Battle Bitdefender Free vs. Avast Free vs AVG Free vs Panda Free

ifacedown

Level 18
Thread author
Verified
Jan 31, 2014
888
Hello!

I have tried AVAST Free before (before acquiring AVG), AVG Free(before being bought by AVAST) and Panda Free. I was never infected because I am a careful user.
Now I am using Bitdefender Free and found it to be strong in protection and light. However, it becomes suddenly heavy and stalls my old netbook when it finds malware to clean. Also, even if I turn off its shield, its AVC will still take action - this irritates me so much (Sometimes even if exclusions have been set.)
What free antivirus could you advise which is light and effective, even those not included in the list? thanks.
Running Windows 10, Creators Update
 

ifacedown

Level 18
Thread author
Verified
Jan 31, 2014
888
Kaspersky Free Antivirus+Sandboxie free.:)(y)
Kaspersky Free Antivirus:Good signature+Phishing Protection+KSN
Sandboxie free:For extra protection.
Windows Firewall:Best in Windows10 CU.
A Backup Software.(y)

Thanks much!

after installing Windows 10 Creators Update, my first Antivirus was Kaspersky Free. yes, it was light and efficient, yet I was forced to remove it because occasionally, it conflicts with my system's fast startup (hybrid shutdown/hibernate) - it hangs my system sometimes that I have to restart it by force.
 

ifacedown

Level 18
Thread author
Verified
Jan 31, 2014
888
avg and avast have the same signatures....but avast is the better choice...you can make it better with tweaks ( guide here in the forum)
Yes, I will remove Bitdefender Free now.

According to a review, AVAST doesn't have fingerprinting technology during scans so duration of scans do not shorten after doing a full scan. is it true? I thought it has in its settings..
 

XhenEd

Level 28
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Well-known
Mar 1, 2014
1,708
Yes, I will remove Bitdefender Free now.

According to a review, AVAST doesn't have fingerprinting technology during scans so duration of scans do not shorten after doing a full scan. is it true? I thought it has in its settings..
Avast has a setting about shortening the duration of future scans. I think Avast refers to it as "caching" or similar. :)

I believe this is already a must-have and is imperative for all AVs. :)
 

ifacedown

Level 18
Thread author
Verified
Jan 31, 2014
888
Avast has a setting about shortening the duration of future scans. I think Avast refers to it as "caching" or similar. :)

I believe this is already a must-have and is imperative for all AVs. :)

Well, PCMag did the review if I am not mistaken :)

I believe AVAST and every other AV has this caching tech.
 

Cats-4_Owners-2

Level 39
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Dec 4, 2013
2,800
Avast! Free received my vote. It was the first AV, following Windows Defender, I'd used based upon reading testimonial advice and encouragements from members & staff shortly after discovering this Island of enlightenment that is MalwareTips.:giggle:
I have personally found it to be light yet very protective upon my 4 year old Acer lap top set High on Hardened mode, and recommend it as my 1st choice among free alternatives that I've returned to again and again!:)

Good luck, & please, share your impressions following your winning choice!
 
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Sue Thomas

New Member
Oct 2, 2017
1
I used for many years avast! free and I was satisfied. But now it's trying to do what specialized programs do better (driver updates & ...). So I went to the BitDefender Antivirus Free. So far, it looks good (also scans files / folders on demand, the user can individually choose what to do with the quarantined items etc.). But it makes a short but terrible sound when it updates the database or finds any malware and puts it into quarantine. (Why ? Does the user know it immediately? It is very disturbing when I´m on Skype, when I watch a video, and not just there ; I already wrote to them, they promised to remove it.)
I also use BitDefender Anti-Ransomware (I have found more independent professional evaluations, they mostly evaluate it as very good). It helped me several times even in times when I was still using avast! free.
 
Last edited:

ifacedown

Level 18
Thread author
Verified
Jan 31, 2014
888
Avast! Free received my vote. It was the first AV, following Windows Defender, I'd used based upon reading testimonial advice and encouragements from members & staff shortly after discovering this Island of enlightenment that is MalwareTips.:giggle:
I have personally found it to be light yet very protective upon my 4 year old Acer lap top set High on Hardened mode, and recommend it as my 1st choice among free alternatives I've returned to again and again!:)

Good luck, & please, share your impressions following your winning choice!

Hello!

Actually I have no grunts against Avast, it is one of the companies who respect most your privacy (with Emsisoft), great protection and lightness.

I have only one negative comment for the new software.....

GUI Glitches!

Sometimes the Main Screen is almost blank.....only showing the placeholders for the images and texts...experiencing now on my old netbook (after 30 mins of fresh install), and have seen this too on our desktop...the GUI goes blank sometimes :(
 

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