The Worst AV You've Ever Used?

[Nuno]

Probably my worse is shockingly ESET. It was a giant resource hog, ever since the incident been sticking with Avast. Iobit and Mcaffe are pretty up their though...

I disagree. ESET was the best during 2009-2012. Smooth and great protection. Only signatures are not that strong these days.Still not a resource hog compared to AVG/Avira.

Strange, Eset products are assembly code based and for this, quite light on resources and I can confirm that due to my (limited) experience with Eset.

Well, I haven't had experience with any really bad AV's like some of you. Knowing what av's to avoid, I've never tried stuff like Iobit and ClamAV.
However, I had a pretty rough experience with ESET. I had it installed in my old mid-tier W7 laptop and the interface simply wouldn't work properly, it would block and take minutes to open some menus which was extremely frustrating. And that was in a laptop with a fresh W7 install.

Then, when I updated to Windows 10 (it was right after W10 got lauched), I lost my ESET license randomly. Since I had no proof of purchase or key to get it back, I uninstalled it and installed avira free. I still tried to contact ESET but if I remember correctly, many people had the same issue of lost key and my attempt to reach to them was ignored :/

 

[SherKaan]

In the early days, it was Norton. It used to be so, so bad.

In recent times, it was ESET. It was causing extreme lags in Chrome while gaming. And I also found it extremely over-rated.

 

[Rengar]

Iobit Security 360 was the worst

 

[Ink]

This will be a fun thread to reply to..

Not Every AV is Good! Which is the Worst AV You've Ever Used? In My Opinion, Iobit Malware Fighter is the Worst. It claims to have Bitdefender's Engine and Anti-Ransomware Engine but It didn't even Protected Me against a Adware!

IMF Pro includes the Bitdefender engine and other advanced features - [Link]. You mentioned Bitdefender and Anti-Ransomware, but go on about Adware. It's completely irrelevant. Also you should know that many AV have difficulty identifying PUP/PUA/Adware, any may be Optional protection. On the positive, it's an area that's improving and being cracked down Security vendors and tech giants like Google Search and Microsoft.

In my opinion, it was your fault you got Adware.

Spoiler: Recommendation

Unchecky - Keeps your checkboxes clear

bitdefender , even with ssd it can slow down your pc

Which version / edition and build? Beta builds can be unstable.

Kaspersky was the worst i used..
Resource eater And bad protection.

I do not use Kaspersky and can be heavy on some computers, but saying it's Bad Protection is a biased view. Kaspersky provides layers of protection and when configured correctly it's very effective.

Back in the days AVG was the one making my PC sluggish.
Right after AVG was Avira - my PC was really unusable during the scan and I had to manually force the updates in its free version.

Older AVG versions were popular (remember LimeWire) but not very ethical how it bundled their software with AVG Toolbar which was difficult to remove. Hopefully now with Avast as their parent company, they will remove AVG Zen.

Past versions of Avira Free had that annoying Nagware screen and Toolbar for Web Protection. Thankfully they removed those "annoying" features but replaced something far worse, a Launcher (Avira Connect), as it's not everyone's cup of tea, just like AVG Zen.

Norton 2006 to 2010 wasn't the best, until they started listening to customer feedback. Norton Security is one of my paid-for recommendations.

McAfee,it is horrible than most malware out there. malware writers you must learn something from it

Their Home versions needs a refresh. But @Soulweave shared several posts about McAfee SaaS which were an effective solution. Have you tried McAfee Free Antivirus (Limited Release)? It's not bad, but lacks customisation.

I'm NOT going to be a "fanboy" here or quote any particular product, every product has its strengths and weaknesses, even Kaspersky...

Agreed. See my list below:

The worse parts of an Antivirus software (& services)

• Free download, but requires Registration (Email + Password)
• Adware-like behaviour by displaying Ads or Pop-ups about Other software
• Reminds you about Tech Support
• Paid-for features in free versions
• Weak self-protection against termination
• No password protection for settings
• Unresponsive GUI (stable builds)
• Incompatible with misc. tools & utilities
• Toolbars!
• Non-security related browser extensions!
• "Banking Mode" browsers that are out-dated
• Clones of popular browsers such as Firefox and Chromium.
• Search engine providers by Yahoo, Ask Jeeves

 

[bulamber]

ESET

 

[Arrabida Rock]

• Defender pro antivirus;
• Avansi antivirus;
• Anvi Smart Defender.

Don't know why people create that piece of software!

 

[Nuno]

By the way, just want to make clear I don't hate ESET in any way, my post wasn't about the "worst antivirus", but more of a "worst experience I've had with an antivirus".
I actually had no issues regarding infections whilst using it and I did no further testing so there's not much to hate on regarding ESET's protection modules.
Just wanted to make that clear

 

[roger_m]

My vote goes to 100years Antivirus from China. It's prone to causing BSODs and has major issues with false positives.

 

[abdou17]

Avast v6 (missed a sality from an external Usb that messed up my life)
the notification keeps pop-up and he can't delete it

==

BSOD after reboot and that's the end

 

[Faybert]

Comodo and Eset, worse than that impossible.

 

[darko999]

I think you can find many "Compatibility issues" in many Vendors because past versions are very different from today's one. As obvious as that probably everyone has found some kind of compatibility issues with software in general. I had really bad experience with Norton Symantec in the past, but it evolved into a better product with time. I can't blame Symantec for giving me some headache with my hardware in that time and said it is the worst AV I have used you know what I mean. However, that's one of the few cases which gave me troubles when talking about Antivirus software.

 

[abdou17]

Comodo, worse than that impossible, rubbish.

Firewall Or IS ??
because i use the FW and it's very stable now

 

[Yuriel]

Bitdefender Free..

I used the free version in 2008 or 2009 (sorry i forget). but nowadays bitfdender is one of the best antivirus ..

 

[Faybert]

Firewall Or IS ??
because i use the FW and it's very stable now

The antivirus.

 

[abdou17]

The antivirus.

Comodo Protection never based on the Av (Depends on Hips/AutoSandbox/firewall/and the new file reputation cloud based VirusScope(rarely))
the AV component is just so that we can call it an IS

==

in the future if you want to try comodo just use the Firewall with a free AV or the IS Version
i am sur you will change your mind about it

 

[Faybert]

Comodo Protection never based on the Av (Depends on Hips/AutoSandbox/firewall/and the new file reputation cloud based VirusScope(rarely))
the AV component is just so that we can call it an IS

Both are horrible, tests prove this, in addition to the reputation of giving certificates for bank trojans.

 

[abdou17]

Both are horrible, tests prove this, in addition to the reputation of giving certificates for bank trojans.

The tests were on the default settings
but Comodo with an advanced user = Solid Protection without the need of an AV

 

[darko999]

Both are horrible, tests prove this, in addition to the reputation of giving certificates for bank trojans.

What tests? I'm curious. If you really believe that some tests proves that Comodo is horrible, and you are the I run it on default settings guy; that would explain your salty comments

 

[Faybert]

The tests were on the default settings
but Comodo with an advanced user = Solid Protection without the need of an AV

kkk
Thanks, but no, I want my system clean and not infected, end of conversation.

 

[Arin]

quick heal total security the worst Antivirus I've ever seen.