Game Mode - AV Help or Hindrance?

[SearchLight]

I never gave this option within an AV much thought until I was trying out Avira Pro.

Since I am not a Gamer, I would disable the option but every time I would boot up my PC, the option was enabled again. The explanation for this is here on the Avira Blog:

Avira Antivirus: Game Mode explained - Avira Blog

An AV should allow one to manually disable the mode if he is not using it, and to tell the user that he must "remember" to re-enable it to derive the benefit of maximum security is ridiculous. For my purposes, I either want notifications, or want to turn them off with regard to malware. Regarding Malware, I want to know immediately, rather than later.

The implication here is that other AV's are moving in this Auto-Gamer mode. I think that if this should be the situation, it creates an unnecessary vulnerability for the user regarding malware if he forgets to turn it back on. Maybe there should be a reminder from the program to reactivate it but that was not the case for Avira Pro. So for me, it was a deal breaker, and I uninstalled it. I decided to go with Kaspersky AV running alongside my CF/cs, so far with no conflicts or problems.

Have any of you encountered similar situations with other AV programs that you are using or have used regarding the Game Mode?

For Gamers it might be useful, for those of us non-gamers, it might be problematic.

Thoughts?

 

[ispx]

i aint a gamer so i would go with hindrance.

 

[Captain Awesome]

Yes, always enabled.

 

[Arkham_Knight]

How does game mode compromise security?

 

[SearchLight]

How does game mode compromise security???

Depending upon your program, it might silence important notifications or postpone notification until later, as Avira Pro did in my case. They even suggest to insure optimum security to remember to turn the feature off: Avira Antivirus: Game Mode explained - Avira Blog

Hope this helps but what may be good for me may not apply to your circumstances. I suggest reading whether your AV provider has this option and how it affects the program. Thanks.

 

[frogboy]

How does game mode compromise security???

A good question, as I am not a gamer but would like to know how it affects your security.

 

[Arkham_Knight]

Depending upon your program, it might silence important notifications or postpone notification until later, as Avira Pro did in my case. They even suggest to insure optimum security to remember to turn the feature off: Avira Antivirus: Game Mode explained - Avira Blog

Hope this helps but what may be good for me may not apply to your circumstances. I suggest reading whether your AV provider has this option and how it affects the program. Thanks.

I have Avast, its a downloadable option extension for the AV I downloaded it.. only problem I have with Avast is the fact it only scans 400,000 files..

Thanks for the answer

 

[amico81]

I'm a gamer and have good experience with eset, panda, avast and bitdefender. Only avira makes some problems with ping

 

[SearchLight]

I'm a gamer and have good experience with eset, panda, avast and bitdefender. Only avira makes some problems with ping

Did these programs allow you to manually disable and enable when needed, and if disabled, did the Game Mode stay disabled?

 

[Arkham_Knight]

Did these programs allow you to manually disable and enable when needed, and if disabled, did the Game Mode stay disabled?

Avast lets you delete it in components settings
They also let you disable it

 

[Sunshine-boy]

I'm a gamer and I play league of legends 24/7 but I don't use game mode if I use an av.
I don't like it(i think it's useless or only marketing features and not much effective).
I only use wise game booster it's simple and effective you can combine it with Process Lasso( free version) and everything goes smoothly.

 

[amico81]

Did these programs allow you to manually disable and enable when needed, and if disabled, did the Game Mode stay disabled?

Yes that's true..you can make some profiles and choose wich game should appear in the game mode ( Bitdefender). The others just have a main game mode for fullscreen activities

 

[Fritz]

Too bad you had to extend the simple "yes" or "no" question with an opposing security rating.
I use it and feel it does compromise my security, which one do I check?

(Actually, it's just a feeling really. I don't surf funny web sites and don't open chinese e-mail attachments while gaming, so I'm probably rather safe. But I'm all Monk/OCD when it comes to security and would prefer to be kept in the loop at all times. )

 

[AnonMan]

Don't know why but when I still use avast i think that game mode in AVs is pretty useless when windows 10 itself offer game mode. So i just keep it disable.

I use it and feel it does compromise my security, which one do I check?

Lol...

only problem I have with Avast is the fact it only scans 400,000 files

Did you know that avast (even some AVs) will not scan every possible file? go to the setting for scan, you can enable every possible setting for that. Don't know what setting to enable? go here ------- Avast Antivirus: Adjusting settings for Antivirus scans
Note:- Some setting may make your PC a potato(while scanning).

 

[Atlas147]

There are many different game modes in different AVs, for example in avast, the game mode not only disables the notifications but also makes sure that the game traffic is not being slowed down by the network scanning of avast. It really can be a vulnerability because if there is any malware on the game it might have a slightly higher chance of infecting you.

On the other hand, for gamers, this would help them boost their gaming experience

 

[lab34]

Hello,
Game mode can be good or bad.

Last year, we were using avira free at home, and the popup during game sessions became a no-go for us. (game mode was only available on the paid version)

Now, my son likes Qihoo 360 TS. It has a game mode, no popup, nice !

But my son is always on steam, because of the "social" aspect of the steam client.

The problem is that 360TS enter in Game Mode when Steam is launched. So, because Steam is on autostart/autologin on this machine, 360TS is always in game mode, and it never autoupdate (sigs, product...)

I asked the support but they never respond. So I will lobbying my son to make him abandon 360TS.
For sure, you can manually "exit silent mode", or click on the update button, but it's not a good behavior. I would prefer a custom list of exe considered as game.

 

[Slerion]

The game mode on avast is actually great ,it silences avast ( But auto resolves Issues ) Priorizes games , and changes energy plan to max on execution of games. ( and stops windows updates and other crap while playing ) so pretty nice. and it reverts it all after that.