Avast Premium Security?

[1eduard]

I use CCleaner Professional.

I also have Avast Premium Security. Do I need it?

[nukecad]

CCleaner is a junk file cleaner (with a few other tools); it is not an antivirus application and will not protect your computer from malware.

Avast Premium Security is an antivirus application and will help to protect your computer from malware.

The two things do different jobs.

Other antivirus and malware protection is available, including Windows 10 built in virus and threat detetection (Windows Defender).
Windows Defender will take over if you have no other antivirus installed on your computer.

[1eduard]

Thank you for your answer! However, Avast Premium is expensive. What is a good anti-virus less expensive?

[nukecad]

If you are on Windows 10 then just use the built in Windows Defender.

It's a good  as many you can buy, and better than a lot of them.
https://www.techradar.com/uk/reviews/windows-defender
 

Quote

 

Final verdict

Microsoft Defender isn't as accurate as the top antivirus competition, but it still outperforms some big-name commercial products, and is much less likely to cause issues with your other applications.

 

You don't have to install it, it is already part of Windows and will run automatically if you haven't installed a different antivirus.

If you uninstall (or disable) Avast Premium Security (or any other AV) then Windows Defender will take over automatically.

I personally just use Windows Defender and have since 2015.
I also run a weekly scan with Malwarebytes Free, just to double check for if anything did get through Defender - nothing has on my machine.

[Andavari]

Something else too is if you actually like Avast they also have a Free version, although it won't have all of the features of a paid version. Although some people refuse to use a free antivirus for various reasons.

[Dave CCleaner]

9 hours ago, Andavari said:

Although some people refuse to use a free antivirus for various reasons

... one of the main reasons being that the paid AV industry has been telling everyone that with free AV "you get what you pay for".  But one might conclude that they have an ulterior motive for propagating that perception

The reality is that free AV brands often outperform paid AVs in independent testing.  In recent years Avast won the "top rated" protection from the industry bible AV-Comparatives in 2020, 2019, 2017 and 2015 (https://www.av-comparatives.org/awards/avast/). AVG won in 2019 and 2018 (https://www.av-comparatives.org/awards/avg/).  And the free offerings from Kaspersky and Bitdefender tend to stack up pretty well too.

A recent review of the free AV landscape can be found here: https://uk.pcmag.com/antivirus/120817/the-best-free-antivirus-protection

So how is this possible?

The business model for companies whose core offering is a free AV (Avast/AVG/Avira/etc) is the same as the business model that we have here at CCleaner - build a free product that provides value to customers such that everyone will want to use it, and the money comes in from a percentage of customers who see sufficient value to upgrade to premium features.  Most people never buy, but a small percentage that do out of hundreds of millions of users starts to add up - and there aren't any channel partners asking for their share of the pie.  On the other hand, companies whose core offering is a paid product may see more cash coming in the door, but most of that has to go the retailers and OEM partners that they pay to sell their software for them.  Free software companies don't have those costs and can use the savings to pump more investment into making their products better instead.

 

[1eduard]

Ok, thanks! (Sorry for my late reaction)

What about the other products of Avast I use: Avast Version Tracker and Avast Secure Line?