card associated with Hulu Plus, but it wouldn't honestly matter that much.

When I used Windows 7 on the ThinkPad, it seemed like antivirus programs progressively got bulky to the point that the operating system barely worked. I was the most successful with Avira. I ended up running the firewall through MSE, only scanning for viruses once per day, using Malware Bytes and Spybot every other day, and using msconfig to disable all programs I didn't need at start up from executing.

I still got viruses occasionally, and I'm not sure how I ended up with some of them because we're not really in to porn or illegal software (I keep tabs on Internet usage). The last straw for me was getting a trojan that, at the time, no one knew how to remove. I used Ubuntu (you can demo it from a USB stick - "live USB") to run Clam, trash the location of the trojan, change passwords on accounts, and save our files.

I ended up liking Ubuntu and keeping it. I had used Linux Mint before, but I had some driver problems and issues with LibreOffice not playing well with classmates' Microsoft files. My husband hated Linux Mint because he wanted something that worked without either of us having to think about it. No problems with getting Ubuntu set up. Windows 7 is still installed, but I never boot it.

That said, GNU/Linux isn't impervious to viruses. But there are fewer written for Linux, most of the software you use ends up being downloaded from one of Ubuntu's repositories versus a website, and most home users haven't had problems with viruses and Ubuntu. Your odds of getting a virus are atleast statistically lower than running Windows or OS X. Linux distributions induce frustration at a wide range of levels depending on your computer and the type of distribution, yet Ubuntu is really freakin' easy.

Knowing that I didn't sell you on Ubuntu (few are sold on Linux), one thing I found that led to a great reduction in viruses was turning Java off unless I needed it. Seems to be a magnet for Internet crud.
 

EMaree

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Knowing that I didn't sell you on Ubuntu (few are sold on Linux), one thing I found that led to a great reduction in viruses was turning Java off unless I needed it. Seems to be a magnet for Internet crud.

If it cheers you up, quite a few people here are Linux fans. I love Ubuntu (ran it on a netbook but had to remove it as the other half prefers Win7, and use it regularly for Windows repairs and recovery jobs).
 

BradCarsten

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According to AV-Comparatives 2012 results, the following were the top performing products of the year:
Avast - AVIRA - Bitdefender - BullGuard - ESET - F-Secure - G DATA - Kaspersky

With Bitdefender and Kaspersky sharing the title.

If it cheers you up, quite a few people here are Linux fans. I love Ubuntu (ran it on a netbook but had to remove it as the other half prefers Win7, and use it regularly for Windows repairs and recovery jobs).

+1 I only ever boot into windows for games, otherwise all my work is in Ubuntu. Its so nice not to have any anti viruses slowing down your system ;)
 

Izzie

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If it cheers you up, quite a few people here are Linux fans
Yay! I'll have to start a thread on Tex in the future.

Any luck finding a program?
 
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WriterTrek

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For Windows 7 I strongly recommend using Microsoft Security Essentials for your anti-virus needs. It's free and works dang well all things considered.

I also add in Malware-Bytes anti-malware & CCleaner. I run all three manually, since I don't like auto-scans myself, once a week.
 

MartinD

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I experimented around for years trying to find a suite that I liked, and ultimately settled with ESET Smart Security. I'm very happy with it. Been using it for about three years now, and never had any problem.

Another vote for ESET. My computer guy recommended it, roughly three years ago, and it's an easy install without noticeable slow down.
 

Paul

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Free: Microsoft Security Essentials

Paid for: Norton or Kaspersky

free should do, for the standard user.
 

shelleyo

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I use AVG free on the Windows Vista computer, but I scan with Housecall (trendmicro.com) and Malwarebytes on a regular basis. No one thing seems to catch all problems.

My old laptop did have Windows XP, then it started blue-screening to the point I could only start up in safe mode. It wasn't a virus that I could find, but clearly Windows was corrupted. I don't know where my XP disk is and this computer couldn't handle Vista, so I installed Ubuntu off a stick drive. Thanks to the password that's required to install anything, it's unlikely that a virus can install itself. And few target Linux anyway.

I would never choose to use the operating system on a different computer, though, not unless I could also run something else. Part of the reason it's never caught on is that there are so many things you take for granted with Windows that you either can't do with Ubuntu or that become a pain in the ass. Some of that could be the slowness of my computer, but some is simply that not that many people worry about making things that run on Linux. It's made this old laptop usable, but my main use for it, watching Netflix at night, is such a frustrating experience (and it wasn't with Windows) that I've given it up.
 

Laer Carroll

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I've used Norton on more than a dozen Windows systems. I've never had any problems, either in performance or security. Every once in a while I double-check by running a suite of perf/sec tools developed while a software and systems engineer at Boeing. So far, so good.
 
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