Buh Bye, Avast

This was the straw that broke the camel's back. I am sick and tired of this stupid app hanging on scanning an email in Outloook 2007, only to hang itself, Outlook, and then my machine. No more!



/rant off

 

This was just the automatic scanner thingy. If I had invoked it, that would have made it less angering.

 

Yeah, all updates. No third party addons. It just happens occasionally on certain emails, like from amazon.com, and even then, its only an issue with certain daily updates from Avast. I know its Avast doing the damage because the email scanner pops up in the taskbar and just hangs there. Being that I've dealt with my fair share of Avast having false positives too...its just tiresome for me.

I've had this particular issue across two machines.

At any rate, I'm running ClamWinAV atm, and yes I realize there is no realtime scanning ability. Being my track record for current virus infections being back from the Win9x days, I feel pretty decently about it. I just need to surf pr0n on my other machine with a realtime scanner installed

Disclaimer: I do not reccomend people to not use an antivirus without realtime protection.

 

I also just killed Avast, but for other reasons.
I didn't like the interface, seemed like it slowed my startup and surfing, and I got tired of it telling me things.
(Yeah, I know I could set it to shut up, but it was so cool when I first got it) :-D
I went back to AVG and so far am happy with the 8.0.
I didn't install the extra 2 components and I don't see it slowing my system like I had heard it does.

 

Every time I have changed an AVG installation for an Avast one the user has reported a noticeable speed increase.

This includes some Vista machines (Dell and Acer) with Outlook 2007.

 

You should see the speed increase going from Avast to ClamWin. :-D

 

ClamWin link for those wanting to try Adrynalyne's recommendation.

ClamWin Free Antivirus 0.93-1 from
http://www.majorgeeks.com/ClamWin_Free_Antivirus_d5544.html

Bazza

 

0.o

Its not my reco, Bazza. I don't recommend any user to use something without real time protection.

This is one of those, don't listen to my suggestions thread. I just wanted to rant on Avast.

 

Fair enough. :-D
I'm might try it, anyhow.

What do you recommend?
Bazza

===

 

Im still up in the air about free ones, but for paid, I prefer Etrust. Im also using Antivir on my desktop atm.

 

Thanks. I'm up in the air, as well. That's why I asked. :-D Bazza

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Update.

ClamWin is a piece of garbage. False positives on a regular basis, and they were never fixed by the next signature update. Program updates are incredibly slow, scanning is slow....not happy with it at all.

Then when I read about how the signature files are created by user input---I had enough.

Currently using Antivir with realtime components shut off. Seems to be working much better.

 

Hello again Avast! Seriously, I haven't had any of your issues Adryn, with Avast. It has been doing a decent job as far as I can tell, in other words timely updates, no false positives and most importantly zero infections! It could also be my surfing habits that are saving me.

As I'm retiring this current rig next week, maybe I'll try to get it infected just to see.

 

The first time I used Avast and it yelled at me that the updates had installed, I just about had a heart attack!!! I never have been a fan of Avast; I don't like the GUI (it looks like a media player or something). I have never been real impressed with ClamWin either; I also found it to be quite slow and it seemed to miss some stuff, while it flagged harmless stuff; weak. AVG is AVG and I think it's good for newbs when installed with defaults; it's easy to use, easy to understand, and easy to interpret what it's telling you, and it's totally automatic which is good for newbs who have problems understanding what's going on and with what their AV is telling them. However, for my home PC, I run 3 security tools: AntiVir, MalwareBytes (full paid version), Comodo BOClean. I don't go to dangerous sites often (like pr0n sites or w@r3z sites) but in the unlikely even that I do, I'll activate Online Armor (it's installed but I only actually run it when surfing 'on the edge').

There's my two cents if anyone gives a :crap

Oh yeah- not really a security tool, but this will keep you more secure than people think: do NOT use Internet Explorer!!! I use Firefox 95% of the time, and Opera the other 5% of the time. Not using IE can really help more than most people think.

 

IE can be made pretty darn secure, at least in Vista.

http://adrynalyne.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!AB9DE24BE9AF1B9F!378.entry

 

Just read (in PCUtilities mag #101 test / review, p44) that AVG 8.0 is around 50% faster than v7.5 was. Especially as

Another quote.

Bazza

 

When I first started using Avast, having switched from AVG because of the false positives it was spitting out on purpose, I was fairly pleased, but now Avast is doing the same thing to me that AVG did, it must find generic trojans in half the files I download, some of them way above reproach. I'm so sick of having to shut it off and redownload the files over again (even if you tell it to ignore, it damages the downloads so they are corrupted). Time and time again I re scanned with a-square free and bit defender online to find nothing. I'm about to dump Avast for antivir until it starts doing the same thing.

Somehow I think these anti-virus companies see themselves as the internet police and they figure they can tag anything they think maybe inappropriate just because they can (you allow them total access to your PC). This holier than thow attitude is going to be the downfall of many security programs as users become more savy at whats ok and whats not.

I do'nt mind paying for security software but I will certainly not buy it from a company who's freeware can't handle the job with some discretion.

 

I have never had a false positive with Avast with defaults set. I've never had a virus either. Go figure.

 

I never did like Avast...the media player GUI turned me off the very instant I seen it....never even cared to give it a chance!!

I use AVG 8.0 and previous versions for about 5 years now...did a custom install so I just have the basic daily system scanner. I use AT&T Yahoo webmail, so I don't need an e-mail scanner. I don't want to put my foot in my mouth...but in the past years that I would consider myself to be an advanced computer user, I have never had a virus, or rogue spyware or anything for that matter.

However...like Adryn said...I don't recommend this careless kind of computing for the average computer user.

Roger