The Worst AV You've Ever Used?

[Evjl's Rain]

They can. But Driver Booster does a very good job of finding the correct drivers and as a result, rarely causes problems. When using Driver Booster (and some of the others I use), I usually let it install every driver it finds.

it used to give me a BSOD when I tried to update Intel chipset driver. I tried 2 times and it gave the same result. same for Driver Easy but it was other drivers
Moreover, it's the same for all driver updater. The manufacture writes the latest version for this hardware is ABC but the driver updaters usually find a newer version which is for other hardware from the same manufacture
I downloaded the latest version of intel graphic driver from intel or my wifi driver from mediatek -> rebooted. Then, scanned with Driver Easy and driver booster, they still found an update for them. I tried to update. The drivers installed were more unstable than the official ones, obviously

perhaps with Desktops, it's easier but for laptops, it's better to update manually

 

[ForgottenSeer 55474]

Mcfubar without a doubt.

 

[roger_m]

perhaps with Desktops, it's easier but for laptops, it's better to update manually

I mostly use driver updaters on laptops. Driver Booster and Driver Easy, usually do a very good job of finding the correct drivers. But even so, as you've experienced, they don't get it right always.

 

[mlnevese]

Driver Easy is the only program i know that can automatically update Intel graphic drivers on a notebook even if it's factory signed drivers that are insalled. It saves me the trouble of fully uninstalling the driver and downloading the official Intel one.

Notebook manufacturers are well known to take forever to update graphics drivers when they even bother to do so...

 

[Cortex]

The worst AV I've ever used was the old Norton, this is well over 10 years ago, bloated isn't the word. It had as I remember a separate updater which in the end had updates to the updater, it really was an abomination without doubt, the current version is really good I feel but took me a while to use it after remembering the old one.

 

[roger_m]

The worst AV I've ever used was the old Norton, this is well over 10 years ago, bloated isn't the word. It had as I remember a separate updater which in the end had updates to the updater,

I remember the old versions of Norton well and the issues with updating. Very regularly Norton would make some changes that would stop it from automatically updating its signatures. When this happened, not only would it be unable to download any signature updates, it wouldn't show any error message (for a week or so anyway), so it would appear that there were no problems. I think after a week or so, it would display an alert about having outdated signatures.

To fix the update issue, you had to manually run Live Update. It would find and download some needed updates and then it would be able to automatically download new signatures again. But soon, it would stop updating again and you would have to run Live Update once again to fix it.

I've got no idea why this even happened, but I do know it was an ongoing issue. I guess being very heavy wasn't enough of a problem by itself. However, it wasn't the only antivirus which has update issues at the time though. I think the free versions of AVG and/or Avira sometimes had update issues, due to the free update server getting overloaded. I remember there being a guide on how to get the free version of at least one of those antivirus, to update from the update servers used by the paid version, in order to avoid that issue.

 

[Antus67]

IMHO Bitdefender slowed down my PC plus I just was not impressed with its layout.

 

[Dave Russo]

I no longer want a Norton product on my computer,Server down!!!,constant wanting me to sign in and can not , and customer service??? starts at 60.plus dollars( I know have patience we will get back to you),The 360 is loaded but ...no thanks

 

[elquenunca]

The worst AV I've ever used was the old Norton, this is well over 10 years ago, bloated isn't the word. It had as I remember a separate updater which in the end had updates to the updater, it really was an abomination without doubt, the current version is really good I feel but took me a while to use it after remembering the old one.

I remember the old versions of Norton well and the issues with updating. Very regularly Norton would make some changes that would stop it from automatically updating its signatures. When this happened, not only would it be unable to download any signature updates, it wouldn't show any error message (for a week or so anyway), so it would appear that there were no problems. I think after a week or so, it would display an alert about having outdated signatures.

To fix the update issue, you had to manually run Live Update. It would find and download some needed updates and then it would be able to automatically download new signatures again. But soon, it would stop updating again and you would have to run Live Update once again to fix it.

I've got no idea why this even happened, but I do know it was an ongoing issue. I guess being very heavy wasn't enough of a problem by itself. However, it wasn't the only antivirus which has update issues at the time though. I think the free versions of AVG and/or Avira sometimes had update issues, due to the free update server getting overloaded. I remember there being a guide on how to get the free version of at least one of those antivirus, to update from the update servers used by the paid version, in order to avoid that issue.

I no longer want a Norton product on my computer,Server down!!!,constant wanting me to sign in and can not , and customer service??? starts at 60.plus dollars( I know have patience we will get back to you),The 360 is loaded but ...no thanks

I thought I was the only one who didn't like Norton

 

[Bergo]

Comodo, McAfee, AVG, and Panda

 

[Bryan320]

comcast offered mcafee back in 2007-2009 it was aweful but was the only full free security suite you could use at the time. Now we have so many free options.

 

[Vitali Ortzi]

I have bitdefender and I do not have any type of blue screen, or bug, or anything, only that it analyzes the start. And with Kaspersky the opposite, slow pc, problems in games like Legue of legends among others.

i had bsods on two computers becuase of bitdefender but it was long ago and got fixed

 

[dinosaur07]

I also tried Norton AV and i didn't like it. The behaviour was horrible, it looked to me very unstable. Terrific experience.

 

[Chuck57]

I'd have to say Comodo AV was the worst, closely followed by an old AV from Computer Associates called EZ antivirus. EZ actually could find viruses, it just didn't do anything about them.

 

[plat]

By "worst," it means in any way? The one with the worst impact on machine performance was AVG a few years ago. It was a very good antivirus, though, when it was independent of Avast. But so many hooks and real-time modules, it was like an entire bottle of maple syrup on just one pancake.

 

[bribon77]

10 years ago, Norton was a nightmare, Panda, apart from heavy breaks the system and Bitdefender could not have it more than 5 days, Kaspersky was a slab.

All that has changed, today everything has improved.

 

[CyberTech]

generally most driver updaters are very dangerous. they can cause BSODs
driver easy, driverpack solution/snappy driver installer, 3dpchip, driver booster, drivermax all gave me problems

conclusion: never update drivers if you don't know the risk or you don't understand what it is, never select Update All. Now I only update the ones I know and feel safe. The rest I go to the manufacture's website and download them manually

I only use DriverPack when i dont find any drivers from the manufacture and others...

 

[blackice]

ESET maybe is light, but he is glitchy from time to time and he stopping you from removing him acting as a Rogueware or Crapware.

This describes all AVs. I’ve never had trouble with ESET, or uninstalling. But some people do on their systems for various reasons. AVs hook into all sorts of things and it can cause problems, no company is immune. Even Microsoft screws up WD from time to time.

 

[mlnevese]

If I stopped using security software because it has glitches and bugs I would never install any of them...

 

[JohnR]

2003 with my brand new gaming machine, a copy of WinXP and dial-up all ready to go.....
Got as far as 'Ask Jeeves' suggestion of system update and fell foul of the Blaster Worm grrrrrr..

Spent next few days sheepishly asking around for help.