I've been using the free version of Avira for years, and it's never found a threat. All it has done is warn me about things that are not threats. Now I see that I have AGV Antivirus. It must have tagged along when I downloaded something else. I had that run scans, and all it found as threats were a PDF I made and three word-processing documents. In addition to that, Avira will occasionally use a lot of power, memory, and hard drive. The hard drive sounds like a machine gun. I'm using the standard Microsoft antivirus, and from what I've seen online, that's very competent. So, I'm tempted to remove Avira and AVG. Definitely AVG - the uninvited guest.
I've been computing since the beginning, and I can't recall an A-V program ever finding an actual virus. Everything they have found has been questionable or harmless. Sometimes I think that AV programs pop up warnings just to make me think they're necessary.
I had AVG for years. In my opinion, Norton was the worst - so intrusive. For the past 10 years I've had Malwarebytes. My memory seems to recall one trojan that was removed by AVG support.
I'm very happy with Malwarebytes and the absence of malware. For $25 a year, I have piece of mind. My wife charges more!!
Mark
jerryc41 wrote:
I've been using the free version of Avira for years, and it's never found a threat. All it has done is warn me about things that are not threats. Now I see that I have AGV Antivirus. It must have tagged along when I downloaded something else. I had that run scans, and all it found as threats were a PDF I made and three word-processing documents. In addition to that, Avira will occasionally use a lot of power, memory, and hard drive. The hard drive sounds like a machine gun. I'm using the standard Microsoft antivirus, and from what I've seen online, that's very competent. So, I'm tempted to remove Avira and AVG. Definitely AVG - the uninvited guest.
I've been computing since the beginning, and I can't recall an A-V program ever finding an actual virus. Everything they have found has been questionable or harmless. Sometimes I think that AV programs pop up warnings just to make me think they're necessary.
I've been using the free version of Avira for year... (
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Since windows for for workgroups I have never had an antivirus program. I only ran backups.
Today you don't need a backup program. Windows defender is builtin to windows 10. It runs in the background and it updates automatically. If you are going to risky places on the internet, load the url into virustotal.com and and files you download also into virustotal.com Double protection.
olemikey
Loc: 6 mile creek, Spacecoast Florida
jerryc41 wrote:
I've been using the free version of Avira for years, and it's never found a threat. All it has done is warn me about things that are not threats. Now I see that I have AGV Antivirus. It must have tagged along when I downloaded something else. I had that run scans, and all it found as threats were a PDF I made and three word-processing documents. In addition to that, Avira will occasionally use a lot of power, memory, and hard drive. The hard drive sounds like a machine gun. I'm using the standard Microsoft antivirus, and from what I've seen online, that's very competent. So, I'm tempted to remove Avira and AVG. Definitely AVG - the uninvited guest.
I've been computing since the beginning, and I can't recall an A-V program ever finding an actual virus. Everything they have found has been questionable or harmless. Sometimes I think that AV programs pop up warnings just to make me think they're necessary.
I've been using the free version of Avira for year... (
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Been using Windows Defender for sometime now after Avira/BitDefender/AVG/Norton.....no problems and less intrusive.
I've used AVG and Malwarebytes for a long time, and have no complaints. Also suggest you consider a VPN.
I remove malware professionally. Windows Defender is now quite good, and easy on resources. AVG was my anti virus of choice some years ago, but has grown into a bloated resource hog. All of the large "Internet Security Suite" type programs are to be avoided, in my book. Some are worse than the malware they claim to defend against. Go light...Windows Defender, or if you feel you must go elsewhere, stick with the free versions. They're always less harmful to performance than the bloated pay versions.
r1ch wrote:
Today you don't need a backup program. ...
I would strongly disagree. Virus protection doesn't have anything to do with the need for a good backup. All hardware is subject to failure.
For virus protection, I would suggest Windows Defender and Malwarebytes.
jerryc41 wrote:
I've been using the free version of Avira for years, and it's never found a threat. All it has done is warn me about things that are not threats. Now I see that I have AGV Antivirus. It must have tagged along when I downloaded something else. I had that run scans, and all it found as threats were a PDF I made and three word-processing documents. In addition to that, Avira will occasionally use a lot of power, memory, and hard drive. The hard drive sounds like a machine gun. I'm using the standard Microsoft antivirus, and from what I've seen online, that's very competent. So, I'm tempted to remove Avira and AVG. Definitely AVG - the uninvited guest.
I've been computing since the beginning, and I can't recall an A-V program ever finding an actual virus. Everything they have found has been questionable or harmless. Sometimes I think that AV programs pop up warnings just to make me think they're necessary.
I've been using the free version of Avira for year... (
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Use the windows antivirus for some years. some of the top name brands cripple/slow the computer horribly. Had McAfee preinstalled on new Dell laptop... which I uninstalled but had a time stopping their regular e-mails... funny, when they finally stopped regular e-mails to me then SPAM, claiming to be McAfee, immediately started and I receive 1 to 5 emails a day from them. Have them sent to junk on PC/laptops but iPad will not do that.
I have had a couple of malwares caught/fixed over the years... one my fault and 1 a learning experience (when grandchildren were young, I started having an old laptop that they could use... instead of mine!!!... any problem at all and I cleaned the disk and reinstalled winDOSE)
markngolf wrote:
I had AVG for years. In my opinion, Norton was the worst - so intrusive. For the past 10 years I've had Malwarebytes. My memory seems to recall one trojan that was removed by AVG support.
I'm very happy with Malwarebytes and the absence of malware. For $25 a year, I have piece of mind. My wife charges more!!
Mark
"Norton" was very good in the beginning - when it was his company. Then he sold his company and his name. He made his fortune with his unerase program.
I found it's just as hard to get rid of antivirus software as the virus.
BebuLamar wrote:
I found it's just as hard to get rid of antivirus software as the virus.
Yes, especially Norton. I keep getting pop-ups from Avira, which is annoying.
Avast has worked well for me for years; no charge.
BebuLamar wrote:
I found it's just as hard to get rid of antivirus software as the virus.
Depends on the specific software package. I suspect that many of the s/w packages have their own uninstall programs that work very well. I have tried a/v software from many different vendors over the years and never had any trouble getting rid of a package when I uninstalled it.
For several years now, I've used Malwarebytes (paid subscription) and SuperAntiSpyware (free version) and have not had any problems. I sometimes run CCleaner (another freebie) manually to clean up and out superfluous cookies and unnecessary junk from the computer.
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