[The Skeptic]

I do not admire the interface of AVAST too, especially when it works on older, DOS based windows. When it comes to customers I only install AVG (reluctantly) because of it's higher degree of automation and user friendliness. The bottom line is that for myself and for people who know computer slightly better the average user, I prefer AVAST.

You gave me a good laugh with the speaking updates. Not once I nearly jumped out of bed hearing someone speaking in the house in the midst of the night. Luckily I keep the speakers almost always shut.

I am sure there is a solution to the speaking. I'll research and repost if I find any.

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That was easy. After you install AVAST right click the icon at the task bar. Go to program settings > Sounds. Disable the sound.

[The Skeptic]

That was easy. After you install AVAST right click the icon at the task bar. Go to program settings > Sounds. Disable the sound.

[Ztruker]

[Ztruker]

Just found out that the End-of-life for AVG 7.5 updates is 12/31/2008 so there is more time than I originally thought. Still been an interesting discussion though.

[cmpm]

I unloaded AVG 8.0, because it's not a low resource program anymore, imo, with all that got added to it.

Loaded up Avast.
On installing, at the end of installing it wants to do a boot scan of all your files, and I mean all of them.
Which it did, though it took a while.
So everything is scanned that is currently on the computer so now it watches everything you do. So really there is no need for a scheduled full scan.
Unless you want to you can do it manually.

And the interface isn't bad either, I thought.
Ztrucker, I tried this a long time ago and it seems better now.
You might want to give it a go.

My verdict, for now is to keep Avast.

[Ztruker]

I found out today that AVG 8 requires SP2 for XP so anyone with SP1 is left out, along with W95, W98, WME and W2000 pre SP4+Rollup1.

Avast is sounding better and better. I think I'll give it another try.

[VidenTheColdOne]

I have been using Avast for a few months now, and never had a problem. Its a fantastic program considering its free. Im about to upgrade XP to SP3, i hope it doesn't give me any problems, but i dont think it will.

[cmpm]

The control panel looks more like a mp3 player then an antivirus program.

So I can understand the annoyance of the look of Avast.

I was getting tired of AVG scanning the same files every day anyway. I know the schedule can be set different but with all these added extras it puts a load on my little cpu.

[Ztruker]

Apparently the info I was given about AVG 7.5 updates being available till the end of the year was bogus. I just got this warning message on my Web Server again.



If you click on the Learn More & Upgrade Now link, you go here: http://campaign.gris...-02a-free78cnv/

I'm going to post this in the AVG forum I got the bogus info from, see what they say.

[JSntgRvr]

Try Avira AntiVir Personal - FREE Antivirus.

[The Skeptic]

Looks like the free Antivir gives you even less protection then AVG. No spyware protection, no email protection, no peer to peer and downloads protection. Doesn't look good at all.

[JSntgRvr]

Looks like the free Antivir gives you even less protection then AVG. No spyware protection, no email protection, no peer to peer and downloads protection. Doesn't look good at all.

That is true, it works as AVG 7, and it will not slowdown your computer. Overprotecting your computer is not the answer. Good practices while on the internet it is.

[Rorschach112]

Avira is very impressive in my opinion. Definitely what I am recommending for an anti-virus these days.

Get something small like SpywareGuard for real-time protection.

no email protection, no peer to peer and downloads protection.

Best defense against those is common sense. Doesn't matter what protection you are running, if you download and open a malware infected rar or zip file, your PC is going to get infected.

[jester620]

I've converted to AVAST for a while now.

1) You can automate scans using: "C:\Program Files\Alwil Software\Avast4\ashQuick.exe" c:

2) You can change the way the interface looks using the many different skins available from AVAST. I person like the "maclover x" skin. (despite hating mac personally).



3) As stated earlier you can kill the sounds via the settings. (I agree I don't like them).

4) Automatically updates both virus database and program (via settings change for program update).

5) Real-time scanning

6) FREE!

Just my two-cents on the matter.

[The Skeptic]

Well, I agree and I don't. It's true that the way to protect your computer is common sense, proper decision making about what sites to avoid and so on. The only thing is that what is clear to us is not clear at all to the people we work for. Most members in this forum are above-average computer users and do not reflect the level of the general public that I am familiar with.

I deal, like most professional technicians, with people who have only the vaguest idea about what malware is and how to avoid infections. I deal with elderly people. I deal with teenagers who use their computers to download from e-mule, kazaa, limewire, [bleep] sites, chat-rooms, instant messaging services and others, infecting their computers like crazy. They bought the computer for this purposes and you can't tell them to stop. I explain and warn as much as I can. On every computer I install, besides the antivirus, two other programs which I know that the user will never update or use. For these people the barest minimum is a reasonable peer-to-peer and email protection.

If I could make a wish about what I want from an antimalware program I would ask for a fully automatic program that gives inclusive protection, uses minimum resources and doesn't bother the user with messages that he doesn't understand, getting frightened from and don't know, anyway, what to do with. There is no such creature. Inclusive programs cost a lot of money, slow your computer, don't protect it better then free programs, and give you [bleep] when you try to remove them.

Frankly, I didn't find a good solution yet, not even for myself. I use Avast because I think that it is by far the best free antivirus, the only one in which the maker removed some conveniences, compared to the commercial version, but left you with a good, not a crippled program. In this respect Antivir and AVG are inferior.

I use SpywareTerminator for real time protection but honestly, when I see the warning messages, quite often I am not sure what action to take. In this respect SpywareGuard and Spybot's Tea-Timer are the same. Most people get so scared by the warnings that I don't even try to offer these programs.