Avira avira antivir Review

As an avid Mac user, I was faced with one of the worst things that could happen: I had to give up my MacBook Pro. Granted, it was never mine to begin with. I was using it to finish a movie score and after the score was finished, I had to relenquish the laptop. The producer, however, chose to thank me by giving me an entry-level Acer, thinking this would be an acceptable substitute. I'd heard all the scare stories of having to buy high-priced anti-virus software, and was determined to make the Acer useful and as worry-free as possible for me.

That meant getting anti-virus software. On the Mac, I'd used a free program called ClamXav, an open-source antivirus program, just to make sure I wasn't forwarding infected emails and files. I downloaded the Windows equivalent, ClamWin, and after two weeks, began to notice problems with my computer being slow and sluggish, and Flock was coming up with strange windows.

I started to do some research then, and downloaded AVG's free program. It seemed to work well (found infected files that ClamWin didn't), but I had to get a second program to check for additional malware. I did some more research on cnet, and found Avira AntiVir, a solution that includes antivirus and antimalware that is free and, according to cnet, was the best in class of all free antivirus solutions.

Installing Avira under Vista was simple. The only slow part of the program is upgrading: sometimes I found it to be faster to download the update file directly from the website and install it myself instead of letting the program do it automatically. Avira updates their file 3 or more times a day, and also makes "beta" upgrades that might not be fully tested available in the case of a fast-spreading virus that needs to be controlled as soon as possible.

A quick scan takes only a few minutes, and you have options regarding instant deletion and fixing of infected files or quarantining them. You have generous control of autoscanning functions: I do a quick scan every day at 2:35am and a full scan once a week at 3:43am.

The menu controls are not very attractive, but they are functional. The Overview status lets you know if your virus file needs updating, and when you did your last complete system scan. Overview events lets you see what the program has been doing: when it checked files, what it did with infected files, etc. The Overview reports gives you a condensed version of the highlights in the Events section: when updates were successful and when they failed, when scans were completed and how many infected files were found, if any.

In the "Extras" category, you can select a scan of the boot sectors to make sure you're not harboring nasties there. You can also configue what kinds of files you can check (this can make scans much faster if you're sure that certain extensions will never harm your computer), and get detailed information about the malware that was detected on your computer and what it could have done had it not been quarantined. This is, in my opinion, one of the best features of the program, because knowledge of what the malware can do helps me understand exactly how my computer will react to the malware that my computing habits may bring to it. I can then adjust my online and offline computer habits accordingly.

The Administration tab allows you to set more features of the program, including the scheduling functions, and allows you to see what was quarantined and delete it if desired.

After every update, a nag window appears asking you to upgrade to the paid version of the program. This nag window is easily dismissed, and while I don't like nag windows, I understand that the company makes its money through sales of the premium antivirus software.

One thing that I will say, though, is that the free AntiVir will be enough for almost all home users. It is fast and effective and has made me feel far safer in the Windows world of computing. I am vindicated as a Mac user by noticing that even when running ClamXav, I never had any malware on my system save for a couple of adware cookies. Each progressive antivirus software I installed on my Windows machine caught malware that the others didn't. As a result, I did download a few other free anti-malware programs for my Acer that I run periodically to make sure that Avira AntiVir got everything. It has yet to fail me. Windows users who get into arguments with Mac users that "you have to pay for virus protection" only have to explain that AntiVir does the basic job for free, exploding that myth out of the water for good. Sure you can pay $100/year, but you don't have to with the free version of AntiVIr

If you do not have any anti-malware on your Windows-based computer, then I strongly urge you to download Avira's free AntiVir (a download link is available from download.com by cnet) and start cleaning your system. Now. Don't wait another minute. The program doesn't slow down my computer as much as AVG did, and it continuously scans your computer unlike ClamWIn. Its detection rate is the best among the free antivirus solutions. The ONLY two drawbacks are a very slow automatic update process that can be accomplished faster manually, and the nag screen that appears after applying updates, which can be quickly dismissed.