Antivirus Help!

[fishm3ist3r]

My computer is an AW m11x
i7 640UM
4gb DDR3
1gb Nvidia geforce 335m (Dedicated)
HDD

My laptop currently has 1 year Mcafee installed. I also have access to Avast! Internet Security (Full Paid Version), and was wondering which of the two would be better for my computer? I considered Avast because it has the "silent gaming mode" which I think might improve WoW performance, however I don't really know what to get.

PS: I will also be installing Malwarebytes Anti-malware and Super Anti-spyware later in the future (soon), but they will not be running in the background. They will only be installed and used in emergencies.

I'm looking for the best possible performance for WoW and security. Would I experience an increase in performance by switching to Avast! IS? or do you guys recommend me a better AV?

[Cralor]

Honestly, I've only had bad experience with McAfee. It's popularity is only driven by the fact that it is placed in computers before selling them to customers (aka "bloatware"). (Which is how you got yours.)

I'm not sure of it's current state, but I've always experienced it as a large resource-hog.

In my opinion, there is no "best" Anti-Virus. Each has their pros and cons, and if you ever go to a website for Anti-Virus Assistance, they will have you use many programs to get your issue resolved.

So, to directly answer "McAfee vs. Avast!", I'd say Avast!. I've only ever tried the free version, and really enjoyed it. When you also utilize MalwareBytes and SUPERAntiSpyware as "scan when you feel like it" programs, I think that's a great combination.

Remember: only ever have ONE Realtime Scanner (aka teatimer, on-access scanner). They will conflict. But having several "scanner" programs will not be so bad (just maybe the occasional false alarm while scanning, though I haven't experienced this recently).

Personally, I've just been sticking with SUPERAntiSpyware, MalwareBytes, and MSE (Microsoft Security Essentials) as my realtime scanner.

Hope this information is of help.

[Rilgamon]

Using the paid version of avira. I would recommend it over any other
antivirus (except kaspersky). The balance of resources used to security
is for the two the best (imo).

But like Cralor said, there is no "best" solution.

There is a free private edition of avira to test it. But the comparable
low price of the premium version of the standalone avira (there is a package
with firewall etc, too) makes it easy to recommend the paid version
which you can even test for some time before it expires (iirc 4 weeks).

http://www.avira.com/en/pages/index.php

[Xubera]

is it bad that i dont use one? I have AVG as it was required by my school, and pretty much to use my school internet, you have to have their 3rd party software which bars you from their network if your compromised...

any ways... i never run AVG, AVG never pops up with alerts, so i guess i never worry about it :/

[Xinhuan]

You can try out Microsoft Security Essentials as well, it is received quite favourably and "fared better in AV-Test.org test: It detected and caught 98.44 percent of 545,034 computer viruses, computer worms and software Trojan horses as well as 90.95 percent of 14,222 spyware and adware samples. It also detected and eliminated all 25 tested rootkits. It generated no false-positive at all."

It's free and easy to use.

[Waky]

Originally Posted by Xinhuan You can try out Microsoft Security Essentials as well, it is received quite favourably and "fared better in AV-Test.org test: It detected and caught 98.44 percent of 545,034 computer viruses, computer worms and software Trojan horses as well as 90.95 percent of 14,222 spyware and adware samples. It also detected and eliminated all 25 tested rootkits. It generated no false-positive at all." It's free and easy to use.

I know a couple of people who use it, and I've heard it's great. I personally have Kaspersky, but I do have MSE on my Laptop (I never use my laptop though.) I've not heard anything bad about MSE. :P

[Jzar]

Silent Gaming Mode is a way to disable alerts from stealing focus when you're in a game. Unless Avast is constantly popping up and telling you you have a virus, it is of no benefit to you.

That said, I've been using the free version of Avast! for probably about five years. I can't actually tell you if it's any good or not because ... I've never gotten a virus. (That's a good recommendation, in other words)

It's also way better than McAffee in terms of performance hit, so it's pretty good that way too. Good luck!

[Marthisdil]

Originally Posted by fishm3ist3r My computer is an AW m11x i7 640UM 4gb DDR3 1gb Nvidia geforce 335m (Dedicated) HDD My laptop currently has 1 year Mcafee installed. I also have access to Avast! Internet Security (Full Paid Version), and was wondering which of the two would be better for my computer? I considered Avast because it has the "silent gaming mode" which I think might improve WoW performance, however I don't really know what to get. PS: I will also be installing Malwarebytes Anti-malware and Super Anti-spyware later in the future (soon), but they will not be running in the background. They will only be installed and used in emergencies. I'm looking for the best possible performance for WoW and security. Would I experience an increase in performance by switching to Avast! IS? or do you guys recommend me a better AV?

Microsoft - www.microsoft.com/security_essentials

Free, rates highly on the AV Comparatives website (which does bi-annual tests/comparisons of all the big AV players), and well, it's free, doesn't hog up a lot of resources, and it works.

[Shannara80]

Coming from personal experience, I have used Avira, Avast!, AVGfree, and Nod32 (current AV on my rig). Of all of them I like NOD32 the best.

Avira, while good at stopping the viruses from getting in, just got too annoying for me with the add that it pops up (cause it would do it randomly).

Avast!, is another good choice, but it can give you several false positives in some cases. Like if you d/l Leatrix Latency Fix.. the moment you run that Avast will tell you that something is trying to edit the registry. While this is a good thing can get annoying if you know what you are doing, and it has a habit of preventing some applications from editing the registry (again not always a bad thing).

AVGfree, is a solid choice, as the only difference between the paid version and the free is that you have to manually run the scan on your drives. While this does prevent the program from using resources that are needed elsewhere, it can be a problem if you are prone to forget that you need to run a scan.

Nod32, by far my personal favorite, I have not had a problem at all with viruses and such with this, and it doesn't interfere with performance in wow. It is also one of the highest rated AV apps out there currently.

Now, I know that there are others out there that have their own ideas as to what is best for AV, and then there are those that say that if you are smart you don't need it. But its always best to be prepared and armed then to think that you can't be affected by viruses (just my opinion). Also, if you really want to put an AV program to the test, point your browser to Spycar.org and follow the directions. I did this with Nod32 and it stopped everything (even the removal app lol).

Sorry about the wall of text, but thought I would just add my 2¢.

[brotherhobbes]

I use Panda Cloud.

[sacrife]

I also recommend Nod32. Well worth the purchase.

[Petrah]

Originally Posted by Shannara80 the only difference between the paid version and the free is that you have to manually run the scan on your drives. While this does prevent the program from using resources that are needed elsewhere, it can be a problem if you are prone to forget that you need to run a scan.

This is not true. My roomie purchased the full AVG Internet Security Suite, which I installed and set up to do a full scan of all three of his drives every morning at 4am. I had the free version of AVG on this machine (until I decided to test run MSE for awhile), on my daughters machine, and also just installed AVG on my new laptop. The free version does indeed have options to do the same types of scans as the paid version at any time intervals that you want, options to run on specific drives, all drives, specific folders, or specific files.

The only real difference between the paid version and the free version is you get more crap with the paid version that you really don't need, and even on a beefy machine it's (the paid version) a resource hog. As for the AVG Free... I've never been able to notice that it's running. In other words, it's light on resources as long as you're not running a full scan while your on the PC.

[Shannara80]

Maybe they changed it from when I last used it then... but it's a good change for the AVGFree. But Petrah is right that it is a resource hog still.

[Seerah]

AVG Free has had scheduled scans for as long as I've used it (5 years?). I have it set to use the lowest amount of resources, though it takes longer to complete a scan. I may look into MSE, though, from all of the recommendations here.