Review of 11 Antivirus Software applications

[SagaLore]

Originally posted by: tangent1138
i tried panda for a while. i liked it at first, but it turned out sometimes it made my system unstable at startup. the instability went away when i uninstalled. so i guess i'm looking for a new option...

I was trying to evaluate Panda for weeks as a replacement to our firm's av, but I couldn't get it to install. I kill two desktops in the process because the uninstalls weren't clean. I gave up because I couldn't even get to the deployment phase. Not good when your AV is throwing up DLL and C++ exception errors all over the place.

 

[SagaLore]

Originally posted by: MindfuLLOne
I use extendia antivirus, witch is a antivirus program from hell. it uses two engines at once. one that M$ might licence as a future antivirus for windows (RAV) and the kaspersky engine, and it's cheap too.
only draw back is if you do a full system scan using both engines at once (you can disable one or the other) it takes a while> but on the plus side first time i ran it I found 8 virus' that norton 2004 didn't find.

here's a link: http://www.boomerangsoftware.com/

Hey great, an Antivirus I haven't seen before. Adding it to my list...

Extendia Antivirus Support Forum

 

[LiLithTecH]

Just a curious question.

Whom do you think benefits the most by virus infections?

 

[Schadenfroh]

Originally posted by: LiLithTecH
Just a curious question.

Whom do you think benefits the most by virus infections?

symantec

 

[SagaLore]

Originally posted by: Schadenfroh

Originally posted by: LiLithTecH
Just a curious question.

Whom do you think benefits the most by virus infections?

symantec

The entire Information Security industry. Viruses keep us on our toes, helps to reveal exploits that would otherwise had been used by hackers transparently, and basically gives us a mission (and job security).

 

[preslove]

OP link is dead. I would love to read it to keep my new laptop clean

 

[Schadenfroh]

Originally posted by: preslove
OP link is dead. I would love to read it to keep my new laptop clean

works fine here

if the link is broken because of fuse talk, the address is

www.schadentech.com/Reviews/Antivirus/antivirus_roundup.htm

 

[RealityTime]

Originally posted by: Schadenfroh
Link to SchadenTech's Review

All RAM errors corrected, pics of process viewer posted for proof of ram usage

um where is The Cleaner from www.moosoft.com really the best anti-trojan available.

 

[ThePiston]

Originally posted by: HeroOfPellinor
I don't use any virus scan software and have never had a virus.

How about instead of showing people how to continue their horrible computing habits, you dedicate a thread or two to teaching people how to be smart about the interweb.

That's hilarious, it reminds me AL Bundy when he said, "I've never been to the dentist, and I've never had a cavity!"

 

[Firus]

Originally posted by: HeroOfPellinor
I don't use any virus scan software and have never had a virus.

How about instead of showing people how to continue their horrible computing habits, you dedicate a thread or two to teaching people how to be smart about the interweb.

That is funny...it's almost guaranteed that there will be something on there. Even with a virus scanner installed with up to date defs, I installed a different one and found a virus. Yes, I am smart about the interweb as my job usually consists of cleaning up after people who are not.

 

[amenx]

I've been using AVG free ed for 3 years now. Mayby 2 or 3 times I got minor infections. But its my AV of choice because its the least resource/mem hog, esp when I disabled everything except the resident shield, so mem usage gets down to around 1.8mb.

I dont care much if I get infected as I have synchronized OS backups and dual boots that are updated every few days.

They're discontinuing the AVG6 version by end Dec. I tried the AVG7 which is its replacement. Very good! Slightly higher mem usage, but still relatively low. It appears and functions like a higher-price shareware AV.

 

[CaptainSpectacular]

just wanted to throw out another vote for testing the corporate editions of these virus scanners (i know McAffee and Norton/Symantec have ones) - the interfaces tended to be MUCH cleaner, much less in your face, etc. Presumably, they use the same scan engines as the equivalent "consumer" versions. The real question would be in terms of speed, memory usage, and things along those lines. besides, lots of us get the corp editions free through school or work

just a thought.

 

[CaptainSpectacular]

i forgot to mention that the corp editions do not require you to "subscribe" to virus definition updates or have limited licenses or anything like that. just FYI....

 

[Wigwam]

Originally posted by: CaptainSpectacular
just wanted to throw out another vote for testing the corporate editions of these virus scanners (i know McAffee and Norton/Symantec have ones) - the interfaces tended to be MUCH cleaner, much less in your face, etc. Presumably, they use the same scan engines as the equivalent "consumer" versions. The real question would be in terms of speed, memory usage, and things along those lines. besides, lots of us get the corp editions free through school or work

just a thought.

i would be very interested in this too - esp the SAV vs NAV 2005 shootout!

 

[Megatomic]

Schadenfroh, have you tried the newest version of eTrust from Computer Associates? It has been overhauled (especially the GUI) recently and your review is now a little out of date. I'd like to see how the newest version of eTrust compares to the competitors, others may as well.

 

[imported_FishTaco]

Schadenfroh,

In your review of AntiVir, you state that there's no auto update feature that does not require user interaction. However if you use the windows task scheduler to run the task:

"C:\Program Files\AVPersonal\INETUPD.EXE" /UDE /EXP

The update program will run, download, install then close without any user interaction.

You can also use the AntiVir Scheduler to schedule this task. Note, I got the command line parameters to do the automatic update from the AntiVir Scheduler.