Page 1 of 2
1
2
LastLast
  1. #1
    The Lightbringer Twoddle's Avatar
    10+ Year Old Account
    Join Date
    Feb 2011
    Location
    UK
    Posts
    3,775

    I uninstalled Avast today

    I've been a long time user of Avast not because of its real time anti-virus protection but because I like its features like browser cleanup and remote assistance.

    However recently my system was having more and more bursts of unexplained activity in the background even when scheduled AV scans were not due. In sysinternals Process Monitor you can see that Avast is always chugging away at something.

    Today I decided I'd had enough and uninstalled Avast. What a relief! The computer is much quieter and process monitor shows minimal background activity. On top of that programs start up quicker, websites that used to takes ages to load because Avast was scanning them now load much quicker. Flash games start up faster and use less CPU time and twitch TV runs perfectly in the browser at source quality without the choppiness.

    Currently running without any anti-virus protection until I decide on an alternative. But anyway no AV has ever stopped a malware download on my machine that I wouldn't have prevented myself.

  2. #2
    I use Microsoft Security Essentials and common sense. Works fine for my needs.

    Also, this thread sounds less like a discussion and more like an advertisement.

  3. #3
    The Lightbringer Twoddle's Avatar
    10+ Year Old Account
    Join Date
    Feb 2011
    Location
    UK
    Posts
    3,775
    What am I advertising exactly?

  4. #4
    Malwarebytes Premium or if your lucky and got their lifetime license. That with ADP and 8.1's MSE and you should be all set. I have anti-exploit running as well and notice no difference in performance and MWB isn't resource intensive. Common sense only gets you so far until you visit a compromised site like mmo-champ etc.

  5. #5
    High Overlord Blaze611's Avatar
    10+ Year Old Account
    Join Date
    Sep 2010
    Location
    127.0.0.1
    Posts
    124
    Quote Originally Posted by Twoddle View Post
    What am I advertising exactly?
    How dare you advertise uninstalling avast? How could you?

  6. #6
    Quote Originally Posted by Iamanerd View Post
    Malwarebytes Premium or if your lucky and got their lifetime license.
    This. I use Malwarebytes Premium on my home PC and it's great. I tried most of the highly rated free alternatives (e.g. AVG, Bitdefender, Panda), but all of them felt too resource heavy or "intrusive", so I decided to spend the $20 for a year subscription to Malwarebytes Premium. It is essentially "silent" in terms of resources used, whilst also being near the top of the charts in terms of real-time protection.

    That being said, if you want to stick with a free alternative, I'd recommend AVG. It seemed to be the least "intrusive" while offering the best protection.

  7. #7
    Panda had a recent problem with an update that after a reboot, it would flag a part of Windows as a Virus and Delete it, preventing Windows from booting again.
    I'm a Kitsune! Not a cat, or a mutt!

  8. #8
    I never ever use AV cos I have not come across one that hogs system resources / slows down my com.

    As long as you are not retarded it is very easy to keep your computer virus / malware free without any form of AV.

    Been 6-7 years now and I have never gotten any crippling virus / malware. Just dont go to dodgy website / install unknown programs.

  9. #9
    Epic! Pejo's Avatar
    10+ Year Old Account
    Join Date
    Mar 2011
    Location
    C eh N eh D eh
    Posts
    1,555
    Quote Originally Posted by noobj View Post
    I never ever use AV cos I have not come across one that hogs system resources / slows down my com.
    I'll never understand this reason. Latest Norton fluctuates between 14mb and 20mb in memory, with less than 1% CPU usage (shows 0). If I run a full system scan while playing games, it jumps up to 82MB with 1.2% usage. What the fuck kind of shit computer do you have to have it affect more than that?

  10. #10
    The Unstoppable Force DeltrusDisc's Avatar
    10+ Year Old Account
    Join Date
    Aug 2009
    Location
    Illinois, USA
    Posts
    20,085
    Quote Originally Posted by Twoddle View Post
    What am I advertising exactly?
    Yeah! We don't allow advertisements OR un-advertisements 'round these parts! Ya'll best be gettin' a move on before mah bruthuh swift-pull Jimmy arrives...

    :P
    "A flower.
    Yes. Upon your return, I will gift you a beautiful flower."

    "Remember. Remember... that we once lived..."

    Quote Originally Posted by mmocd061d7bab8 View Post
    yeh but lava is just very hot water

  11. #11
    I know it's hipster to bash Norton 360. But I've been using the premium package (5 devices protected) since 2012, no complaints what so ever. Very user friendly and not a resource hog.

  12. #12
    Eh, I don't think AV resource usage should be an issue/noticeable on modern hardware. You may have had something else going on.

    That said, I use Bitdefender and never really notice it go above 0.2%~ CPU usage, almost always 0%.

    - - - Updated - - -

    Quote Originally Posted by noobj View Post
    As long as you are not retarded it is very easy to keep your computer virus / malware free without any form of AV.
    Common sense doesn't shield you, common (and extremely annoying) misconception.

    You're browsing this site, right? Did you luckily miss the last 3 times or so mmo champ slammed people with drive by exploits via rogue ads? What about reputable sites that get their commenting system hijacked with dangerous scripting? The list goes on.
    i7-4770k - GTX 780 Ti - 16GB DDR3 Ripjaws - (2) HyperX 120s / Vertex 3 120
    ASRock Extreme3 - Sennheiser Momentums - Xonar DG - EVGA Supernova 650G - Corsair H80i

    build pics

  13. #13
    I use Avast as well, it works great on my pc

  14. #14
    I use Norton 360, but only because my brother bought it and got up to 3 computers protected. So he gave me a code to use on mine, and used the other 2 codes on his 2 comps. It seems ok, but as of late, my comp seems to be lagging a shit ton. I'm unsure what to do at this point. Then again, my computer is over 4-5 years old at this point (I think). Not sure if that has anything to do with it. I'm not a computer techie.

  15. #15
    Quote Originally Posted by noteworthynerd View Post
    This. I use Malwarebytes Premium on my home PC and it's great. I tried most of the highly rated free alternatives (e.g. AVG, Bitdefender, Panda), but all of them felt too resource heavy or "intrusive", so I decided to spend the $20 for a year subscription to Malwarebytes Premium. It is essentially "silent" in terms of resources used, whilst also being near the top of the charts in terms of real-time protection.

    That being said, if you want to stick with a free alternative, I'd recommend AVG. It seemed to be the least "intrusive" while offering the best protection.
    I repair computers for a living, and i recieve 4-6 cases each week, where AVG has disabled a persons User Profile, making the person unable to use their computers.
    The fix is easy to do, yet most people don't know what to do.
    Mind you, i live in Denmark, where the population is 5 million (might be a bit more...), and i still have ALOT of AVG related cases.
    Fractal Design R5 |MSI Z87-G45 | i5 4690k @4.6Ghz | Noctua NH-D15 | Corsair Vengeance 2x4GB 1866 | MSI 980ti G6 |
    XFX 850W | WD Black 1TB | Samsung Evo 850 1TB | Samsung Evo 850 250GB SSD x 2 | Intel 180GB SSD | Rog Swift

  16. #16
    I am Murloc! Cyanotical's Avatar
    10+ Year Old Account
    Join Date
    Feb 2011
    Location
    Colorado
    Posts
    5,553
    Quote Originally Posted by Twoddle View Post
    But anyway no AV has ever stopped a malware download on my machine that I wouldn't have prevented myself.
    not that you know of, AV is mainly to stop stuff that you don't know about, you don't need to manually download anything to get a virus

  17. #17
    Quote Originally Posted by Shadow Fox View Post
    Panda had a recent problem with an update that after a reboot, it would flag a part of Windows as a Virus and Delete it, preventing Windows from booting again.
    Yeah, that got ugly. Panda actually flagged itself as malware and shot down a couple of its own files when that was going on, along with a whole shit ton of other perfectly legitimate programs. I've really never been a big fan of Panda myself, but that was just bad. I luckily only had to deal with that at one site, but yeah. What a pain in the ass. Funny enough, I never saw any of the issues where Windows wouldn't boot, just issues where it would boot fine but had all kinds of programs/components that wouldn't run because of .NET Framework and Visual C++ redistributable stuff that got fucked up by Panda.

    The best thing is that, an hour or so after this initially hit, Panda warned everyone not to reboot because that would make it worse...what's one of the first things your average user does when shit starts acting weird? Yeah. :|

    To be fair, a lot of AV programs have done that very thing over the years. I remember there was a big stink over McAfee a few years back because it flagged some system files and prevented Windows XP from booting. AVG did the same thing. The reason Panda's problem bothered me so much was, again, it flagged itself as malware, which is really a hell of a fuckup.

    OT: I'm running MSE, set up to run a daily full scan, at home. I run Firefox + NoScript (which helps prevent a lot of stuff from browsing by itself), don't click on questionable things, and keep all my shit updated. I'll also occasionally update/run a Malwarebytes Free scan just to double check. That's worked well enough for me since I built this PC in 2011. The only thing I've ever had an issue with was a network scanner (that I knew was legit) on my USB stick that made MSE freak out once.

    I wouldn't recommend MSE to the user who clicks on everything that has a download button and believes those emails from Nigerian dictators, but for me, it's lightweight and works well enough.
    Last edited by Ciddy; 2015-03-27 at 03:35 PM.

  18. #18
    Old God Vash The Stampede's Avatar
    10+ Year Old Account
    Join Date
    Sep 2010
    Location
    Better part of NJ
    Posts
    10,939
    This is why I inch closer to linux. Anti-virus is nothing but problems. Sometimes worse than the virus itself. AVG installed and when it has a "major" update it begs me to reboot. Then when I do it changes my default search and webpage in my browsers, plus installs some plugins for them. WTF?

  19. #19
    I've personally enjoyed Comodo's Security for several years now, and only uses a ton of System Resources when I want it to. (Such as a full scan.)

    Never had too many problems with them. MSE, I've had a few issues with it in the past, so I can't say for certain what it is like anymore.

    But it seems, with last Month, Comodo surpassed Norton. (Though, I've always been one of those people who said 'Norton IS the Virus' )

    https://www.melih.com/2015/02/17/fir...c263d71b9c4572
    I'm a Kitsune! Not a cat, or a mutt!

  20. #20
    Pit Lord Ghâzh's Avatar
    15+ Year Old Account
    Join Date
    Mar 2009
    Location
    Helsinki, Finland
    Posts
    2,329
    Quote Originally Posted by glo View Post
    Common sense doesn't shield you, common (and extremely annoying) misconception.

    You're browsing this site, right? Did you luckily miss the last 3 times or so mmo champ slammed people with drive by exploits via rogue ads? What about reputable sites that get their commenting system hijacked with dangerous scripting? The list goes on.
    Antivirus is like a car's seat belt. It's unlikely that you'll ever get in an accident that would kill you but it would be extremely stupid to not wear one.

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •