Battle Silent and effective AV program? Avira, Avast? F-Secure?

[t061]

After using a combination of MSE and the PC Tools Firewall Plus (which has already prevented some drive by downloads) combined with Malwarebytes AV Free and Spybot S&D :angel: I'm thinking of buying a "real" unified security suite.

Requirements:
-Should run on my Windows XP installation
-Should work with the Opera Browser
-I don't want ANY Popup Window to appear unless a threat demands my intervention...
-Quiet operation in the background, demanding negligile CPU load
-Ability to do some more advanced configuration

I already did some investigations and I'm hovering between Avira and Avast at the moment.

Avira
+German company. I also live in Germany. In a recent test of a high reputated PC magazine, they attested Avira the fastest reaction to typical 0-day threats of the German internet (like attachments of German phishing mails...). Furthermore, German privacy laws apply to them and there is a large German speaking online community.
+usually little CPU load
-Some popup Windows seem to appear shortly before the license expires (where else?)
-No Windows 8 support up to now. That would not be a problem itself, but I wonder how stringent and advanced the internal architecture of that piece of software is.
-Some experts say that some components need some general re-engineering and improvement.

Avast
+Seems to be the #1 top-notch security solution
+I would suppose that the detection of non Germany-specific malware is better than Avira
-Seems to cause a little more system load than Avira
(0/?) Czech privacy laws
(0) I can't estimate how bugging Avast is (popup windows...)

F-Secure
+Seems to be fast and not that bugging
-Detection rates seem to be not very good

 

[Plexx]

You would be better off with F-Secure out of the 3 listed.

avast: problems everywhere and some modules tho they seem to exist in theory, they are basically non-existent in practice and if you disable them, you automatically making other components not function: Behavior Shield (Behavior Blocker) can be disabled but at no stage avast! warns the user that disabling Behavior Shield would prevent Script Shield from working.

Avira: UI still suffers from responsive issues despite being highlighted and known since version 2011 onwards (they did improve a bit but still shows irresponsive issues)

Both avast! and Avira tend to have less CPU load but when scans are being run, avast! is the lightness in all 3.

Detection rate is not the most important. It is actually a decent balance of Detection and Prevention.

There are other suites that offer more for the price tag, such as Emsisoft Internet Security, ESET Smart Security (as long as you configure its HIPS), AVG Internet Security or even Panda Internet Security.

 

[VectorFool]

RE: Silent and effective AV program? Avira, Avast?

I'd recommend Avira Antivirus (free/premium)
1)Works on XP
2)No conflicts with Opera or any browser (not that i know of)
3)Configure it to auto respond to threats for 0 notifications, disable update notifications.
4)Negligible load on system, application load time remain largely unaffected.
5)Highly granular configuration options, configure it to be totally silent or very hands on.

couple this with Comodo Firewall v6 , follow the steps below for minimal pop ups

Spoiler

1)Set Configuration- Proactive Security

2)Defense+--HIPS--Set to Training Mode(10-20 mins)
--------------------Check Create Rules for Safe applications

3)Firewall-----------Set to Training Mode (10-20 mins)
--------------------Create Rules for Safe applications
--------------------Check all boxes under Advanced

4)Restart PC

5)Defense+--HIPS---Set HIPS to Safe Mode
--------------------Enable enhanced protection
6)Uncheck --Enable HIPS (HIPS is asleep but still there)

7)Defense+--Behavior Blocker--Auto sandbox--Restricted

8)Firewall------Safe Mode

 

[Deleted member 178]

I used all of them and my choice is Emsisoft IS but between the 3 you asked, i will still go Avast IS; it has all the features needed (even some not so necessary) and very light. Indeed, as Biozfear said above, it has some bugs and all modules are inter-dependent but its minor to me.

 

[Nomad]

I've used all of these and my favorite is F-secure by far. It's very light but after doing a lot of research, I have concluded that it has great detection and prevention.