Topic: Avast Vs. Avira

[haz]

Hello,
This is a little experiment I made on the two well known free anti-virus softwares, I thought Its worth knowing about..
Yesterday I wanted to download pictures from a digital camera to a PC of a relative of mine, I discovered that the PC is infected with the "New Folder.exe" virus, having no anti-virus software installed on the PC, and no internet connection, I used my "First Aid USB Flash Memory" where I have Setup files for Avast 4.8 and Avira 9 ( I guess ) , so I installed Avast to get rid of the virus ( I installed it first because It doesn't have the Ads like Avira ) after the installation I was OVER WHELMED with the virus alerts ! I just kept pressing "delete" but the virus would regenerate the file again so there was no use of this, and I couldn't find any "remember this action next time" check box ! even the on-boot scan didnt work saying "there is not enough memory .." ( I didnt really understand what memory is lacking ) anyway; to make long story short, the avast was a disaster ! so I decided to uninstall it so it doesn't bug the users with so many alerts with no real action..
later then I decided to give avira a try, The first thing I noticed was that there was a "remember this action" check box ! so at least the software doesnt have ask my permission each time it detects a newly-generated "autorun" file ! that actually was a big advantage because I can now start a scan without a distraction, I started a full computer scan and the viruses started showing one after another, I chose the default action every time I was asked ( move to chest or delete, .. ) and at last the scan has detected and dealt with a large number of viruses ( including files like SCVHOST.exe or COPY.exe and others ) and I guess its OK now   except for some error messages that appear at login about the deleted "SCVHOST" virus file..
bottom line, Avast maybe good enough to defend a Clean PC, but to Conquer an Infected PC, try Avira  
Hope this is useful..
What do you think ? does anyone any similar experience ?
 

[Samker]

Haz Thanks,

very useful info's especially for SCF Members which prefer FREE AV solutions.  

One question before my comment: Did you Turn Off System Restore on that PC or maybe try to Scan them in Safe Mode?
Because it's look to that is a reason for come back of that infection.


Personally never try Avira, but I also have similar experience with Avast.
As I remember he have a lot of False Positive detections and don't know how to deal with any harder (new) kind of infections.

By the way, my Favorite and I think The Best FREE AV is AVG, which provide protection which can compete with some BIG names like McAfee, Symantec, Kaspersky...



 

[duomaxwell22]

Avast can finish its full scan ten years after execution 
while this Avira, hhmmm it think much better than Avast..
the good thing on Avast is you can download its update on their web, so you can have it downloaded at any net shop you if you don't have an internet connection at home.

but, i second the motion.. avg is much a hell better than these two in terms of their free service. 

[haz]

Thank you Samker & duomaxwell22 for your comments

One question before my comment: Did you Turn Off System Restore on that PC or maybe try to Scan them in Safe Mode?
Because it's look to that is a reason for come back of that infection.

I dont know how I didnt think of safe mode ! guess I was really distracted !
but what would the system restore do ? why should I turn it off ?

the good thing on Avast is you can download its update on their web, so you can have it downloaded at any net shop you if you don't have an internet connection at home.

That IS a good point ! but I guess it can be done somehow on Avira or AVG..

By the way, my Favorite and I think The Best FREE AV is AVG, which provide protection which can compete with some BIG names like McAfee, Symantec, Kaspersky...

but, i second the motion.. avg is much a hell better than these two in terms of their free service.  Karma Up

I didnt try AVG on my PC before, maybe I should give it a try when My current Kaspersky License Expires, Thanks for the advice

[bam]

Well, I will give it a shot and see if it works. Thanks for the tip.

[Samker]

Quote from: Samker
One question before my comment: Did you Turn Off System Restore on that PC or maybe try to Scan them in Safe Mode?
Because it's look to that is a reason for come back of that infection.

I dont know how I didnt think of safe mode ! guess I was really distracted !
but what would the system restore do ? why should I turn it off ?

In my experience System Restore is one of main problems during PC cleaning operations, short explanation:

System Restore backs up the bad with the good, thus a problem occurs when malware is present on the system and gets included in this restore point. When users later scan their system with antivirus software, they may receive a message that a virus was found in either the _RESTORE (Windows ME) folder or the System Volume Information folder (Windows XP) but the antivirus software is unable to remove it.


Hope this will help you...  

[haz]

Well, I will give it a shot and see if it works. Thanks for the tip.

you are welcome

System Restore backs up the bad with the good, thus a problem occurs when malware is present on the system and gets included in this restore point. When users later scan their system with antivirus software, they may receive a message that a virus was found in either the _RESTORE (Windows ME) folder or the System Volume Information folder (Windows XP) but the antivirus software is unable to remove it.

Thanks a lot Samker, I noticed before that a lot of viruses tend to hide in the "System Volume Information" folder, but I thought that they were easy to delete ! I will pay more attention next time
I will disable it anyway, coz I dont use system restore.

[georgecloner]

Nice experiment and observations guys. 

To my point of view, we can never really tell when will our systems will get infected by viruses.

I can only suggest, an effective mean other than anti-virus is by using DeepFreeze. I used it for years now and for me it is the safest way to keep your system from viruses and malware modifications! 

[F3RL]

In my experience System Restore is one of main problems during PC cleaning operations

I strongly agree; I disable System Restore soon after a fresh installation of new Windows XP. Cloning the entire hard drive (clean copy of course) is really handy, though I need to clone it every weekend with latest IDEs (virus definition).

[acetone]

I used AVG, Avast and Avira free editions in the past one year; I like Avira the best of the lot. I think AVG kinda lost the plot with v8.x..i got too many false positives with it, and Avast has some UI and performance issues. Avira generally works well, but hs occasional problems updating the definitions files and engine correctly. But of the lot, it's the least problematic.