So i'm running McAfee AV through my ISP. And i'm just wanting to hear what others have to say. I have the idea of some POS AV program running at all times, using up resources. At least if it were a little more intelligent, and could employ some sort of low-resource state or gaming mode, then i wouldn't complain too much.
What do you guys think i should do? I ran Avast for a while long ago. I was alright. I really liked Malwarebytes. It seemed to do the trick, and half the time i never had to do a full scan. The quick scans seemed to always work and start in the right places where Malware was most likely to be found.
Is this ISP Provided McAfee AV bothering me more than it should? Or should i look at ditching it for something else? I can't even click on the damn thing in the system tray and close it if i wanted to. It just seems too primitive/simple.
avg, avira actually top the charts in av detection, and are free. Im not sure about the ISP av. Its basically just McAfee with ISP locking/branding but it seems a pain to deal with, compared to unburdened AV.
Avast free is also good. I´m not realy a fan of AVG, since they sell their user data nowdays.
If you use Virtualization software Virtualbox, then dont install Avira atm. Since the latest version of their software contains a bug that prevents virtual machines to get started in Virtualbox.
This cant be true...? as im doing literally exactly that. On windows 7 mind. I stopped using avg as it couldn't do shared folders on vms and had no plans to.
Avira rolled out a software update at the 15Th of December. Since that update is rolled out, Virtualbox cannot execute virtual machines anymore. Avira support allready knows about this bug, and they prommise to solve the issue. But till now its still not fixed.
I use Avira thats why i know. For the rest Avira is a great viruscanner, but their last update breaks Virtualbox.
I use Bitdefender and malwarebytes on my windows boxes. Bitdefender is free with an email (use mailinator or other disposable email service).
I haven't used an isp supplied av in years. I remember them being exactly how you think they are - resource hogging POS. I can't say if they've improved or not, but I don't trust them as they never picked up half the shit malwarebytes and other free av programs did.
I have a video on Tech-Know Scope where I literally spent about 5 hours one night cleaning my sister's computer with Bitdefender. She thought the computer was broken because it had been dropped and it would never fully boot and let her log on, but turned out it had over 130 viruses/malware that Avast (Paid Version) didn't catch... I felt bad because I told her to use Avast. Bitdefender total is on every PC my family uses now. (I made that happen as the family IT guy).
Yeah.. McAfee.. Ditch it :D Plenty of other good alternatives out there. Free, I might add. I personally use Bitdefenders Free AV on multiple machines. It's lightweight and doesn't piss me off. Pretty much a set it and forget it solution.
What BoyTitan said above me, that's a good combo if you wanna go fully manual instead. Good common sense is also a nice to have feature :P
AV Comparatives should also have a summary report coming soon.
Also, if you don't have one, you should probably add a boot disk to your worm fighting arsenal. If you have to clean some computer which has been infected so badly, booting up a recovery AV/malware removal tool is kinda nice. I'd probably grab one from one of the bigger guys, eg Bitdefender/ESET/Kaspersky and so on.
I dont like bitdefender (free), because it lacks on certain usefull feutures, like adding exclusions, wenn having a false positive for example. (unless thats changed with the latest free version?) You also need to register an account to login on their online dashboard, to enable or disable some services, which realy makes no sense to me. I also dont realy find their free version application very usefull.
Their zeo day protection, and cloud based web protection is realy good. But it would be nice if their application was a bit more usefull.
Well I agree with you. But like you said, it's a personal opinion.
The thing I like the most about the free version is the thing that it's so basic and out of your way. Great for those not so technical people. For example I've installed it on my companions parents laptops, haven't heard a single complaint from them :D I'm technical but nowadays I tend to prefer simpler solutions. I might give their full version a go though.
Yes, there is no way to whitelist something (/exclusions) but realistically it's not so bad. I can count the amount of false positives I've had with a single hand. Of course having an option to whitelist something would be nice.
Although if Bitdefender free has false detected and quarantined something: Open the threat control doodah from the UI (Logs > Threat Control) and it offers these options open containing folder remove restore (or in case you've restored something > block)
But what about their resource usage? Are they smarter programs that are able to dynamically use resources. I really don't like the thought of starting to game and not being able to put the software into a 'gaming mode' or something similar. Or shutting it down altogether. I never really remember an AV program that let me shut it down completely.