About Avira antivirus and others?

Question

I've tried AVG, Avast and Avira in the past. I usually switch between them every few months. However, now I am going to download.com in order to download Avira, but a lot of reviews are complaining of adware and popups and such after downloading it. What's up with that? Could it be other companies trying to trash it or something? I'm unsure because I always thought that Avira was considered a superb product.

Check out the reviews for yourself. I'd like to know what you guys think.

http://www.download.com/Avira-AntiVir-Pe…

Answer 1

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker

Sure, Avira was declared Anti-Virus of the Year 2008 by http://www.av-comparatives.org - but that's the pay-for version. As Ricky B says, AntiVir (the free version) doesn't protect you from spyware (or adware?). You can check that out for yourself: http://www.free-av.com/en/products/1/avi…

Also, AntiVir periodically has problems with false-positives and updating.

The best free anti-spyware programs, SuperAnti-Spyware and Malwarebytes, don't protect you in real-time against spyware and adware, i.e. they won't keep it off you pc, although they should find and remove what gets on.

AVG doesn't protect you against rootkits and also has updating problems.

Avast protects you in real-time against viruses, trojans, spyware, adware and rootkits (etc). Seems pretty problem-free.

Asker's Rating:

Asker's Comment:

Thanks to you both.

Answer 2

1)Avira Does have a pop up window to advertise thier paid versions (usually appears after an update)
2)Avira Free doesn't detect Spyware/Adware (the paid version does)
3)If people are having problems with their anti virus detecting and not effectively removing stuff then a "safe mode scan" can clear that up.
4)Updates are/can be slow because paying customers get premium update servers (fair enough?)
5) Avira is a Great product with high detection rates, for adware and spyware removal get SuperAntiSpyware Free & MalwareBytes AntiMalware to do On Demand Scans.