Windows 7 anti-malware products compared

Having taken the time to go to av-test.org and read the test results,
AV-TEST - The Independent IT-Security Institute: Jan/Feb 2014

I'm giving Panda Free a run. I've been happy with Avast, both for myself and my clients, but it rates lower on protection and the number of unnecessary crap pop-ups is increasing. Many of my clients are even older than I am, some in the early stages of dementia, some just a little overwhelmed. The more pop-ups, the more my phone rings (and no, I don't charge for those calls). I want EFFECTIVE AV that keeps its head down and mouth shut unless there's something important to say.

Golden said:

Now you're being silly. The only time I recommend it, is when a different AV has been demonstrated to cause a BSOD. Fact

You might not, but some do recommend it. Read post #12 of this thread.....
"and always suggest MSE as my first AV suggestion."

If a person wants to use such a poorly rated product for their own personal reasons they have every right to do so, but I would never knowingly advocate a product that is rated poorly by most or all the expert testers as is MSE.

I run MSE. I run full scans every weekend before backups. It never finds anything. I run a full scan with MBAM, it doesn't find anything. I run AdwCleaner and it doesn't find anything. I run SuperAntiSpyware and it doesn't find anything. Once in a while, I'll run TDKiller and it doesn't find anything. So what am I missing here? As long as I get this kind of results, I'll keep using MSE and I'll keep recommending MSE. I see no reason to clutter my system with six or seven drivers running all the time from Avast, AVG, Norton, et. al. I think MSE uses two. MSE fits so smoothly with the OS that many AV reviews don't even include MSE as it was declared, by them, to be an OS update and blew the doors off everyone else with speed and efficiency. Others had to target MSE in the tests just to keep the other AVs in the same scale of graphs. Why would anyone think a site that derives it's income from AV sales give any support to a free AV from Microsoft? Microsoft isn't going to pay for a "certification". They don't need to.

Added: I might add that I make extensive use of the host file and the built-in security of IE-11 and limit the use of Flash to specific sites. I would think anyone concerned with system security would do the same but the AV reviews never address this side of infections. They always start with the infections pre-installed.

Just as some grip XP, I'll stay with MSE because it works for me. And when MS released a MSE version for XP, I immediately installed it on the other two machines here. :)

UsernameIssues said:

TVeblen said:

MrWhoopee said:

Having taken the time to go to av-test.org and read the test results,
AV-TEST - The Independent IT-Security Institute: Jan/Feb 2014

I'm giving Panda Free a run.

Let us know what you think of it.

While not an issue for most users, Panda has yet to fix this bug:
UAC security question

After 24 hours, I like:
Quick installation, no registration required.
No sounds (that's just irritating, I always turn them off)
I haven't seen a single pop-up of any sort. Keeping its head down and mouth shut.

The UAC issue is interesting, but actually works to my advantage. I don't want my clients being asked too many questions. They get rattled and my phone rings. It may not be a bug, it may be a "feature".

The uac issue with panda is a bug, panda confirmed and will be fixed with its new full version release. The whole interface is being redone and will have several performance improvements.

Panda Cloud Antivirus 2.9 Beta

carwiz said:

I run MSE. I run full scans every weekend before backups. It never finds anything. I run a full scan with MBAM, it doesn't find anything. I run AdwCleaner and it doesn't find anything. I run SuperAntiSpyware and it doesn't find anything. Once in a while, I'll run TDKiller and it doesn't find anything. So what am I missing here?

If you have the correct setup and practices, you might have NO AV program and get the same result I too get no detections on all my scans, but I have had Avast pop up to advise a page was trying something, and it had stopped it.

Ken, add Emsisoft free to your arsenal...it likely will find nothing either, but it's a good program as well. You get the full program for 30 days if you like. I never had need for another active antimalware, so I switch to free right away.

https://www.emsisoft.com/en/software/antimalware/

A Guy