AV-Comparatives Consumer Summary Report 2025

[Divine_Barakah]

I have a neighbor who also is a good acquaintance. He knows about security because he checks the AV-Test and AV-Compartives results from time to time (or put it differently he is security aware). He also likes to push his solution to others (and as far as I know has convinced at least three other neighbors).

We organize a yearly street summer party on 'neigboursday' (in the Netherlands the fourth saturday in September). First time we sat together to organize it, I noticed he had both Bitdefender and Avast icon showing up in his system tray. I told him it was generally not a good idea to run two AV's, but he told me he ran Bitdefender free with Avast BB + ransomware + firewall (so they did not bite each other but complimented each other).

As far as I can remember he is running this dual setup for years. Because I raised the concern about the 2 AV's, he likes to remember me (both teasingly and triumphantly) that they still run fine together (and of course I am silly using Linux without an AV).

I believe he is running Avast in passive mode. Either way I see it as overkill and maybe paranoia.

You mentioned that he is "security aware", so I believe he'd be ok running one solution while practising safe online routine.

 

[Parkinsond]

maybe paranoia

He might be spending too long time reading IOCs like-stuff.

 

[LinuxFan58]

This is an exceptional situation.
For the record, K has a free product "Kaspersky Anti-Ransomware Tool".
It's supposed to run alongside any other AV.
When tried with Avast free, it caused OS crash.
Not to speak about two full AVs with real-time protection on for both.

I will know first meeting this year, because it his running gag

 

[SeriousHoax]

Out of curiosity, what are you using now?

At the moment, ESET. Though I'm thinking about trying Avast Free for at least 2 weeks. ESET has a bug on my PC now. ESET is not present in the old Windows 11 context menu, it's only present in the new one. Like you, I also use the Nilesoft Shell app, so I need it in the old menu. Even if the shell app is disabled, ESET is not there for me. Uninstall + Reinstall didn't fix this. Also, similar to BD, ESET also causes about 500-600 MB disk writes on each signature updates. So that's one more reason for me to think about trying Avast again but ESET's lightness is hard to match. ESET and Kaspersky doesn't even have any impact on system shutdown while Avast adds 3-4 seconds or even more sometimes; though it's nothing serious.

 

[Parkinsond]

I'm thinking about trying Avast Free for at least 2 weeks

Light and effective; just do not install its firewall if going to use Edge.

ESET is not present in the old Windows 11 context menu

Usually the reverse, the new menu lacks MD and PeaZip submenu.

similar to BD, ESET also causes about 500-600 MB disk writes on each signature updates

I'm surprised; thought it's B issue only!

ESET and Kaspersky doesn't even have any impact on system shutdown while Avast adds 3-4 seconds or even more sometimes

Avast free is as fast as K free on my PC.

 

[SeriousHoax]

Light and effective; just do not install its firewall if going to use Edge.

What's Avast Firewall's issue with Edge?

Usually the reverse, the new menu lacks MD and PeaZip submenu.

They are not present in the new menu by choice. In my case, it's a bug which no one else seem to have reported in the ESET forum and no one can reproduce.

I'm surprised; thought it's

At least 472 MB in the last update,

According to System Informer it's more. Though I've seen System Informer getting fooled by virtual disk (In memory virtual disk) writes and counting them as actual disk writes.

Avast free is as fast as K free on my PC.

Enable VerboseStatus to know which process is causing delay in system shutdown. You might see one or two Avast processes as you shutdown the system.
reg add "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System" /v "VerboseStatus" /t REG_DWORD /d "1" /f

 

[Parkinsond]

What's Avast Firewall's issue with Edge?

If you set it to "ask" mode, it blocks Edge even if you select allow when protmpted.
It works fine for the rest of browsers.
You have to wait for approx 5 min after launching Edge to connect.
If using "smart" mode, the delay is reduced to only half a minute.

 

[Sorrento]

After reading the summery I was upset so I have not only uninstalled McAfee as it did not come top So after seven months I've formatted my C:\ hard drive reinstalled 11 after years & installed a recommended AV instead (then I woke up & realised it was just a dream)

 

[SeriousHoax]

If you set it to "ask" mode, it blocks Edge even if you select allow when protmpted.
It works fine for the rest of browsers.
You have to wait for approx 5 min after launching Edge to connect.
If using "smart" mode, the delay is reduced to only half a minute.

I didn't switch to ask mode. Haven't changed the default smart mode. I'm not having any delay issue with Edge.

 

[lokamoka820]

Uninstall + Reinstall didn't fix this.

Off-topic, but I've noticed that sometimes when uninstalling a product that integrates with the new Windows 11 context menu, the shell integration app remains installed. Consequently, when reinstalling the application, the problem persists. This happened to me once when I uninstalled Notepad++; its shell integration app remained installed, preventing the Windows Notepad context menu item from appearing. You can check for shell integration apps using HiBit Uninstaller in the "Windows Store Apps" section.

 

[Parkinsond]

I didn't switch to ask mode. Haven't changed the default smart mode. I'm not having any delay issue with Edge.

With smart mode it is a very short delay, sometimes could not be noticed.
For the sake of curiosity, try switching to "ask" mode temporarily and let me know if you can use Edge after its launch immediately.

 

[Parkinsond]

when uninstalling a product that integrates with the new Windows 11 context menu, the shell integration app remains installed

Have to remove the corresponding registry entries to get rid off.

 

[lokamoka820]

Have to remove the corresponding registry entries to get rid off.

HiBit can remove them, but Revo cannot detect them.

 

[Parkinsond]

HiBit can remove them, but Revo cannot detect them.

I do it manually; time consuming but more safe.

 

[lokamoka820]

I do it manually; time consuming but more safe.

If you rely on RegEdit, try Registry Finder. It's similar to RegEdit but improved, with tabs, a dark mode, and displays all search results at once. Its most important function is that it backs up the entries you delete so you can undo changes at any time.

 

[SeriousHoax]

Off-topic, but I've noticed that sometimes when uninstalling a product that integrates with the new Windows 11 context menu, the shell integration app remains installed. Consequently, when reinstalling the application, the problem persists. This happened to me once when I uninstalled Notepad++; its shell integration app remained installed, preventing the Windows Notepad context menu item from appearing. You can check for shell integration apps using HiBit Uninstaller in the "Windows Store Apps" section.

It happened with Bitdefender for me. Didn't happen with ESET. The old context menu is not connected to this shell integration app I think. So not sure why it happened for me with ESET.

If you set it to "ask" mode, it blocks Edge even if you select allow when protmpted.
It works fine for the rest of browsers.
You have to wait for approx 5 min after launching Edge to connect.
If using "smart" mode, the delay is reduced to only half a minute.

I don't want to try this in case it triggers the bug. I checked again, my Edge has no delay at the moment.

If you rely on RegEdit, try Registry Finder. It's similar to RegEdit but improved, with tabs, a dark mode, and displays all search results at once. Its most important function is that it backs up the entries you delete so you can undo changes at any time.

Yeah, this app is

 

[Parkinsond]

I don't want to try this in case it triggers the bug. I checked again, my Edge has no delay at the moment.

Don't worry; it is quite reversible upon reverting to "smart" mode.

 

[Minimalist]

Also, similar to BD, ESET also causes about 500-600 MB disk writes on each signature updates. So that's one more reason for me to think about trying Avast again but ESET's lightness is hard to match. ESET and Kaspersky doesn't even have any impact on system shutdown while Avast adds 3-4 seconds or even more sometimes; though it's nothing serious.

ESET has an option in advanced settings to disable storing snapshots of signature files. I usually disabled that because I never had to use rollback option and disabling it significantly reduces the size of daily incremental system image backup file.
I don't know if it would reduce disk writes during updates but you could also try disabling this option.

 

[Miravi]

At the moment, ESET. Though I'm thinking about trying Avast Free for at least 2 weeks. ESET has a bug on my PC now. ESET is not present in the old Windows 11 context menu, it's only present in the new one. Like you, I also use the Nilesoft Shell app, so I need it in the old menu. Even if the shell app is disabled, ESET is not there for me. Uninstall + Reinstall didn't fix this. Also, similar to BD, ESET also causes about 500-600 MB disk writes on each signature updates. So that's one more reason for me to think about trying Avast again but ESET's lightness is hard to match. ESET and Kaspersky doesn't even have any impact on system shutdown while Avast adds 3-4 seconds or even more sometimes; though it's nothing serious.

500 - 600 MB is shocking. I've never heard that, but I'm not thrilled if that's how much disk writing goes on.

ESET's article on the matter ([KB6053] Types of updates) describes routine, incremental updates as extremely small. Even the last 20 Nano updates bundled together can be as small as 200 kB.

I wonder what's really going on then?

 

[SeriousHoax]

ESET has an option in advanced settings to disable storing snapshots of signature files. I usually disabled that because I never had to use rollback option and disabling it significantly reduces the size of daily incremental system image backup file.
I don't know if it would reduce disk writes during updates but you could also try disabling this option.

Yeah, I also have always disabled it. It doesn't have an impact on disk writes, the last time I checked. It only renames the old module folder after the new one is created with latest database update. So disk space is reduced by disabling this option but not disk writes.

500 - 600 MB is shocking. I've never heard that, but I'm not thrilled if that's how much disk writing goes on.

ESET's article on the matter ([KB6053] Types of updates) describes routine, incremental updates as extremely small. Even the last 20 Nano updates bundled together can be as small as 200 kB.

I wonder what's really going on then?

What they described here represents the size of signature updates to be downloaded. So if there are many hours of gaps between the last update and the current update then it will download more. But as you know, ESET's daily signature update's download size is already one of the lowest in the industry. But the actual disk writes occurs when the old database is merged with the new database. So the new tiny updates that have just been downloaded are merged with the old database to create new database files. ESET calls them modules. Usually 2/3 module folders are updated on each signature update. Each folder usually has two files.

Bitdefender's process is somewhat similar, too. However, Bitdefender's download size is larger, typically several megabytes (still not huge). Their process of creating a new database is much slower. What ESET does in 3 seconds on a SSD, Bitdefender does in 10/15.
Bitdefender also seems to re-update their whole engine once a day. In that situation, their disk writes go over 1 GB. 1-1.5 or more probably. So, every day at least once, the BD user's C drive space reduces by at least 400-500 MB. After a system restart, the old engine folder is deleted and the size is regained. I think I saw Avast doing this once a day also for their signatures, though sometimes not every day, I think Avast runs their tiny 1-2 kb streaming updates 24/7 and usually once a day updates their whole base. It is a more efficient approach. But I'll have to check again to be sure.