Anti Virus

[Andavari]

there are certain features about Avast that I appreciate. The shields are very configurable, and I really liked the bootscan on the pay version (is that available on the free version)?

Avast is very configurable as is AntiVir. Avast Home Edition also has that boot scanner too. I just wish AVG was able to have exclusions because constantly scanning stuff like the Microsoft Office .cab files is a redundant waste of time, as are some other archives I have on my system since they'll never ever change.

[Anthony A]

You don't have to use a skinned interface. It's very plain and simple with no skin. I personally don't use any skins.

 

And about the Antivirus programs... It's very hard to say, what's the best one. It's basicly a matter of taste. I have found Avast! to be good and have no reason to change it.

Here's a picture of Avast! with no skin: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d...face_onskin.png

 

 

If I remember correctly when you choose the simple skin or no skin you don't have the features available that you do with the full skin.

 

Also when I dumped Norton and was looking at the free anti virus programs Avast did not have a user guide any where to look at before install. AVG and Antivir have very nice thorough ones. I went over each before I decided on AVG. Avast should have one. I shouldn't have to install the program before I can see what features it has and options. I don't like unexpected surprises during install. The user guide should walk you through whats going to happen and what options will be available to you.

[1984]

thanks andavari. ill give it a shot on my desktop.

 

do you (or anyone else) know a fix to do that on Vista Home Premium?

 

Cause i really like avira, but maybe ill switch to avast on just my laptop if i cant get rid of that add.

[Andavari]

do you (or anyone else) know a fix to do that on Vista Home Premium?

Since I don't use Vista I don't know.

 

Search for disable instructions online if what I posted doesn't work.

 

Edit:

And do NOT delete avnotify.exe it's a futile attempt. AntiVir will just download and reinstall it again during the next update.

[DennisD]

If I remember correctly when you choose the simple skin or no skin you don't have the features available that you do with the full skin.

 

Also when I dumped Norton and was looking at the free anti virus programs Avast did not have a user guide any where to look at before install. AVG and Antivir have very nice thorough ones. I went over each before I decided on AVG. Avast should have one.

Thats a new one on me. I've tried with and without skin, after CeeCee mentioned the no skin option on here some time back, and I've never noticed any difference. Maybe CeeCee can confirm this.

 

As far as a user guide, I think these are pretty comprehensive pre installation guides on both the Home Edition and the Pro version. Told me everything I needed to know when I was changing from Norton, and then upon installation you have the in depth guide.

 

Avast 4 Home Edition: Avast 4 Professional Edition:

 

Another little touch I like about Avast is the feature of the Virus Chest that backs up valuable system files, i.e. Kernel32.dll, winsock.dll, wsock32.dll, in the event of any future attack causing damage to these files.

 

This isn't something your average user would think to do, or even know about. I'm sure I didn't.

[CeeCee]

If I remember correctly when you choose the simple skin or no skin you don't have the features available that you do with the full skin.

There's no differences in features. Only thing is, that with skin, there's more options/buttons at skin itself. With simple interface you found those options under 'Tools' and 'Settings' menu. Those options are not needed though, when you do a scan.

[1984]

Thanks Andavari! That did the trick on the desktop. Worked like a charm! Good times dude!

[Anthony A]

There's no differences in features. Only thing is, that with skin, there's more options/buttons at skin itself. With simple interface you found those options under 'Tools' and 'Settings' menu. Those options are not needed though, when you do a scan.

 

That must be what I read than. It's been a over a year since I last looked at Avast. It looks like they have changed that ugly GUI they had a year ago to.

[Anthony A]

As far as a user guide, I think these are pretty comprehensive pre installation guides on both the Home Edition and the Pro version. Told me everything I needed to know when I was changing from Norton, and then upon installation you have the in depth guide.

 

Avast 4 Home Edition: Avast 4 Professional Edition:

 

 

I wanted that "in depth guide" you get "upon installation" before I installed the program. AVG and Antivir both have one (most programs do). Once I read the AVG guide I knew exactly everything I needed to do even before I installed. Might be a minor point to some but it was one of the reasons I went with AVG and not Avast when I dumped Norton.

[Anthony A]

Can someone that is currently using Avast tell me how many processes it has running? There is something like 7 shields in the resident component. There is one for web mail, chat and P2P, network shield, web shield, and some others. Do each of these run a separate process or what?

 

It's in this guide. http://files.avast.com/files/eng/avast-pro...tall-manual.pdf

[CeeCee]

Can someone that is currently using Avast tell me how many processes it has running?

It depends on what modules do you install with it. If you don't install/use any extra modules, there's 3 processes running for the Avast; GUI process (that shows the system tray icon), automatic update process and the main Avast service process. On my system, currently those 3 processes takes about 13Mb of ram. Update process only takes 292Kb.

 

Note: Network Shield module doesn't run as a separate process. That's the only extra module i use with Avast.

[Anthony A]

It depends on what modules do you install with it. If you don't install/use any extra modules, there's 3 processes running for the Avast; GUI process (that shows the system tray icon), automatic update process and the main Avast service process. On my system, currently those 3 processes takes about 13Mb of ram. Update process only takes 292Kb.

 

Note: Network Shield module doesn't run as a separate process. That's the only extra module i use with Avast.

 

OK, thanks. 13 MB is not bad but still much more then AVG. Take a look at the working set column. Less than 3 MB for AVG.

 

[CeeCee]

13 MB is not bad but still much more then AVG. Take a look at the working set column. Less than 3 MB for AVG.

Yes, but memory usage is not everything. 10Mb is not much, if you got plenty of ram. And it's not a reason for me to change AV.

 

EDIT: I asked about Avast memory usage from Avast forum and also mentioned about AVG mem usage. I got this info about AVG:

 

The AVG scanning engine actually runs in the kernel (in the kernel-mode driver avgcore.sys) so you won't see its memory usage in the Task Manager.