Change of Anti-Virus

Because of AVG's trend, I am thinking of changing to either Avast or AntiVir. Which offers better protection? Or, what else would you recommend?

How difficult is it to uninstall AVG?

HP Pavilion - Pentium® 4CPU

160GB HDD 512 MB RAM

Windows XP SP2 Home

Because of AVG's trend, I am thinking of changing to either Avast or AntiVir. Which offers better protection? Or, what else would you recommend?

How difficult is it to uninstall AVG?

HP Pavilion - Pentium? 4CPU

160GB HDD 512 MB RAM

Windows XP SP2 Home

I would recommend AntiVir. It has superior detection rates.

I would recommend AntiVir. It has superior detection rates.

That's what they say although all three of the free ones are good. Antivir doesn't have email scanning last time I checked that might have changed though in the new version. Not that it matters to me I shut that off in AVG anyways. When it's time to switch from AVG 7.5 I will try out AVG 8.0 and if I don't like it I will probably go with Avira. I find Avasts lack of a help document to read before I install a major annoyance and there is absolutley no excuse for it so I will avoid them. AVG and Avira have full and well done help files available from their sites to read before installing.

Anthony - you're correct that free Antivir doesn't have email scanning.

How difficult is it to uninstall AVG?

Grisoft includes one awesome uninstaller for AVG and they have for several years, it won't leave much behind but a folder or two and maybe a few registry keys.

I find Avasts lack of a help document to read before I install a major annoyance and there is absolutley no excuse for it so I will avoid them.

They have documentation on their website, and even a downloadable PDF document. Albeit the PDF document is for the commercial version you'll get the gist of it even if using the free Home Edition.

They have documentation on their website, and even a downloadable PDF document. Albeit the PDF document is for the commercial version you'll get the gist of it even if using the free Home Edition.

I looked at that. They need to take lessons from AVG or Avira on how to create a help guide.

I recommend PCTools Anti-Virus (this alternative isn't that popular as Avast! or Avira but it's still good) It's really, really low on system resources and very user-friendly!

Thanks for all the input. I guess Avira wins the popular vote.

I do know that it doesn't provide email protection but AVG's email scanning left a lot to be desired. Several times I checked with a credit card company to see if they had sent me a specific message. They each asked me to forward the message to them, but AVG blocked the email I tried to send saying the messages contained phishing viruses. So- where was the caution when it came to me? Maybe I just don't understand the email protection at all.

Thanks again.

Double post below sorry.

Ok, yes, Avira doesn't have an E-mail Scanner. But, answer me this, what good does an "E-mail Scanner" have if the dectection don't work as good a it's supposed to? Anecdote from another forum:

I get about 30-40 spam emails daily, here at home. Windows Mail (on Vista) is the client and it has a nice spam filter. A couple of days ago, I was sifting through the spam box, before deleting, and saw a nice "Paris Hilton" message - with attachment. OOoo. AntiVir is installed but doesn't have an email scanner, so everything comes in. Panic ? Nah. I don't have much time to analyse nasties but I thought this one might be interesting (hey it's spring time, gimme a break..). So I saved the attachement to the Desktop. AntiVir quiet. Moved the file to VM (XP with Avast! 4.8). Unzipped and ran saver.exe (looking forward to that "clip" of Miss Hilton they promised me). File ran while Avast! watched in silence (it's worse than me !). Nice backdoor infection and VM started spamming almost immediately. Can't find the darn "clip"

So next I go back to the Host (Vista) and decide to run the file through Virus Total. As soon as I unzip the thing, AntiVir gets mad and blocks it (Trojan.Gen or something similar). HEY !... my "clip" ! Oh well... "Ignore" and then VT : only two or three AVs could see it. Nice and fresh.

So if anybody tells you that AntiVir (free) stinks because it doesn't have an email scanner, well... best to have good detections when an infected attachment is run than have 7 shields that sleep on the job

Still looking for my "clip".

It's not just the: "They say...", it's the facts that talk now. Anyway, you decide with which AV you feel more comfortable. Those are my 2 last cents. hehe :)

Because of AVG's trend, I am thinking of changing to either Avast or AntiVir. Which offers better protection? Or, what else would you recommend?

How difficult is it to uninstall AVG?

Well for the past 12 years I've been using McAfee antivirus then I had problems installing the updates last year so I switched to AVG Free Edition. I did a full scan and it picked up on a virus that McAfee never found. So I don't care what you say you won't beat the AVG Free Edition. ;)

Its not difficult to remove AVG, just look in Add/Remove Programs.

Avast is ok & AVG you can get update ok, AntiVir is ok but update is hard to get, look at test http://www.av-comparatives.org http://www.checkvir.com tip with Avast change new look to old as make it better to use.may be call Classic look. :mellow:

I just don't get it. I've never seen PCTools stuff being mentioned on those anti-virus comparing sites. I use PCTools too...

I just don't get it. I've never seen PCTools stuff being mentioned on those anti-virus comparing sites. I use PCTools too...

Have a look no test for AV with lest than 80% find or miss 20% of vires see notes & forum at http://www.av-comparatives.org

But look at this though: Clicky!

Being included on that list is pretty good though isn't it?

Where is ThreatFire?

I find that I can only wash my dishes once and they are clean no matter if I use Palmolive, Sunlight or a cheap generic dishwashing product.

Chose one anti virus and don't open email attachments nor surf without the recommended Security applications installed.

I chose avast! Free.

Ok, yes, Avira doesn't have an E-mail Scanner. But, answer me this, what good does an "E-mail Scanner" have if the dectection don't work as good a it's supposed to? Anecdote from another forum:

I don't see the need for an email scanner. Don't open e mails from people you don't know. Especially if it has an attachment. In case you have a blond with big boobs moment and do something stupid like open an attachment from some one you don't know the resident shield will protect you just like it does if you open any infected file. The email scanner is redundant IMO and I disabled it in AVG.

I don't see the need for an email scanner. Don't open e mails from people you don't know. Especially if it has an attachment. In case you have a blond with big boobs moment and do something stupid like open an attachment from some one you don't know the resident shield will protect you just like it does if you open any infected file. The email scanner is redundant IMO and I disabled it in AVG.

Not blondes also do lol. Don't know why though.

Always thinking they:

1)Won Something - Wohoooooooo

2)Uhhhh interesting e-mail

3)etc...a millon more reasons

Why I wonder...

But look at this though: Clicky!

Being included on that list is pretty good though isn't it?

Many upon many will get awarded with "Vendors certified for Anti-Virus detection." PC Tools AntiVirus from my experience will catch some stuff others may miss, and found the file on my system that I had thought was suspicious for a very long time, but it had never did anything malicious.

I followed my own advice and just switched over permanently to PC Tools Free AntiVirus just last night because Avast for some reason was having trouble "initializing it's engine" to begin a scan and was taking about 10 minutes to begin a scan. :huh: After an uninstall and clean install it didn't fix it, so the switch was rather necessary and I surely didn't have the patience for it to take 10 minutes to "initialize it's engine."