Antivirus programs

Steve Hayes on 2016/12/08 wrote:

s|b wrote:

Steve Hayes wrote:

Can anyone recommend a good free antivirus program that works on
Windows 7, other than Avast.

Try avast! again, but don't install any of their tools and only
install File System Shield and Web Shield (you don't really need
Mail Shield). Then enable Silent/Gaming Mode and you won't see a
single pop-up.

I am now having a problem uninstalling it, so I'm not sure how to try
it (or any other AV program) again. When I click on "Uninstall" it
says "Setup.exe is already running"

Go into Task Manager and kill it. Or reboot.

On Thu, 8 Dec 2016 08:31:45 +0000, PeterC wrote:

Try AvastClear uninstall utility, but you might have to do a repair or
reinstall first if you're part-way through uninstalling.
https://www.avast.com/faq.php?article=AVKB10

+1

--
s|b

"Steve Hayes" wrote

| I haven't had a virus *infection* for the last 10 years, but I get
| about 10 e-mails a day with malware attachments. The most popular one
| at the moment has been JSlocky downloader. Avast warns me about half
| of them.
|
I haven't used AV for many years and have no
problems. But I also disable sript online and know
what to look for. I've also been getting malware
emails lately. About two per day, with some kind
of rigged ZIP attachment. But they're harmless not
opened. I actually check the actual message content
(the text that composes the email) on anything I'm
not sure about.

| I would prefer Avira (my personal preference for many years)
|
| Thanks.

I've been setting up friends with Avast. It does
seem to act up sometimes, and wants to "re-register"
after a year. I've been using Avast Free 2015. It
seems OK, though as someone else mentioned, the mail
shield, web shield, etc are nonsense that will block
software going online without telling you. It's also
very sneaky about trying to get you to install "the
new update", which turns out to be the paid version!

I think the best setup for AV is to just scan new files,
period, with no extra gimmicks. That's less intrusive
and less of a drag on the system than the default
behavior of scanning everything you touch. But that
requires going through the settings, to turn off the
nonsense firewall-esque bloat, turn off boot scans, etc.

I've had trouble with Avira false positives. It flags
some of my own software, which I then have to fiddle
with and recompile. I tried writing to them about it
and just got robo-responses.

But I should also say that I don't have much experience
with anything else. (Except, Symantec/Norton. I wouldn't
touch anything they make.)
The new Sophos free version sounds promising, but I
haven't tried it, and as I said, I'm mainly focussed on
something that works without hassle for friends because
I don't use AV on any of my boxes.

On Thu, 8 Dec 2016 19:01:55 -0500, Wolf K
wrote:


it doesn't make the top ten in my list, in large part because of its
default "This email...." spam sig.

And it takes almost 10 seconds to stop such annoying behaviour !

Click on the Settings cogwheel, select the General tab, then untick
"Enable Avast email signature" and then click "OK".

On Thu, 8 Dec 2016 11:32:45 -0600, VanguardLH wrote:

Steve Hayes on 2016/12/08 wrote:

s|b wrote:

Steve Hayes wrote:

Can anyone recommend a good free antivirus program that works on
Windows 7, other than Avast.

Try avast! again, but don't install any of their tools and only
install File System Shield and Web Shield (you don't really need
Mail Shield). Then enable Silent/Gaming Mode and you won't see a
single pop-up.

I am now having a problem uninstalling it, so I'm not sure how to try
it (or any other AV program) again. When I click on "Uninstall" it
says "Setup.exe is already running"

Go into Task Manager and kill it. Or reboot.

Did that, didn't work.

For what it's worth, in case anyone else has a similar problem, I
solved the problem thus:

I did a System Restore, but it said it wasn't able to do it completely
because Avast, and since I was connected to the Internet it
redownloaded updates.

After the4 System Restore, everything worked. I was protected. All
well.

Except that Avast kept nagging me to reboot.

I rebooted, Avast installed updates, and as soon as it has done so all
the warnings started flashing again, I was unprotected.

I disconnected from the Internet, did the System Restore again, and
this time Uninstalled Avast -- after the System Restore, Uninstall
worked.

I downloaded and installed Microsoft Security Essentials.

That will probably serve my purposes until Microsoft stops supporting
Windows 7, but they're still supporting Vista, so that might be a
while yet.


--
Steve Hayes
http://www.khanya.org.za/stevesig.htm
http://khanya.wordpress.com

On Thu, 8 Dec 2016 19:10:34 -0500, "Mayayana"
wrote:

"Steve Hayes" wrote

| I haven't had a virus *infection* for the last 10 years, but I get
| about 10 e-mails a day with malware attachments. The most popular one
| at the moment has been JSlocky downloader. Avast warns me about half
| of them.
|
I haven't used AV for many years and have no
problems. But I also disable sript online and know
what to look for. I've also been getting malware
emails lately. About two per day, with some kind
of rigged ZIP attachment. But they're harmless not
opened. I actually check the actual message content
(the text that composes the email) on anything I'm
not sure about.

Yes that is usually a giveaway. Even if the e-mail is impersonating
someone you know, the text is usually so uncharacteristic of the way
they usually write that you can spot it at once.


| I would prefer Avira (my personal preference for many years)
|
| Thanks.

I've been setting up friends with Avast. It does
seem to act up sometimes, and wants to "re-register"
after a year. I've been using Avast Free 2015. It
seems OK, though as someone else mentioned, the mail
shield, web shield, etc are nonsense that will block
software going online without telling you. It's also
very sneaky about trying to get you to install "the
new update", which turns out to be the paid version!

I think the best setup for AV is to just scan new files,
period, with no extra gimmicks. That's less intrusive
and less of a drag on the system than the default
behavior of scanning everything you touch. But that
requires going through the settings, to turn off the
nonsense firewall-esque bloat, turn off boot scans, etc.

I've had trouble with Avira false positives. It flags
some of my own software, which I then have to fiddle
with and recompile. I tried writing to them about it
and just got robo-responses.

Yes, I think that is why I stopped using Avira some years ago on my XP
machine. Now I recall -- I switched to MS Security Essentials, which
worked until MS stopped supporting XP. I then tried Bit Defender, but
after a month they asked me to register, but sent their registration
request in a spam/scam e-mail format where it was impossible to click
on or read the URL, so at that point I went back to Avast, which I'm
sdtill using in XP, but, as explained elsewhere, I've now switched to
MS Security Essentials on my Win 7 machine, where Avast stopped
working.





But I should also say that I don't have much experience
with anything else. (Except, Symantec/Norton. I wouldn't
touch anything they make.)
The new Sophos free version sounds promising, but I
haven't tried it, and as I said, I'm mainly focussed on
something that works without hassle for friends because
I don't use AV on any of my boxes.


--
Steve Hayes
http://www.khanya.org.za/stevesig.htm
http://khanya.wordpress.com

On Fri, 09 Dec 2016 07:26:21 +0200, Steve Hayes wrote:

I am now having a problem uninstalling it, so I'm not sure how to try
it (or any other AV program) again. When I click on "Uninstall" it
says "Setup.exe is already running"

Go into Task Manager and kill it. Or reboot.

Did that, didn't work.

For what it's worth, in case anyone else has a similar problem, I
solved the problem thus:

I did a System Restore, but it said it wasn't able to do it completely
because Avast, and since I was connected to the Internet it
redownloaded updates.

Did you disable the Self-defence module in Setting - Troubleshooting?
It might make a difference because, of course, an AV programme is hard to
stop.
--
Peter.
The gods will stay away
whilst religions hold sway

On 12/07/2016 11:15 AM, s|b wrote:
On Wed, 7 Dec 2016 10:07:53 -0800, T wrote:

Avast is junk.

And that is your expert opinion on this matter?


As a matter of fact ...

Go look at AV-Comparatives over several months.

On Fri, 09 Dec 2016 00:50:54 +0100, FredW wrote:

- Avast most popular in anti-malwa
https://www.metadefender.com/stats/a...hare-report#!/

;-)

What does that even mean? Never mind, I don't really care. I don't use
their tools, only 2 of their shields and there's zero pop-ups.

--
s|b

On Fri, 9 Dec 2016 11:33:09 -0800, T wrote:

As a matter of fact ...

Go look at AV-Comparatives over several months.

Is there a comparison with the settings that I use?

--
s|b

On Fri, 9 Dec 2016 11:33:09 -0800, T wrote:

As a matter of fact ...

Go look at AV-Comparatives over several months.

I checked

https://www.av-comparatives.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/avc_factsheet2016_10.pdf

and

https://www.av-comparatives.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/avc_fdt_201609_en.pdf

Avast seems to score pretty good in the first report. No so bad in the
second report either, but not the best because of false positives. I can
think of worse things than false positives...

--
s|b

On 12/09/2016 12:23 PM, s|b wrote:
On Fri, 9 Dec 2016 11:33:09 -0800, T wrote:

As a matter of fact ...

Go look at AV-Comparatives over several months.

I checked

https://www.av-comparatives.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/avc_factsheet2016_10.pdf

and

https://www.av-comparatives.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/avc_fdt_201609_en.pdf

Avast seems to score pretty good in the first report. No so bad in the
second report either, but not the best because of false positives. I can
think of worse things than false positives...


Hi s|b,

The trick is to look over several (6+) months and see who is
consistent. Anyone can have a good month.

Kaspersky and Bit Defender are the two I find the most consistent.

I sell Kaspersky but not Bit Defender as they are a pain in the ass
to sell. And Bit's sales staff is rude as all hell trying to
get a hold of them. I have a dedicated Kaspersky sales rep that
jumps through hoops for me.

Bit Defender also does not have a vulnerability check that finds
software that is out of date. That is required for credit
card security (PCI). Otherwise Bit is good.

Also, I do think that Free AV's are really not a good idea.
They are just too reduced function. And, except for Bit
Defender, come with junkware. I hate junkware.

-T

T on 2016/12/09 wrote:

On 12/09/2016 12:23 PM, s|b wrote:
On Fri, 9 Dec 2016 11:33:09 -0800, T wrote:

As a matter of fact ...

Go look at AV-Comparatives over several months.

I checked

https://www.av-comparatives.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/avc_factsheet2016_10.pdf

and

https://www.av-comparatives.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/avc_fdt_201609_en.pdf

Avast seems to score pretty good in the first report. No so bad in the
second report either, but not the best because of false positives. I can
think of worse things than false positives...


Hi s|b,

The trick is to look over several (6+) months and see who is
consistent. Anyone can have a good month.

Kaspersky and Bit Defender are the two I find the most consistent.

I sell Kaspersky but not Bit Defender as they are a pain in the ass
to sell. And Bit's sales staff is rude as all hell trying to
get a hold of them. I have a dedicated Kaspersky sales rep that
jumps through hoops for me.

Bit Defender also does not have a vulnerability check that finds
software that is out of date. That is required for credit
card security (PCI). Otherwise Bit is good.

Also, I do think that Free AV's are really not a good idea.
They are just too reduced function. And, except for Bit
Defender, come with junkware. I hate junkware.

-T

That's a problem with av-comparatives: they don't provide running
averages to see how a product has fared over time.

https://www.virusbulletin.com/testin...imalware/avast
versus
https://www.virusbulletin.com/testin...re/bitdefender

Then remember that these are for the payware versions, not for the
freeware versions, and also at the default settings for each product.

I hear over and over how Google Chrome is more secure than Firefox and
yet I can configure Firefox to be much more secure than Google Chrome
because Firefox has the settings to let me do that.

https://www.virusbulletin.com/testin...-rap-quadrant/

That shows Avast is slightly better than BitDefender in reactive
detection (what it detects now) while BitDefender is a bit better for
proactive detection (what it detects on behavior aka heurstics). Avira
scores better on reactive detection but distance from the proactive
protection in Avast or BitDefender. But, again, that's for the payware
versions. No one is measuring or comparing just the freeware versions
(which means excluding many commercial products that have no freeware
version other than a trial). In fact, some of the tested products are
enterprise-grade programs, not consumer-grade (end-user) programs. So
they are comparing apples to oranges and also for some products that are
far outside the depth of your pocket.

VB used to have a summary of all tests against a particular product
showing you how the product fared over time and also showing you when
the product showed up for them to test along with how many times the AV
vendor decided to NOT include themself in a round of testing. Don't
know why they got rid of that in their site makeover.

https://www.virusbulletin.com/testin...00-antimalware

That lets me pick up to 3 AVs to compare in the last 10 tests. So I
picked Avast (business), BitDefender (endpoint - which means
enterprise-level client), and Avira (free). Then I removed Avira (free)
because it was missing in some tests. I used the default of "last 10
tests" and "last 12 months". They included products for Linux which
don't apply here but there was no OS selector. The results is that they
are damn close.

However, remember that the free version of BitDefender gives you none of
the configurability available in the free version of Avast. Do you
really run an AV using its install-time settings?



All AVs bounce too much regarding coverage, stability, and false
positives; however, users really don't want to keep changing every 3
months to a different AV program.

On Fri, 9 Dec 2016 17:41:48 -0600, VanguardLH wrote in


snip

That lets me pick up to 3 AVs to compare in the last 10 tests. So I
picked Avast (business), BitDefender (endpoint - which means
enterprise-level client), and Avira (free). Then I removed Avira (free)
because it was missing in some tests. I used the default of "last 10
tests" and "last 12 months". They included products for Linux which
don't apply here but there was no OS selector. The results is that they
are damn close.

However, remember that the free version of BitDefender gives you none of
the configurability available in the free version of Avast. Do you
really run an AV using its install-time settings?



All AVs bounce too much regarding coverage, stability, and false
positives; however, users really don't want to keep changing every 3
months to a different AV program.

Thanks for the detailed analysis.
--
Web based forums are like subscribing to 10 different newspapers
and having to visit 10 different news stands to pickup each one.
Email list-server groups and USENET are like having all of those
newspapers delivered to your door every morning.

On Sat, 10 Dec 2016 07:40:33 -0600, CRNG wrote:

Thanks for the detailed analysis.

+1!

--
s|b