View Full Version : AVG or Mcafee
Serenity
7th Jul 2009, 09:40
Just finished my years contract with Norton, not paying again so loooking at the free anti virus companines.
Anyone had a particularly good/bad experience with either of the two above, or a more informed opinion than myself???
Thanks.
Sprogget
7th Jul 2009, 09:42
Didn't Mcafee spoil millions of customers day last week with a false positive bout of excitement?
Avast anti virus here & very happy with it too.
Mike-Bracknell
7th Jul 2009, 09:50
Do you mean AVG not ACG?
I would categorise antivirus packages into the following camps:
Good
AVG
Avast
Kaspersky
Bad
McAfee
Symantec/Norton ("personal/home" as opposed to "business", and prior to the very latest release)
Indifferent
Symantec/Norton (latest release, and prior "business" releases)
Also, please note what I said in another thread - my recommendation is never to buy an "all in one" Antivirus+Firewall package, as that is a sure-fire route to hating your computer.
HTH:ok:
Mike-Bracknell
7th Jul 2009, 09:53
PS - Don't install the AVG Toolbar if it asks you to. It's one downside to that package.
I had AVG, and it was excellent for many years. Lately, it's done strange things so been removed in favour of Avast - which has been very good so far.
green granite
7th Jul 2009, 11:27
Having just installed Zone Alarm Security Suite 9 beta into windows 7 and ran a scan it found 7 low-level threats that avast had missed .................allegedly
Bushfiva
7th Jul 2009, 13:17
Just cookies.
ericlday
7th Jul 2009, 13:20
Exactly same as you, happy with Avast...famous last words !!!
parabellum
7th Jul 2009, 13:32
Be sure to download the Symantec unistall tool from their website if you decide to dump it.
Been using AVG for a while and like it, agree, don't buy/download a 'suite', just the anti-virus package. When AVG decides to scan go have a cup of tea as everything else slows up, but you can 'pause scan' and restart it too.
Mike-Bracknell
7th Jul 2009, 15:06
Incidentally, the thing they hide (and have been hiding further since version 8.0 came out) is the free version for home use.
It's http://free.grisoft.com (http://free.grisoft.com/) if you want it. Make sure you click on the "free" version all through until it downloads for you (avoiding the marketing department's idea of getting you to pay for it).
Updates are free as well, but in 12 months time it'll prompt you to buy an update. This is another of their marketing dept's ideas to get you to spend money....just download a new copy from the above link again :ok:
A knowledgeable friend tells me he has been using Antivir for a while and it is good. Any comments here?
Tarq57
7th Jul 2009, 22:48
Antivir (Known today as Avira (http://www.free-av.com/)) has a very loyal user base, good detection rates (at least reportedly so in the paid version, don't know about the free) and is definitely the one I would install if for any reason I couldn't use Avast. (http://www.avast.com/)
Avast has the same protection/cleaning in the free version as it does in the Pro. The other free ones tend to have features, such as detection, somewhat crippled.
What Avast cripples is the ability to schedule scans.
Hardly matters. Nothing is ever found, anyway. The protection is good. The occasional manual scan is enough.
Thanks Tarq - as someone pointed out before, TaskScheduler takes over the Avast scans if you wish.