Battle Looking for a minimal but controllable free antivirus

[lysn]

Hello,
I've been using Avast for a while but their new UI is terrible and I had some problems with them handling exceptions. Also telemetry.
I just tried Kaspersky but it wouldn't prompt me when it found a virus and just deletes it (like when I extract a file that contains virus). This is a big NO for me as I want to control what it does.

I have comodo firewall and use sandboxie when opening suspecious files so I don't need all the added features. Only,
- Basic file and web protection
- Configure to prompt me when it finds anything before it does anything
- Minimal performance impact

Some thoughts
Windows defender - performance impact seems bad. Not easy to navigate.
AVG - looks the same as Avast.
Avira - didn't liked it but that was a long time ago. Ads, and not easy to uninstall.
Comodo antivirus - not sure why but didn't like it.

Are there any other recommended free antivirus for me? If none, how is nod32?

 

[poiret.clement]

I agree for 360TS, seems pretty good. AV Comparative are also ranking Tencent PC Manager well in term of performances, but when I tried it, it was always taking between 200 and 300Mb of RAM (close to 10 times what ESET or 360 TS are taking...). I came back to 360 TS.
Anyone is using tencent here?

 

[Evjl's Rain]

Avira, avast, AVG and Kaspersky give you some control over detected files. By default most AVs automatically quarantine/delete infected files to prevent average users fron clicking allow and to reduce user interaction

you will find options in settings
Bitdefender and sophos may not give you any option, if I recall correctly

 

[roger_m]

@Evjl's Rain I believe that 360 Total Security/TSE are the only major antivirus which can actually prompt you when something is detected and let you choose to quarantine or whitelist it. Some of the lesser known antiviruses have thus option too. But it is missing from the big name antiviruses.

 

[Evjl's Rain]

@Evjl's Rain I believe that 360 Total Security/TSE are the only major antivirus which let can actually prompt you when something is detected and let you choose to quarantine or whitelist it. Some of the lesser known antiviruses have thus option too. But it is missing from the big name antiviruses.

avast avg certainly have it. User has to go over the settings to change it
kaspersky too, it's in general setting UI

 

[roger_m]

avast avg certainly have it. User has to go over the settings to change it
kaspersky too, it's in general setting UI

Avast does not give you the option to whitelist files and they have told me that they won't add it. You are right about Kaspersky, but unlike with 360 TS, there are limits on what it lets you ignore. If it thinks a file is malicious, it won't let you ignore it, even though the file may not actually be malicious. With 360 TS, you can whitelist anything that is detected. This is why I use it.

 

[stefanos]

I agree for 360TS, seems pretty good. AV Comparative are also ranking Tencent PC Manager well in term of performances, but when I tried it, it was always taking between 200 and 300Mb of RAM (close to 10 times what ESET or 360 TS are taking...). I came back to 360 TS.
Anyone is using tencent here?

Tencent PC Manager Global Report - January 2019

January 2019 Samples Pack Static Detection Dynamic Detection Total Detection Bait files encrypted System status (after reboot) 01/01/2019 1 1 1 1 no clean 02/01/2019 1 1 1 1 no clean 03/01/2019 15 8 5 13...

malwaretips.com

 

[poiret.clement]

Okay so I had some time to spend, I made a really little performance test for minimalist AV on latest W10 Insider. I tested stock windows defender, Qihoo 360 TS Essential (set to maximal protection, with Avira & Bitdefender), and Tencent PC Manager set to maximal too, all modules activated, expert mode, monitoring all files operations. I ran 3 realbench (v2.56) as these are tasks I do (encoding/decoding, image processing, etc...):
- 360TS mean system score of 101.679 +/-1.471
- WD mean system score of 105.191 +/-0.419
- Tencent mean system score of 110.523 +/-2.231
So Tencent seems to have a better impact than above solutions, while being quite okay regarding the test shared by @stefanos