Free-Antivirus-Showdown-2012

[nikorr]

Free Anti-Virus Software Showdown: The Best of 2012

Table of contents

1. Which free antivirus performed above and beyond the call of duty—and price?
2. Our Testing Methodology
3. AVAST! 7 Free Antivirus
4. AVG Free Antivirus 2012
5. Avira AntiVir Personal
6. Comodo Internet Security
7. Microsoft Security Essentials
8. Panda Security CloudAntivirus
9. PC Tools Antivirus Free
10. Conclusion
11. Appendix: Complimentary Free Antivirus Tools

So, which one is the best one?

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Read all here June 7, 2012 - by Tom’s Guide Staff, Rico Mossesgeld @ http://www.tomsguide.com/us/best-free-antivirus-2012,review-1767.html

 

[Pyree]

Yeah, that unable to contact server for virus definition update happens to me (Avira user). But I haven't tried a manual update before the server is back again.

Comodo- "notifications are so numerous that they can overwhelm novice users."
It asked me for permission for every single registry change when I am installing a program I know I can trust. It also ask every time for permission when I start a program. It is beyond annoying. I have to lower the protection level so I decide to get rid of it.

 

[rolli59]

I have been using Avast for years now (since my free PCcillin stopped working) and it has actually been about 10 years since last time I had to deal with Virus.

 

[Hawkeye22]

Thanks for the report. It good to see I'm using this year's best.

 

[HEXiT]

used avast a while back and within 1 week i was infected...
i decided to give it a try when my subscription ran out on emsi soft antimalware which i used in conjunction with avira for the previous year without issue.
after that i went back to avira and used the payed version of malwarebytes again its been over a year with no issues. also i defiantly see bias in your results as avira in no way has anywhere near the impact avast does on system resources, avast requires over double the disk space and 3xmore memory to run it than avira. not only that it has no real impact on boot time average win 7 boot time 45 seconds, avg with avira 47 seconds, as opposed to avast and your looking at 1 minute plus to get to desktop and even then its not finished loading. yet it gets a lower score, same on real time protection and inconvenience.. aviras realtime protection is 1 of the best i have seen, even the free version will pop up if any threat is found. it did have a rep for false positives but that has been reduced substantially in the last 3 years. so either you didnt have it setup properly or you had some other issue...
i may have forgiven your choice as number 1 but putting msse in at number 2 when it has 1 of the worst catch rates of any av including norton and macfee... at the end of the day you really gotta go on catch rate and this is where avast, avira and msse differ by some margin... avast has improved its engine at 93%but its still lags behind avira 96% and msse is nearer 75%

over all i would suggest you find another site to get your results from because that 1 is defiantly bias...
try this site they do not take any sponsorship from any av company http://www.av-comparatives.org/ they are truly independent and give a more comprehensive assessment...
this isnt a slight at you as im sure your just passing on what you have read. but they are off the mark as far as real world performance goes.

1 final thing. i download an average of 1tb a month and not just from safe sites. so its not as if i dont put my av through its paces. if you just need basic protection then any of the above work but if you need consistent high level protection you would be doing yourself a disservice if you didnt try avira (free)with malwarebytes (payed) as its backup. yes avira has 1 pop up as it updates. but at least it updates witch is something i found avast had trouble doing.
anyways this is just my opinion. please feel free to check that link and make your own minds up...

if you do use the site be aware that norton refuse to allow them to rate there system because it was consistently beaten in every test so that spat there dummy and refused to allow any more testing.

 

[jagsta21]

so whats the best 1? avast??

 

[nikorr]

Hm, I didn't get virus for long time, more than 5+ years and I do a lots of things. Some years I didn't even use the AV, but I was running scans from 2-3 programs, but nothing.

I think in many cases its user error, to get a virus.

I favor good FW over AV, but I am more careful on what I am doing.

I am sometimes lazy to install AV, but I always have Comodo FW and MB's.

My PC is on 24/7.

For AV I use, if I do -> Kaspersky as I own the licence.

 

[nikorr]

Best answer selected by Nikorr.

 

[nikorr]

This topic has been closed by Nikorr