Avast virus checker

[lurker]

I have been using the free version for years.

But was considering upgrading (this costs £20 per year) which seems reasonable; maybe I am weird but I don't feel good about freeloading and am happy to pay for "a useful service".

So is the upgrade worth the effort.
Any opinions ??
Also does it cover just one machine? I have a desktop & a laptop (& an I Pad)

 

[Racers]

I have used free ones in the past without needing the upgrades, most extras they offer don't seem useful and probably slow your machine down.

I use the free Microsoft virus programs as we use them at work and make sure I do all the updates.
And never download any freeware.

Pete

 

[Alexam]

AVG Protection is a good one and you can upgrade to one you pay for with higher security if you wish. I also have Malwarebytes Anti-Malware

 

[monkeybiter]

Malware Bytes is very good, I used to use AVG a few years ago but switched to Avast as it became bloated and their marketing team lied about updates, although I can't remember the details.

 

[AndyT]

Assuming you can still see it, this story about Avast getting a bit too effective at blocking stuff might be of interest.

https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/05/1 ... ion_snafu/

 

[monkeybiter]

Strange, I have Avast on two desktop machines, two laptops and two Android mobile phones. All in daily use. I didn't experience any connectivity issue.

 

[Lons]

I'm the same as Mike, been running it on 4 machines for years without issue along with malwarebytes

 

[Noel]

Anti virus and malware soft ware packages must be seeing a big surge in take-up/sales these past few days..............

 

[monkeybiter]

So will sales of Win10..... hmmmm?

 

[lurker]

Does malware bytes do something different to avast?
Is there any point of having both?
Will they run happily together?

 

[Lons]

Does malware bytes do something different to avast?
Is there any point of having both?
Will they run happily together?

Yep!
It doesn't usually affect your virus checker, certainly never a problem with my FOC version of Avast.

It isn't a virus checker but searches out malware which can be dangerous and usually responsible for much of the unwanted pop up advertising you might get. Those usually collect information, some of which you certainly don't want out there. Would definitely recommend using alongside a virus checker as non of them catch everything. very important to update the definitions regularly as well, this can be done automatically.

There are many other brands of malware checkers but this is well established however the best defence is always don't download from unknown or suspicious websites as even though the most trusted can infect your PC, your much more likely to get nasties from illegal and porn sites.

You might of course like the gaming ads and requests to contact Russian beauties. :wink: :lol:

 

[Robbo3]

There are two basic types of anti-virus, 'Resident' & 'On demand'. Resident means installed & always on & you should only use one.
You can install & use as many on-demand scanners as you wish because they only scan at the users request. There are a number of free on line (often called cloud) scanners as well.

Resident free A.V.s include Avast, Avira, AVG, BitDefender, Comodo, Panda Cloud, Sophos Home, Super Antispyware etc.
Microsoft Security Essentials is built into Windows 7, & Windows Defender is built into Windows 8 & 10 - both Resident. However you can safely install any other Resident AV in Windows 7,8 & 10 because the installer senses that an AV is already present & relegates it to the background so that they don't clash.

Whether you use a free or paid for anti-virus is the users choice & boils down to how familiar you are with the programme, its ease of use, the amount of resources it consumes & how well it does its job.

There are tables of how the different AV programmes coped in tests, eg
- https://www.av-test.org/en/antivirus/ho ... windows-8/

My view on running a free version of any anti-virus programme is that there are millions of PCs around the world using them & if any of them didn't do their job, it would make the headlines in the daily papers.

BTW, I used MSE on Windows 7 & have now used Windows Defender for several years without problem.

 

[lurker]

Thanks for all the advice and reassurance folks.

I had a bit of a panic about the stuff that was going wrong in the world (NHS etc) but see MS have updated my windows 7 and the Avast seems to be doing the same or better.
Every so often, I back everything up on a portable hard drive which is kept locked in the safe, so hopefully I am OK (even if we get a Carrington event :lol: ).

 

[BearTricks]

Windows Defender is all most people need unless you're downloading a lot, clicking ads or visiting certain websites. It's surprisingly reliable for a Microsoft product.

I use Malware Bytes and Spybot Search and Destroy on top of Windows Defender. I've never had a virus, but to be honest a virus scanner isn't going to protect you from the real threat these days, phishing scams. They've become far more sophisticated than fake 'we need to confirm your password' emails.