StickyMicky

Now then, today for some reason i started getting a lot of BSOD, so i started to delve into the PC a little to see what is going on.

Did the usual stuff, underclocking blahh blahh blahh.

Anyway i was checking out the working processes as my hard drive light kept flickering all the time and noticed that AVG was quite busy.
Did a quick search online and it seams that it now has some kind of cache setup that a lot of people are complaining about, slowing down systems and hogging the hard drive.

Cant say i have really noticed it to be honest but tt got me thinking into maybe trying another program, i have used AVG since i got rid of norton 2002!

So far i have been told about..

AVAST
ANTIVIRA


Any other recommendations?

Andy Tang

iTrader: (3)

Avira (as it looks like Antivira is a typo!)

Iain Young

AVG and Norton are two of the worst AV programs around. No wonder you are having trouble. Personally, I wouldn't "recommend" any of the free ones, as none of them seem to do a particularly brilliant job. I'd recommend you install something like Nod32 instead.

I have tried the Microsoft one on a couple of machine at work, and it does look promising. Not seen any offical tests of it yet though, so the jury is out as to its effectiveness...

IanW

I am running the MS one here now too, doesnt seem too heavy on the overhead front either.

StickyMicky

I will have a look into the MS version, to be honest i have not had any real trouble with AVG, although every new release seams to come with more and more unessential bloatware.


I have not had any more BSOD at all, it seams very bizzare, that day i had around 6 of them about around 25 mins running, and now nothing, each time i got one i was trying to do an AVG scan (including one of them in safe mode)

mike1210

Im interested to see how the MS one does on the detection front but haven't seen any tests yet. Quite often you can get kaspersky in PC world for cheap

mike1210

oh yeah and don't use AVG whatever you do. Awful software!

boxst

I've just removed Avast and AVG and am trying the Microsoft one. Looks good so far.

(the main computer still has Kaspersky)

Steve

shooter007

no problems with avg

StickyMicky

The MS one has just took 40 mins to download its updates on my laptop

Only a 2mb connection here mind, maybe it was just a slow day!

First impressions = looks simple and free of bloat, all good things imo!

StickyMicky

Hmmn this clunky old 800mhz thinkpad is running quite a lot faster now
Especially when browsing web pages/opening and closing browsers.

I suspect it may be related to removing AVG ?

Foofighter

I've been using Avast for 3 years or so now.Never had any probs with viruses or with it slowing my computers down

Shaun

Sophos.... 30 day trial and then just reapply (with the same account) for another Sophos username/password for the daily virus updates (saves you uninstalling and installing again). Sophos still carries on working even if you don't reapply for another trial period, but you just don't get the updates.

Been using this for several years.

Couple this with Windows Defender and I have never had anything I can't get rid of.

StickyMicky

Still testing the MS one on my laptop, tried AVAST on my home desktop, horrible adverts, so i removed that and went back to AVG

Will give the other 2 a try sometime this week.

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

I found AVG is quite resource hungry, and it does slow computers down quite noticably on systems with alot of trash running in the background. Not quite as bad as Norton or McAfee, but its still a huge and avoidable resource hog on the system. And to cap it off, I found it has let through the odd virus on some systems.

Mind, you gets what you pays for....its free, so what do you expect?

Tried avast! Annoying. And not much better.

JackClark

The Microsoft one should be good, a lot of great people that I used to work with have produced it, mostly the cream of the crop. If I had a PC I'd use it.

Boro

iTrader: (1)

Kaspersky is free if you have online banking with Barclays. Got that little gem from SN a couple of months back and you get 3 activation codes for 3 different computers.

StickyMicky

Really?

Will do a search as i use Barclays online banking for 3 of my accounts!

StickyMicky

Downloaded

Scooby Soon!

what adverts? I have used avast for years and never seen one advert? I always install it on every PC I setup.

StickyMicky

I had some popup thing turn up in the bottom right hand corner, at this point i removed it.

Boro

iTrader: (1)

Tidgy

i've used avg and tbh i find that there's normaly so much other crap running in the background that i disbale on startup that tends to hog more than avg. So is the general consensus that kaperski is more robust and less resource hungry than avg?


i bank with barclays as well so can get it for free, but why switch? is it worth it?

Iain Young

Kaperski uses much fewer resources, and stops a lot more viruses (avg lets through a shocking amount of stuff and so doesn't really protect your machine very much at all tbh).

Personally I much prefer Nod32, but if you can get Kaperski for free, then it's a no-brainer really. Is it worth switching? That depends on whether you care about being infected or not

Tidgy

not had any infection probs since running avg, nortan was a different kettle of fish on that one. But shall sort it tonight then. cheers

Iain Young

If avg isn't picking them up, how do you know?

Installing avg is a sackable offence where I work. It misses so much stuff...

Tidgy

actualy thats a good point, although i've not had sudden system slow downs etc that would hint at it

shamone

iTrader: (1)

I've been running AVG for about 5 years and never had any trouble whatsoever...... i always do a custom install and don't bother with email filters and live scanning etc, so it doesn't noticably slow my sytem at all (still running XP on a cack machine). What are all these viruses that it is supposed to be missing? I run adaware every now and then and it never picks up anything of interest either so i don't think i've ever had anything i shouldn't

Maybe you should be more careful about which sites you've been visiting........