Advice Request Is it Safe to use Avast Free Antivirus or Kaspersky Security Cloud Free?

[DDE_Server]

True, but even then the devs can only do so much on the side of whatever makes them money. I like lots of open source projects, but I understand when they wither as the dev moves on or loses interest. I also am skeptical of the holier than thou open source only crowd. Open source doesn't inherently make something great or safe...but that's a topic for a different thread.

yes that was y feeling when MPC_HC was abandoned in the end of 2017 it was the most easy and powerful media players i used.clean/easy and play whatever media you have from low quality JPEG files to HD mkv files. sorry to see it is been thrown away but i am also understand the developers opinions

 

[Divine_Barakah]

I think Kaspersky cloud free is the best free antivirus.
Kaspersky Cloud Free + Malwarebytes Firewall Control + browser extensions


What is CD?

Cnfigure Defender

 

[blackice]

Yeah I also don't mind paying for products I like. I already have licenses for ESET, Kaspersky and BitDefender. My BD TS package is on the way, although I don't know when it'll get delivered due to the lockdown. But personally I wouldn't pay for Avast when there are better alternatives.
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I try to buy download codes that get e-mailed whenever possible, though mailed ones tend to be a bit cheaper. I hate waiting for the mail. But, the availability tends to vary by region and licensed sellers.

P.S. Despite preferring ESET, I like the DJ Bear more than the robot.

 

[blackice]

I do not agree but ok is your opinion.

It's not really an opinion. Based on recent testing of 0-day malware in the HUB they are much slower at adding signatures than ESET or Kaspersky. Also, this can be seen in the difference in the offline detection rate in the recent AV-Comparatives test. Again, not bashing. They manage good protection with their BB in combination with signatures and web filtering, but their signatures aren't as fast as they used to be.

 

[KIKIN]

Hello! For my part, I use both antivirus at the same time!

In Avast I configure it by disabling real-time protection,✍ keeping all other AVAST functions active!
.... and in Kasperky cloud, I grant the latter the permanent activation of real-time protection!

Note: also in Avast I configure it so that at the beginning, all the programs are loaded firts, and lastly, AVAST is loaded.

Excuse my low level of knowledge of the English language.

 

[silversurfer]

I do not agree but ok is your opinion.

Very fresh samples are detected first by ESET or Kaspersky, according to VirusTotal, that's like facts, so doesn't matter you disagree!

Bitdefender signatures are kind of delayed comparing to other AVs at the first 10 hours after first submission to VT, but probably fresh samples can be blocked by BD-Cloud or even more by Active Threat Control earlier before signatures are added by Bitdefender.

 

[DDE_Server]

please note that choosing an AV software doesn't depend only on the protection modules only
there are many factor:

1. the performance impact on end user devices
2. the awareness level of the user "average user needs differ than advanced person"
3. the price also is important factor especially in multi devices licence
4. the usability and stability of the solution and compatibility of another software

Everyone try to balance between these factors with sacrificing one on the account of the another.one may prefer to sacrifice some performance to gain more protection. increasing the level of protection ultimately may make the system unusable and may sometimes became unstable. extra high price may make the software not worth purchasing if there is good alternatives with much value may be sacrificing some non important features.high level users may have the required knowledge which may be sufficient only to depend on some tools or built in OS features to harden it and ok with it and never been infected

As approve you could utilize some free stuff and OS tools to build good security defense if you have the sufficient knowledge and have the same levels of paid product such as many members here do that.there many tutorial here from members do that such as @harlan4096 guide for KSC and @cruelsister guide for comodo.
knowledge is power which could utilize anything to be powerful

 

[RejZoR]

IMO if your NOT paying for a product then you ARE the product. If you don't want to pay i would stick with windows defender.

That saying isn't always true and the least true with antiviruses. Ok, avast! was doing some stuff as a side thing, but in an essence, the point of free antiviruses are 2 things:

- Giving you some free features which might give you eventual incentive to buy a more feature rich version
- Cloud participation, cloud systems are most effective when you have huge amounts of users, free users act like additional malware sensors that help paying customers be protected better

So, no, it's not necessary for you to be the product when AV vendor is still indirectly benefiting from you participating in their cloud system. And today, big data is everything. Just knowing rather in-depth how avast!'s cloud system works, the more feedback you're getting from "sensors" (users), the more effective it is. And I think pretty much any cloud system works this way. These cloud systems run machine learning clusters which are doing the file sorting and classification, because human analysts can't manually analyze massive amounts of programs and malware released every day.

 

[DSD27]

Hello! For my part, I use both antivirus at the same time!

In Avast I configure it by disabling real-time protection,✍ keeping all other AVAST functions active!
.... and in Kasperky cloud, I grant the latter the permanent activation of real-time protection!

Note: also in Avast I configure it so that at the beginning, all the programs are loaded firts, and lastly, AVAST is loaded.

Excuse my low level of knowledge of the English language.

Yeah... but how much Ram does Avast eat while running in the background? Together with Kaspersky...

 

[DDE_Server]

- Giving you some free features which might give you eventual incentive to buy a more feature rich version
- Cloud participation, cloud systems are most effective when you have huge amounts of users, free users act like additional malware sensors that help paying customers be protected better

yes good point to refer to.Data telemetry aren't always bad.especially in cloud analysis in most AV which becomes more strong and accurate with higher user base of AV got by attracting the users to use its software.more users more information feed to your models "called datasets in ML" more accurate analysis and faster response especially for major large scale outbreaks such as huge ransomware hits "wanna cry for example".however also this will be good if this data hadn't been sold for marketing research such as in avast case this is not legal data use and sacrifice the confidentiality of data being collected by AV software "which has trust from their users" so this is pure misuse of the data for money gain with dirty method not to use this data for strengthen you paid product

 

[Wraith2020]

Hello! For my part, I use both antivirus at the same time!

In Avast I configure it by disabling real-time protection,✍ keeping all other AVAST functions active!
.... and in Kasperky cloud, I grant the latter the permanent activation of real-time protection!

Note: also in Avast I configure it so that at the beginning, all the programs are loaded firts, and lastly, AVAST is loaded.

Excuse my low level of knowledge of the English language.

I would advise against running 2 AV's even if one is not in resident mode. AV's have drivers that are loaded and it may lead to instability. If you use Kaspersky, it's pointless to have Avast installed. Just use a second opinion scanner like Malwarebytes and ESET online scanner and you're good.

 

[blackice]

I would advise against running 2 AV's even if one is not in resident mode. AV's have drivers that are loaded and it may lead to instability. If you use Kaspersky, it's pointless to have Avast installed. Just use a second opinion scanner like Malwarebytes and ESET online scanner and you're good.

Even running one AV can lead to driver instabilities

 

[RejZoR]

yes good point to refer to.Data telemetry aren't always bad.especially in cloud analysis in most AV which becomes more strong and accurate with higher user base of AV got by attracting the users to use its software.more users more information feed to your models "called datasets in ML" more accurate analysis and faster response especially for major large scale outbreaks such as huge ransomware hits "wanna cry for example".however also this will be good if this data hadn't been sold for marketing research such as in avast case this is not legal data use and sacrifice the confidentiality of data being collected by AV software "which has trust from their users" so this is pure misuse of the data for money gain with dirty method not to use this data for strengthen you paid product

The thing is, companies share malware data since the beginning of time and it's nothing new or privacy invading. avast!'s cloud part CommunityIQ wasn't even a problem in the whole fiasco. Also those of us who had all the telemetry and data sharing disabled inside avast! were not even affected. I still have CommunityIQ checked, but everything else is disabled. Like I had since avast! 5 ages ago.

 

[ForgottenSeer 55474]

Hello, I would recommend a paid AV-Suite(Kaspersky or Bitdefender) or Windows Defender(built-in) & perhaps Malwarebytes with WD, should you choose this option.

 

[DDE_Server]

The thing is, companies share malware data since the beginning of time and it's nothing new or privacy invading. avast!'s cloud part CommunityIQ wasn't even a problem in the whole fiasco. Also those of us who had all the telemetry and data sharing disabled inside avast! were not even affected. I still have CommunityIQ checked, but everything else is disabled. Like I had since avast! 5 ages ago.

Yes I agree with cloud need data telemetry but not to be sold for another companies

 

[RejZoR]

Yes I agree with cloud need data telemetry but not to be sold for another companies

They actually share it for free. It's a mutual agreement among AV vendors as everyone participating gets each others samples. But they don't hand them over processed data (which is a very valuable asset these days and probably best kept secret), they just share samples and then it's whatever AV vendor's job to process and classify them on their own. These cloud systems still classify and gather unknown files and feed them to their cloud so there is still a lot of data collected. But is really non issue to privacy as it's just binaries that are shared.

 

[DDE_Server]

They actually share it for free. It's a mutual agreement among AV vendors as everyone participating gets each others samples. But they don't hand them over processed data (which is a very valuable asset these days and probably best kept secret), they just share samples and then it's whatever AV vendor's job to process and classify them on their own. These cloud systems still classify and gather unknown files and feed them to their cloud so there is still a lot of data collected. But is really non issue to privacy as it's just binaries that are shared.

No i mean i don't agree to be sold to advertising/Market research company. This data should be used by AV vendors only not for sharing websites you visit with another companies for customizing the Ads which appear for you

 

[KIKIN]

I would advise against running 2 AV's even if one is not in resident mode. AV's have drivers that are loaded and it may lead to instability. If you use Kaspersky, it's pointless to have Avast installed. Just use a second opinion scanner like Malwarebytes and ESET online scanner and you're good.

ENABLE PASSIVE MODE: allows you to use the Avast antivirus together with another antivirus!!!!! In passive mode, you can still analyze and use our features, but real-time protection will be disabled. (KASPERSKY REAL TIME PROTECTION ACTIVE)

DELAY AVAST STARTUP: starts Avast services, only after the other services on your computer have started. (THE FIRST KASPERSKY) !!!!

But don't worry! Use one (1) Unique Antivirus and sleep happily!

 

[KIKIN]

Yeah... but how much Ram does Avast eat while running in the background? Together with Kaspersky...

ENABLE PASSIVE MODE: allows you to use the Avast antivirus together with another antivirus!!!!! In passive mode, you can still analyze and use our features, but real-time protection will be disabled.

...by doing this, RAM consumption is almost imperceptiblee! depending also on which other antivirus you install along with your AVAST! For example: Webroot uses an ultra pirric Ram expenditure!