Advice Request Avast as a second layer of protection?

Share practical recommendations that address the author's needs.
devjit2020

devjit2020

Level 2
My ESET license expires this month and I'm thinking about switching to either Avast Premium or Bitdefender Total Security. This PC is mainly used for gaming. Quick Heal is also in the list. My question is can Avast be used as a companion antivirus with only the Behaviour Shield and the Ransomware shield installed? Also has their privacy improved? If i remember correctly a couple years back there was a massive outcry that Avast was selling their users data
 
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You can use Avast with Behaviour Shield and the Ransomware shield only, but that won't be recommended with another product installed.
Bitdefender is great, but its profiles are problematic. Gaming mode for example doesn't work for me unless I manually add game's exe into it. Also, it enables work profile with a notification every time I launch MS Office, Notepad++ and Thunderbird Email. There's no way to turn off this notification. In work profile, Bitdefender won't update definition and if I remember correctly you can't change this behavior.
If behavior blocking is your main concern for ESET then you may pair it with the free Kaspersky Anti-Ransomware Tool which is the system watcher component of Kaspersky and will catch all threats. This is a much better option than custom Avast BB+Ransomware shield+another AV.

Free Kaspersky Anti-Ransomware Tool | Kaspersky

Get free ransomware protection that stops and blocks ransomware attacks immediately. Kaspersky Anti-Ransomware Tool provides real-time protection from both local and remote-access ransomware attacks, adware and cryptolockers. It also includes ransomware scanner and acts as a complete solution...
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You can ask @Anthony Qian about this combo.
 
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I have used this combo in the past. Actually I was a tester of ESET IS at MT malware hub. I'm not concerned with a behaviour blocker. I still love ESET and the suite is great but the sheer attitude of some of the moderators of ESET has made me think twice. They don't care about customer feedback or suggestions and are here only to defend the product as if their product is 100% perfect and doesn't need any improvements.This has made me think twice about buying their products.
 
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Yeah I have noticed this on the family PC. Every time an office application is opened BD switches to work profile but I had no idea that it did not update. I think that BD allows you the option to not enabled automatic profile switching. As a suite I love BD like I love ESET. My only one concern with BD on my gaming PC is that it'll cause a huge write on my SSD every time it updates. This is the only reason I'm considering Avast or Quick Heal. Else I would have blindly opted for BD.
 
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devjit2020 said:
Yeah I have noticed this on the family PC. Every time an office application is opened BD switches to work profile but I had no idea that it did not update. I think that BD allows you the option to not enabled automatic profile switching. As a suite I love BD like I love ESET. My only one concern with BD on my gaming PC is that it'll cause a huge write on my SSD every time it updates. This is the only reason I'm considering Avast or Quick Heal. Else I would have blindly opted for BD.
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Honestly the BD writes will use about 10% of your TBW lifespan over 10 years. It makes me a touch nervous, but I’m probably replacing an SSD long before that anyway.
 
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devjit2020 said:
I have used this combo in the past. Actually I was a tester of ESET IS at MT malware hub. I'm not concerned with a behaviour blocker. I still love ESET and the suite is great but the sheer attitude of some of the moderators of ESET has made me think twice. They don't care about customer feedback or suggestions and are here only to defend the product as if their product is 100% perfect and doesn't need any improvements.This has made me think twice about buying their products.
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devjit2020 said:
Yeah I have noticed this on the family PC. Every time an office application is opened BD switches to work profile but I had no idea that it did not update. I think that BD allows you the option to not enabled automatic profile switching. As a suite I love BD like I love ESET. My only one concern with BD on my gaming PC is that it'll cause a huge write on my SSD every time it updates. This is the only reason I'm considering Avast or Quick Heal. Else I would have blindly opted for BD.
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I can understand your frustration regarding this. ESET is highly focused on zero false positives, so they try to stay away from adding feature which may hamper this. Even I get annoyed from time to time.
Yeah, BD's high disk write makes me wanna stay away from it along with the issues I described above.
It's hard to find a problem free product like ESET but you can have a look at F-Secure again which I know you also used before. F-Secure's DeepGuard may block games without notifying in some occasions. Adding the game into exclusion will solve it.
 
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SeriousHoax said:
I can understand your frustration regarding this. ESET is highly focused on zero false positives, so they try to stay away from adding feature which may hamper this. Even I get annoyed from time to time.
Yeah, BD's high disk write makes me wanna stay away from it along with the issues I described above.
It's hard to find a problem free product like ESET but you can have a look at F-Secure again which I know you also used before. F-Secure's DeepGuard may block games without notifying in some occasions. Adding the game into exclusion will solve it.
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Yeah I've used F-Secure before and it sometimes blocks some game updates. I know ESET is focused on zero false positives but surely they can implement a working anti ransomware module. I have never seen their anti ransomware module blocking ransomware. In fact Avast's anti ransomware module is miles better than ESET's.
 
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Asterixpl said:
VS and SWH I don't know if it's a good combination together. I've had both programs together before. Why duplicate protection ? Choose either one or the other.
I left VS at my place
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I don't think they duplicate each other though. SWH uses SRP and windows built-in mechanisms to protect against scripts and fileless attacks whereas VS is like an anti-executable that'll warn you whenever any unknown file is executed. Yeah it may be that using them both may be overkill but I personally don't think that they'll cause problems with each other and I like them both. @danb @Andy Ful....you two are the best when it comes to suggestions. Am I correct that both can be used together without any problems?
 
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Shadowra said:
Quickheal has a good HIPS, but its database is from time to time average
In Indian AV, I like K7, which is very good.
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Correct me If I'm wrong but the last time I used QH it didn't have a HIPS. Have they added one recently? They do have a behavioural blocker but it needs to be tweaked to block threats. QH is an Indian company (I live in India) and they have a solid user base here. In fact it's the most used AV here and it's very good in catching local threats. Yeah you're right about their signatures....they are just average. They do have some good points though-
1) QH can repair infected files instead of deleting them.
2) It has a browser sandbox where you can sandbox browsers except Edge.
3) It has a dedicated banking mode (again no support for edge though).
4) It has a good web protection although their signatures are just average.
5) It's mostly light on resources with the exception of RAM usage. It uses about 250-350MB RAM. If you have 8GB or more no problem.
5) Their behaviour blocker is extremely effective against ransomware(hope you're listening ESET moderators) although it does not have the ability to roll back the actions. You will lose a couple of files before the anti ransomware module kicks in. So make sure to have a proper back-up.
6) The firewall is also good and effective but again that needs to be tweaked too to get the maximum protection.
 
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devjit2020 said:
I don't think they duplicate each other though. SWH uses SRP and windows built-in mechanisms to protect against scripts and fileless attacks whereas VS is like an anti-executable that'll warn you whenever any unknown file is executed. Yeah it may be that using them both may be overkill but I personally don't think that they'll cause problems with each other and I like them both. @danb @Andy Ful....you two are the best when it comes to suggestions. Am I correct that both can be used together without any problems?
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I will say this. I had both installed on my laptop and people on this forum advised me against using both.
I don't know professionally about it and I removed SWH and left VS + other security programs alone
 
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