Battle Bitdefender Free vs AVG Free (Other Suggestions Welcome) to run with Comodo Firewall?

[Arequire]

Since I'm currently unable to use Avast due to a conflict with Comodo Firewall BSODing my PC I'm looking to switch AV's. I generally have issues with most free AVs but if I had to choose two to replace Avast it would be either Bitdefender or AVG, so I'm here asking y'all to decide for me. Feel free to choose something completely different than either of the two I've listed and give your reasons why you recommend it.
I will be pairing whatever AV is chosen with Comodo Firewall which is there to catch any zero-days the AV misses.

Here's a very short, condensed list of issues I have with the free AVs before you cast your vote:

• Avast - BSOD on shutdown/restart (CF conflict )
• AVG - Forced AVG Zen, Dislike their privacy policy
• Avira - Ugly, outdated UI, full scan gets stuck in a loop, automatic quick scan on malware detection, Forced Avira Launcher
• Bitdefender - No settings to fiddle with
• Comodo Cloud - Poor detection, pointless when running CF
• Fortinet - No PUP detection
• Microsoft Security Essentials - Poor detection
• Panda - Bug makes UI disappear
• Qihoo - False positives and nag heavy (As far as I can tell their HIPS doesn't discriminate between good and bad programs)
• Sophos Home - No quarantine (Automatic deletion of files )
• Tencent - Considered a PUP, installs a bunch of other junk with its install

 

[BugCode]

Many AV are pointless if you have CFW with cs settings, but MSE i think could be less conflict to CFW. But those 2 you mentioned i prefer Bitdefender, even thou less customising, but what do you customise if CFW catch all or sandboxed and the erased. BD autopilot, set it up and forget.

 

[Arequire]

Many AV are pointless if you have CFW with cs settings, but MSE i think could be less conflict to CFW. But those 2 you mentioned i prefer Bitdefender, even thou less customising, but what do you customise if CFW catch all or sandboxed and the erased. BD autopilot, set it up and forget.

Yeah, I'd be using cruelsister's settings for the most part but I do like the idea of having something in place just to catch any known threats and leave CF to handle the zero-days.

I was thinking the same thing about Bitdefender. Saying that I know a person who tried the combination when BD came out of beta and said BD was failing to launch when his PC started so I would have to test the combination first.

 

[ForgottenSeer 55474]

Bitdefender off course

 

[Winizsol]

Since I'm currently unable to use Avast due to a conflict with Comodo Firewall BSODing my PC I'm looking to switch AV's. I generally have issues with most free AVs but if I had to choose two to replace Avast it would be either Bitdefender or AVG, so I'm here asking y'all to decide for me. Feel free to choose something completely different than either of the two I've listed and give your reasons why you recommend it.
I will be pairing whatever AV is chosen with Comodo Firewall which is there to catch any zero-days the AV misses.

Here's a very short, condensed list of issues I have with the free AVs before you cast your vote:

• Avast - BSOD on shutdown/restart (CF conflict )
• AVG - Dislike their privacy policy
• Avira - Ugly, outdated UI, full scan gets stuck in a loop
• Bitdefender - No settings to fiddle with
• Comodo Cloud - Poor detection, pointless when running CF
• Fortinet - No PUP detection
• Microsoft Security Essentials - Poor detection
• Panda - Bug makes UI disappear
• Qihoo - False positives and nag heavy (As far as I can tell their HIPS doesn't discriminate between good and bad programs)
• Sophos Home - No quarantine (Automatic deletion of files )
• Tencent - Considered a PUP, installs a bunch of other junk with its install

Hey @Arequire
I would say that if you want to customise the settings, then AVG. If you really dislike their privacy policy, then BitDefender Free. I have personally used BitDefender Free for a longer time, and I like it, but I wanted to customise the settings more, so I switched.
I hope I helped.

 

[LahiruRajinda]

AFAIK Bitdefender doesn't support comodo firewall. If you manage to work them both, please let us know your experience.

 

[Arequire]

AFAIK Bitdefender doesn't support comodo firewall. If you manage to work them both, please let us know your experience.

If you have Comodo Firewall installed before you install Bitdefender it will force you to uninstall it, but if you install Bitdefender first then you're able to install CF fine afterwards. Saying that, there's the issue I listed above in response to BugCode which I have yet to confirm myself.

 

[Rengar]

I suggest you to go with Avira. I aggree its ungly but we download an AV for the protection, not the UI. There is no need to run a full system scan ever if you have a problem with it. If you want a scan, scan with zemana or other anti-malware. Avira is good, light, simple and has good signatures.

 

[Sr. Normal 2.0]

I have read your listing and if you do not like an antivirus, for its simplicity or its policy about privacy, I think you can try with another. Eg AdAware 12. Fresh, "just out of the oven", with two engines: bitdefender and its own.

You should also install Voodooshield free or SecureAplus (free first year) to be more secure with ransomware, depending on the configuration of Comodo Firewall.

I have a ZoneAlarm free firewall + Avast free + Voodooshield free (autopilot mode) in other partition and it's a lightweight configuration, with no BSOD or continuous annoying alerts.

There are many good choices, good hunt

 

[roxdl]

Hi

Bitdefender is good AV !!

 

[kev216]

Well, if you consider using AVG, that might be the best choice for you since Avast bought AVG and they are slowly making both products the same like combining the engines and inherit features from each other. But I don't know about the compatibility with Comodo Firewall since I don't use it.
As you are considering Bitdefender too, but you can't live without the lack of settings, you maybe can look to other products that use Bitdefender engine, for example AdAware free or even paid ones like Emsisoft.
About the others you've mentioned, Avira looks outdated, but it's what is behind it that counts, MSE is getting better and better and isn't as 'useless' anymore as it was in the past. I've used Panda for some time, but never saw that bug appear, however they have other bugs too like wifi connection that falls away. Forticlient does have PUP detection afaik, it is somewhere in the settings. Qihoo has FP's and they allow certain variants of PUP too, so that is maybe not a good choice for you. Same with Tencent. Sophos confirmed that they are working on a quarantine feature in one of the following releases, but I don't know when it is going to be released.
And there are still others not mentioned like ZoneAlarm (which uses Kaspersky engine), but they also have an engine delay of course. Choices enough and you can also drop Comodo firewall and use something like Voodooshield or SAP for more protection.

 

[insanity]

I would choose Avira, because it is strong on signatures and cloud analysis. It is not a good as a standalone solution because it lacks a better dynamic detection/behaviour blocking but you don't need that since you've already got CF. Also, Avira is very lightweight. GUI is outdated, though, but I still prefer it to Bitdefender Free, which appears to be very inferior to BD paid. The other option is AVG, if you can trust the vendor.

 

[Arequire]

I suggest you to go with Avira. I aggree its ungly but we download an AV for the protection, not the UI. There is no need to run a full system scan ever if you have a problem with it. If you want a scan, scan with zemana or other anti-malware. Avira is good, light, simple and has good signatures.

I would choose Avira, because it is strong on signatures and cloud analysis. It is not a good as a standalone solution because it lacks a better dynamic detection/behaviour blocking but you don't need that since you've already got CF. Also, Avira is very lightweight. GUI is outdated, though, but I still prefer it to Bitdefender Free, which appears to be very inferior to BD paid. The other option is AVG, if you can trust the vendor.

I've never used Avira with CF before so I may check that out.

I have read your listing and if you do not like an antivirus, for its simplicity or its policy about privacy, I think you can try with another. Eg AdAware 12. Fresh, "just out of the oven", with two engines: bitdefender and its own.

You should also install Voodooshield free or SecureAplus (free first year) to be more secure with ransomware, depending on the configuration of Comodo Firewall.

I have a ZoneAlarm free firewall + Avast free + Voodooshield free (autopilot mode) in other partition and it's a lightweight configuration, with no BSOD or continuous annoying alerts.

There are many good choices, good hunt

I've never used AdAware before. I know it uses Bitdefender's engine but I rarely hear anything about it besides its posting on AVC tests so I may give that a look-see.
My CF configuration is basically cruelsister's config, except I allow firewall alerts due to too many legit programs having their network access blocked. It'll handle any unknown ransomware or otherwise that the AV misses.

Well, if you consider using AVG, that might be the best choice for you since Avast bought AVG and they are slowly making both products the same like combining the engines and inherit features from each other. But I don't know about the compatibility with Comodo Firewall since I don't use it.
As you are considering Bitdefender too, but you can't live without the lack of settings, you maybe can look to other products that use Bitdefender engine, for example AdAware free or even paid ones like Emsisoft.
About the others you've mentioned, Avira looks outdated, but it's what is behind it that counts, MSE is getting better and better and isn't as 'useless' anymore as it was in the past. I've used Panda for some time, but never saw that bug appear, however they have other bugs too like wifi connection that falls away. Forticlient does have PUP detection afaik, it is somewhere in the settings. Qihoo has FP's and they allow certain variants of PUP too, so that is maybe not a good choice for you. Same with Tencent. Sophos confirmed that they are working on a quarantine feature in one of the following releases, but I don't know when it is going to be released.
And there are still others not mentioned like ZoneAlarm (which uses Kaspersky engine), but they also have an engine delay of course. Choices enough and you can also drop Comodo firewall and use something like Voodooshield or SAP for more protection.

I've tried both VDS and SAP in the past and I didn't like them all that much. I feel whitelisting's a big improvement to malware blocking than signatures and behavioural blocking but in my experience it ends up blocking a ton of legitimate programs.

 

[Marko :)]

Have you tried unchecking Enable hardware-assisted virtualization in Avast settings -> Troubleshooting? Also, add Comodo Firewall in Avast exceptions and Avast to Comodo Firewall exceptions. This may help.

 

[Arequire]

Have you tried unchecking Enable hardware-assisted virtualization in Avast settings -> Troubleshooting? Also, add Comodo Firewall in Avast exceptions and Avast to Comodo Firewall exceptions. This may help.

I've done both. Neither stopped the BSODing sadly.

 

[Marko :)]

There is conflict between Comodo HIPS and Avast BS. Try switching Avast BS or Comodo HIPS off and see if problem still occurs. Someone from Avast said that they're still finding solution for this problem.

Here is post on Avast forum.

 

[Arequire]

There is conflict between Comodo HIPS and Avast BS. Try switching Avast BS or Comodo HIPS off and see if problem still occurs. Someone from Avast said that they're still finding solution for this problem.

Here is post on Avast forum.

I disable HIPs in CF. It's pointless if you set up the sandbox correctly.

 

[Marko :)]

I disable HIPs in CF. It's pointless if you set up the sandbox correctly.

Does it work now? If not, you can disable Avast BS until they fix the problem.

 

[BugCode]

Okay, just setup my VM; adaware free & zone free and really light resources no conflicts. Zone is my really old friend in the many,many years ago, it was again nice to say howdy!

Few malware samples testing and adaware catch those. Alltrought, free is free and there is not so many settings available, but either way, this was a really quickie test adaware free & zone free, works fine.

E: Scan speed was fast.

 

[moonshine]

You're better off with Bitdefender compared to AVG. Bitdefender's very light and easy to use compared to AVG's mess of a free product.