Battle Avast 6 free antivirus vs Microsoft Security Essentials.

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Tommy

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Feb 27, 2011
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I would go with Avast free antivirus due to all it's features and I think it eats less RAM this Microsoft Security Essentials. Microsoft Security Essentials is really just an antivirus with nothing added in my opinion.
 
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100% avast; it has more features and you can config as you want it :)

MSE2 is user friendly because the user has few options and since average users don't like to play around or explore the product it is so user friendly.
 
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Here-s my experience with MSE (some time ago): Really simple interface, targeted at every Windows user. When it came out it had really good detection rate (maybe it still has) and almost no false-positives. I am sure that the low FP rate is still there because I don't think that Microsoft can afford having many false-positives (companies will complain if their files are detected as malicious). It includes cloud technology: Dynamic Signature Service Feature and SpyNet (scary name). On the downside, removing a file (even if it was not running) was slow. Full-scans were extremely slow and RAM usage was high. Again, this was some time ago.

Avast has good signatures too and it is light on system resources. Not all shields are useful to me, I only install the webshield and the Network Shield. Since I mainly use webmail I have no use for the mail shield and the only p2p that I am rarely using are torrents - there is plenty of time for the AV to scan a file. Avast evolved allot, v5 was practically a new product and it was mostly bug-free. V6 introduces important technologies, but at this point they do not work at their full potential.

Both products can't protect the system on their own. Maybe if you have a low security risk, run under a standard account (LUA) and have a router that includes a firewall an av can be sufficient. You need backups too. But in most cases you'll need to pair it up with some other form of protection.
 
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Would it be wrong of me to prefer MSE? As of now, I think it outperforms Avast. Sure, maybe once they get the auto sandbox working properly, it will be better, but for now I prefer MSE. The performance of a product is more important than it's mass supply of features, especially when they can't protect you as well as something so basic.
 
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I would say Avast, due to what it offer... In my opinion I find MSE very limited but is good enough for those who want free turn on and forget protection (if you can call it full protection?!). It's all just a case of opinion and what works for the end user to be honest.
 
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bunyip783 said:
Would it be wrong of me to prefer MSE?
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No, you are allowed to say it :)

Actually you might be right since avast doesn't have good heuristics, according to the last av-comparative test. Avast Free detected only 43% of the samples, the only product that detected less was PCTools SywareDoctor+AV. On the other hand, MSE scored more on the on-demand test.

I was just disappointed at that time with MSE's high memory usage and slow scans. It also lacked self-protection.
 
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bunyip783 said:
Would it be wrong of me to prefer MSE? As of now, I think it outperforms Avast. Sure, maybe once they get the auto sandbox working properly, it will be better, but for now I prefer MSE. The performance of a product is more important than it's mass supply of features, especially when they can't protect you as well as something so basic.
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Don't worry we don't attack other people for there opinions. Unlike somebody I know but that's off topic :P I love to hear others opinions.
 
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bogdan said:
BTE, how much RAM MSE uses now? I know this is not necessarily relevant for over-all performance but keeping in mind that you need extra security products to obtain a good config you can't afford wasting 100 MB on the AV.
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it uses for about 50MB os it's heavy on the ram. CIS (the complete Suite) only uses 10-15 MB
 
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Avast 6 without any doubt.. MSE lacks to many features, like a BB or a sandbox. - But the other way around, it's good, if you just want a good free signature based AV with ok heuristics. :)
 
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OracleJMT said:
Avast 6 without any doubt.. MSE lacks to many features, like a BB or a sandbox. - But the other way around, it's good, if you just want a good free signature based AV with ok heuristics. :)
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It does have behavior analyzes component but I am not sure how well it works.

Keep in mind that Avast's sandbox and the BB are young and hasn't reached their full potential. Avast still relies on their signatures and are therefore not much better than MSE in this point of view.
 
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Valentinchen N said:
OracleJMT said:
Avast 6 without any doubt.. MSE lacks to many features, like a BB or a sandbox. - But the other way around, it's good, if you just want a good free signature based AV with ok heuristics. :)
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It does have behavior analyzes component but I am not sure how well it works.

Keep in mind that Avast's sandbox and the BB are young and hasn't reached their full potential. Avast still relies on their signatures and are therefore not much better than MSE in this point of view.
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Ok, I did not know, that MSE has a BB, but it's nice enough then. Anyway, I would still go Avast, cause it's my view, that Avast is more light on system resources..
 
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