Avast vs. AVG vs. Microsoft Security Essentials?
- Thread starter cucr3
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syngenetic
Guest
I personally use AVG. On the side note, I know you said free anti-viruses, but anyone that still uses paid Norton Antivirus and McAfee...is a noob.
TermsB
Senior Member
- May 19, 2009
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Norton is the worst "virus" I've seen yet. :lol:
bertbaby
Elite Member
- Apr 15, 2009
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In terms of my own experience Avast is better than AVG which is better than Microsoft. That said your mileage may vary and depends on how good you are with managing patches and your AV updates. If you got a nasty infection Malewarebytes is the best free removal tool but not the best realtime protector. If you visit nasty sites on a regular basis, i.e. torrent sites etc. consider using Ubuntu as a your front end for downloads. Dedicate a clunker to it or create a dual boot, it will still run fast, plus it's bullet proof in terms of malware, keyloggers etc. and you can then sandbox the apps before reviewing on your WinDoze PC.
I should add I am in the PC security industry as well. Norton was notorious for having a very slow AV engine and for being a resource hog. They have gotten better but really who wants to spend big bucks on a application that slows your computer down. The freebies can be just as good if yo use some common sense.
I should add I am in the PC security industry as well. Norton was notorious for having a very slow AV engine and for being a resource hog. They have gotten better but really who wants to spend big bucks on a application that slows your computer down. The freebies can be just as good if yo use some common sense.
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So I can download Malwarebytes after the fact and it will remove the virus (hopefully)? I can still access the Internet from the other infected computer..
bertbaby
Elite Member
- Apr 15, 2009
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Yes depending on the infection. Some are damn nasty and disable everything by hitting your registry. If you can't access the Internet, download from another machine. If the virus appears to be winning, shut down and use a dual boot CD such as Ultimate Boot CD that will allow you access to your file but loads a Linux OS or Windows OS in place of your infected OS. Whatever virus is running on your machine won't be activated and you can then remove it or at least recover your files without spreading the infection.
metalfreek
Junior Member
- May 21, 2010
- 138
- 60
I have been using avast free edition and so for it has done its job beautifully. I recommend avast home edition which is free.
welp, that didn't work. I couldn't get Malwarebytes to open and run. I am going to assume the virus prevented me from doing that. Does that mean that this infection is pretty nasty or is that typical of programs not working when a computer is infected?
consciousnesscreates
Power Member
- Feb 17, 2010
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I have Avast no truble yer but I wondered about Sandboxie?
bertbaby
Elite Member
- Apr 15, 2009
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Sounds like you a got a nasty one probably trying to sell you ransomware. Do not buy since they just install more crap and keyloggers on yourocmputer. Try downloading the Ultimate Boot CD and burn that image to a CD. Boot up the computer with the CD and take a look around. The CD has some AV programs on it but usually the signatures are not up to date so they are of limited effectiveness. You can also try Hiren's boot CD.
I am normally pretty good at avoiding infections but the one time I did get infected well it was a nightmare. Damn thing destroyed my registry and then went about searching and then deleting all of my registry backups. I was impressed wtih its thoroughness and annoyed that AVG bent over and let the damn thing in. In fairness any AV product can let you down.
In any case I backed up all my files with the Ultimate BootCD and had to reformat the drive. It was a good excuse to install Widnows 7 and frankly the computer has never run better.
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moneymakerdominator
Newbie
- May 3, 2010
- 14
- 9
i would say avg is the best as long as it is fully updated!
avast is a huge bottle neck that will eat up your resources, making your pc significantly slower than it should be.
avast is a huge bottle neck that will eat up your resources, making your pc significantly slower than it should be.
He used many AVs to scan his PC and no AV except Avast detected the virus.xfactoress
Newbie
- Jun 21, 2010
- 15
- 0
I'm an Avast user here. So far... so good.
ultrabizweb
Newbie
- Feb 1, 2009
- 26
- 5
Sandboxing does work I've used VMware to run ubuntu in VM then test. Ubuntu is awesome. As for your Malware bytes not loading try to Boot into safe mode with networking enabled hold down F8 after you reboot to get to the menu then do an Update of Malware bytes and then a full scan let it do its magic delete bad files then I would reboot and do another scan afterwords just to be safe for windows anti virus I used to use AVG but have made the switch to Avast very satisfied so far.