In this article, I’ll talk about 4 Antivirus Programs I Tested
I’ll examine and assess various anti-virus and anti-spyware/anti-malware programs. While describing these programs, I’ll focus on my experience with each of them, in general, as well as on specific things such as what I feel best meets my personal needs and why, the features I liked or disliked and why, as well as any types of virus or malware incidents I’ve had and any lessons I’ve learned.
My approach will be utilizing a matrix to chart out and compare my experiences. I’ll conclude with how I think the best means are for conveying my lessons learned to others most effectively.
The first thing I’d like to mention with regards to using any of these programs is that for corporate use, most are often limited to a single vendor and that I think that this is not the most effective approach to the anti-virus or anti-malware approach. Before I even scanned and used any of these programs, my initial thoughts were always to use several different programs, because the simple fact is they were created by different people.
Different people think differently and their products may also be different as a result. More emphasis and programming may have occurred in one area, and less in another. This may create better strengths in one area such as detection or elimination but weaker in other areas such as frequency of updates or thoroughness of scans and other capabilities.
I have actually used these programs and could’ve included a several others I’ve used and tested but didn’t want this matrix to get larger than it already is. Every program I included, in general, satisfied me for simplicity and design usability as well as intuitive features. My goal was to include what I believed to be the top few for each type of product, anti-virus and anti-spyware.
Antivirus Product Vendor
Avast
General Description
Antivirus-only Freeware
Likes
Avast, of all antivirus programs, is the most thorough and in-depth antivirus scanner that even goes into DOS mode and scans the computer in a way when it reboots the system that all viruses will be caught. I had to use Avast in the past when I did not have an antivirus program available or when a friend didn’t have one and had an infected machine and needed an antivirus program. Best of all, it’s free, has been free for a long time and hopefully will continue to be free, and yet still remain high quality!
Dislikes
The disadvantage for this thoroughness is of course the length of time it takes, perhaps twice as long as the average antivirus scanner. Also, it’s antivirus-only and one has to wonder if it will catch other things such as spyware, adware, malware, ghost programs, trojans, worms, etc. I’ve found that what one will catch in one area is not what one will catch in another area.
Misc Notes and Lessons Learned
Reviews which I’ve seen have been very high for Avast. In addition, Avast seems to do a good job keeping up with its signature files.
Antivirus Product Vendor
Norton (Symantec)
General Description
Norton seems to be a well-accepted reliable industry standard and is used by several large companies in the private sector and government. I like the fact that Norton has a strong reputation and a lot on the line to be one of the best since it has so many important customers and seeks to be a leader.
Likes
Norton seems to be a well-accepted reliable industry standard and is used by several large companies in the private sector and government. I like the fact that Norton has a strong reputation and a lot on the line to be one of the best since it has so many important customers and seeks to be a leader.
Dislikes
I have used Norton on a home PC however and it seems to take up a lot of processing power overhead as well as sometimes have conflicts with other programs. The number of problems I encountered, couples with the fact that I de-installed and reinstalled it more than once and still wasn’t fixed, especially for a mature vendor and version, made we wonder. In fact, I couldn’t pull up the interface after installing it. My wife ended up de-installing it and installing the competitor McAfee program for free from Comcast and McAfee found a virus!
Misc Notes and Lessons Learned
Reputable firms aren’t always good for home PC use, especially when their focus is obviously more on their corporate customers using the “corporate edition” !
Antivirus Product Vendor
F-Secure
General Description
Comprehensive security solution trialware (anti spyware, heuristic scanning, intrusion prevention, popup blocker, parental control, internet shield firewall, antivirus)
Likes
F-secure has heuristic scanning and while it does take up some overhead, it actually is well worth it. Through its heuristic scanning, my computer was saved from two viruses and trojan and this trial version has proved its worth. In addition, the various other comprehensive solutions
Dislikes
I think the overhead, and also the time it takes to load initially are two concerns. One has to wonder while the program is loading, if the computer is connected as a DSL or Cable-modem, so that hackers can actually get into the PC and insert a Trojan or piece of malware or perform a registry hack before F-Secure loads to prevent it!
Misc Notes and Lessons Learned
What I liked the most about this one is that for a year it was free, and this one is sure to hook the average user for the thoroughness and up-to-date things such as intrusion prevention and a top-notch firewall which it provides.
Antivirus Product Vendor
Guardian Security
General Description
Inexpensive yet comprehensive security solution trialware (anti spyware, popup blocker, Internet Shield firewall, antivirus, data encryption, data transport,
Likes
I like guardian for its price versus the comprehensive security solution it provides. This company and its solutions definitely have potential and are worth looking at. When I used the antivirus it did a very through job.
Dislikes
When I de-installed and later tried to reinstall the suite, I couldn’t use the antivirus because I lost the product key and had to re-register it but couldn’t. While this is my fault, I didn’t know it would do that and the company should have included a warning that this would happen. Also, the maturity of this program still needs to grow, as with any new solution.
Misc Notes and Lessons Learned
Companies that are relatively new, like this one, sometimes do a typical thing. First, they either offer their products for free or they undercharge for them to hook new people into the deal. Then over time or after the initial subscription service expires, they increase their price. While this is not necessarily wrong, the result is sometimes that people end up with a $50 solution after one year when it cost only $20 previously.
And there you have 4 Antivirus programs compared. I hope this was helpful.
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