Windows 7: McAfee vs. Avira

Hey all. I've been virus free running McAfee for awhile now. I get it free with my cox. but I wanted to compare McAfee to Avira. The pros and cons in comparison. I have never customized any settings. so I'm talking default stock for each.



Basically, I've heard a lot of good things about Avira. and was thinking of switching. or at least trying to find a reason. So can anyone tell me what the upside or downside of this switch might be?

Hi, I use the Avira Antivir Personal free V9, and it's fast, doesn't load the CPU while scanning, detects most viruses out there. I never tried macafee, but I did try bitdeffender /nod32/kaspersky and they seem either load the CPU or slow down my internet. tried avast which seems fine, seems to detects what ever avira detects ( yeah I had them both running time!) so I uninstalled avast and kept avira. I don't like avast's interface thats why I prefer using avira.

Hi, I've used McAfee and I think it is better than Avira because:
- Low rate of false positive detection
- Best in cleaning/disinfection infected files without deleting them
- McAfee use cloud-based active protection
- It doesn't slow down system and internet connection
- It has buffer overflow protection (stronger protection against exploits and zero-day attacks)
- etc.

For Windows 7 users, especially those with 4GB+ RAM to support a 64-bit OS, the performance gaps may be negligible. While I run Windows 7 at home, I also am responsible for IT at my company where we still run XP SP4 due to the fact that some workstations are older and haven't come due for replacement yet.

On resource-constrained systems, there is a DEFINITE performance hit with McAfee. Systems running on slower CPUs (e.g. 2.4GHz P4) and/or low RAM (e.g. 512MB) will crawl for the first five to ten minutes with McAfee. We use McAfee VirusScan Enterprise + AntiSpyware v8.7. The email scanning slows Outlook clients by 60-70% during init and the boot sequence gets loaded with access scans, AV updates and more. We typically see mcafee processes using 99% CPU for the first 4 minutes or so in the morning, and of course our ITSupport gets a regular earful.

I'm also looking for a solid and reputable solution that does as good a job in protection but is smarter about system resources. McAfee seems to have stacked feature on top of feature with their legacy product and not taken the time to reengineer it to play nicer.

I've used McAfee for years and have had plenty of problems with it, I have now been using Avira for the past year
and have not had a single problem with it from day one.

I would highly recommend it to anybody.

Avira has the better reputation in this forum, but to make things a bit more compicated. MSE Microsoft Security Essentials is very well liked. You may just want to take a quick look. It is free and made just for windows.

MSE FTW. Fast, secure, doesn't slow boot time much.

http://www.microsoft.com/security_essentials/

+1...

Avira for years, not a hint of an issue yet. . . highly recommended. But, remember, these our our opinions, based on our systems and our usage. What is "best" will be different for everyone, depending upon their hardware, software, and usage.

Don't go for McAfee .. Always problems
MSE is be the right choice