Avast vs AVG Which is the Best Free Protection?

[MeesterJackson]

Which do you use/prefer/recommend? 

 

I've been using Avast for about 2 years now and it does a pretty decent job of what it's supposed to be doing. However, it has given me a couple of snags in the past. One of the biggest problems is that it gave me the Maestro Error Screen for League of Legends and because of me not knowing it was Avast right away (though I've heard other virus protectors cause League this error sometimes as well) I wound up uninstalling League...which cause all my saved item sets to be deleted....I had over 100 of those. :T Eventually I simply uninstalled Avast, booted up League, it worked, then I re-installed Avast and so far, have never gotten the issue again. 

 

And apparently it was the cause of my system going bat-shyt crazy several days ago from me installing an optional Windows 8/.1 update...which took me about 2 hours to fix. 

 

I haven't used AVG since probably 2010ish. I personally didn't like it too much at the time. Has it gotten better? Because it seems like all the software/program review sites say it and MalwareBytes (which I have) are like the two best free programs to own for virus protection and malware protection. 

 

Thanks. 

[c3p0_]

A honest lie: AVG is more intuitive.

The truth: Antiviruses are useless with new infections anyways. They are all equal bad with unkown detections.

[JeffreyEagan]

AVAST. Avast is live protection, and will stop the virus from attacking anything, while AVG will only try to stop it AFTER it's running.

[STRMfrmXMN]

Avast is what I use. AVG has been going downhill lately. Also, the UI feels weird to me. 

I turn off the stupid Avast notfications in Settings-General-Gaming Mode BTW

[nanowatt]

They are useless they may prevent a few viruses but in the end it will get infected anyway

[terrytek]

Avast.

 

They are useless they may prevent a few viruses but in the end it will get infected anyway

Bullshit.

[JeffreyEagan]

They are useless they may prevent a few viruses but in the end it will get infected anyway

Every AV has it's downside, all of them protect against most viruses. You should be smart enough o have safe browsing habits, anyways.

[nanowatt]

Avast.

 

Bullshit.

On my mom's pc last time i installed windows 3 years ago.No ativirus running the pc still operates like new

[Thorium19]

Well the last time I used AVG it detected itslf as a virus and uninstalled itself. Probably the most confusing thing I've ever seen happen on my laptop. It also found a number of the preinstalled apps to be viruses, and I'd only had the laptop for a week.

[MeesterJackson]

On my mom's pc last time i installed windows 3 years ago.No ativirus running the pc still operates like new

1 That's your mom, 2 she's insanely lucky regardless. 

[MeesterJackson]

Well the last time I used AVG it detected itslf as a virus and uninstalled itself. Probably the most confusing thing I've ever seen happen on my laptop. It also found a number of the preinstalled apps to be viruses, and I'd only had the laptop for a week.

lulwut? 

[JeffreyEagan]

On my mom's pc last time i installed windows 3 years ago.No ativirus running the pc still operates like new

Does she know not to download suspicious files and not to click strange links? Yes? Then she probably doesn't have a virus. You also do know that windows has it's own antivirus, right?

[JeffreyEagan]

Well the last time I used AVG it detected itslf as a virus and uninstalled itself. Probably the most confusing thing I've ever seen happen on my laptop. It also found a number of the preinstalled apps to be viruses, and I'd only had the laptop for a week.

I FREAKING LOVE THIS ISSUE. I've had it happen so many times.

[nanowatt]

1 That's your mom, 2 she's insanely lucky regardless. 

Even so,on my old pc i didn't use any kind of antivirus i usually reinstalled windows once a year so,i never found the need to use an antivirus because i even now use deep freeze so yeah is just my experience but as i said usually they are useless 

[Archangel1994]

Common sense

[JeffreyEagan]

Even so,on my old pc i didn't use any kind of antivirus i usually reinstalled windows once a year so,i never found the need to use an antivirus because i even now use deep freeze so yeah is just my experience but as i said usually they are useless 

Once again, you're still using an AV, every version of Win7/8/.1 has MSE on it.

[Arphenyte]

Common sense

You can't possibly outsmart every single virus out there. That's why you "ask" for help to antiviruses.

Returning to topic, I think Avast is the way to go, I had bad experiences with AVG.

[MeesterJackson]

Common sense

So it's common sense for everyone to know that Avast is possibly better than AVG/the other way around? No it's not. 

[KemoKa]

Avast. After all the cancer that AVG has given computers i've used in the past, I will not use a computer with it on there. Notifcations that "your trial has run out and you need to buy MOAR now" that pop up every 10 minutes and that you can't turn off? never again. The registry errors it creates, the CPU power that it uses up, the RAM that it just eats away at. No. don't touch it.

[flibberdipper]

Avast.

[Archangel1994]

So it's common sense for everyone to know that Avast is possibly better than AVG/the other way around? No it's not. 

That's not what I meant. I meant using common sense is better than an anti-virus. Most things that are viruses just scream "I'M A VIRUS LOL"

[DigitalHermit]

Avast... Turn the sensitvity to max, disable persistent and transient caching, and get it to scan all the things upon viewing...

 

and in case something might've gotten past the shields, Boot Scan...

[MoDtEc]

A honest lie: AVG is more intuitive.

The truth: Antiviruses are useless with new infections anyways. They are all equal bad with unkown detections.

this....

Best virus protection: get a backup and a usb-bootstick....

 

Didnt use any antivirus for three years now and not getting a virus is pretty easy: dont klick on "your pc has 260000 viruses klick heare to delete"-ads

stop downloading porn, trainers, cracks and anything else from sites which are not trustworthy

and do always use the custom installation path on any setup to deactivate 3rd party prowser-apps, addins or whatever this bullshit calls itself to prevent having open (back)FRONT-doors in your browser

[Opcode]

You can't possibly outsmart every single virus out there. That's why you "ask" for help to antiviruses.

Returning to topic, I think Avast is the way to go, I had bad experiences with AVG.

I can (but that's just me)

 

In the real world Anti-Virus engines are designed to serve only one primary purpose. To stop you from being infected by previously known threats. They work off of what's known as a definition database. Which is essentially nothing more than pulling a signature from a malware binary that will likely never change and comparing it to a database of known bad signatures. It's still possible to be infected by a virus created back in 2000 if you run no protection at all. This is why Anti-Virus engines exist simply because threats stay scattered across the web for potentially decades. While engines are growing smarter to detect new threats on their own a large portion of them still have to be manually submitted for analysis. There are easy ways to get around things such as Avast's behavioral shield. The life of malware pretty much boils down to this.

1. New malware gets compiled and distributed.
2. Malware is 0-day and can potentially infect anyone including those running protection.
3. Few days or weeks go by until it's found and then submitted to the definition database.

So in reality protection from malware is really nothing more than placing false hope in someone else's hands. By the time it takes these companies to effectively block new malware literally thousands of people were already hit by it while using their protection. A lot of people like to use the analogy that an Anti-Virus is like using an internet condom. I can tell you it's not. It's more like taking the Plan B pill. The damage could already be done with hopes the of nothing going wrong in the outcome.

 

The best Anti-Virus? Linux. Run a platform that doesn't hold a large portion of the market share. Your typical computer illiterate users won't be the ones running Linux. This is why Linux essentially never has malware problems. Malware creators know anyone who's running Linux knows a thing or two about computers. Meanwhile it's a much harder platform to deploy a piece of malware to as well. It doesn't share the same double click and run simplicity that Windows has. It also has built in safeguards that requires elevated privileges to anything system critical.

 

Personally the best defense practice against malware is dual booting. Install Windows 7 and Ubuntu side by side. Use Ubuntu as your daily driver for web surfing, instant messaging, and everything else. Only boot into your Windows install to play games. You can rip out Internet Explorer from the system so there's essentially no way to get online other than through software.

[simson0606]

why not use just mse (defender in 8 and 8.1) and scan from time to time with malwarebytes?