What's the Best Anti-virus?

Even Avast (most AV developers) suggest using their own removal tools to uninstall when there are big issues. I think the idea is to not compound a problem by leaving remnants behind. A Guy

I wouldn't recommend using any 3rd party removers either on any av software when generally you can find the "something __ui.exe" uninstall executable in the main program folder. For VIPRE that would be the sbaui.exe since GFI bought out Sunbelt a good number of years back and why you see the "SB" not GFI or VIPRE in use.

Even after the removal you still find a folder or two left on the drive that often contains the help file and is put there as a record of installation and removal of which version. Besides simply looking for the uninstall file the support information at the manufacturer's site is generally the best set of instrictions to go by.

It comes as no surprise that once you removed Avast the system booted up faster. I ran into that somewhat back when running AVG until getting into VIPRE where I could make some interesting comparisons having given Avast a look. I don't find any hardly any drag on startup time with or without VIPRE installed when going to put on a newer version.

But I also suspect there is always some likely not so noticeable with each program since most have some type of boot scan at work going over the start up items as part of the system protection and more so if a firewall is present. Some programs simply act like bloatwares on the other hand.

Not 3rd party uninstallers, the program developers OWN removal tools. Most of them have them, and recommend them. They created them for a reason. A Guy

Night Hawk said:

It comes as no surprise that once you removed Avast the system booted up faster. I ran into that somewhat back when running AVG until getting into VIPRE where I could make some interesting comparisons having given Avast a look. I don't find any hardly any drag on startup time with or without VIPRE installed when going to put on a newer version.

But I also suspect there is always some likely not so noticeable with each program since most have some type of boot scan at work going over the start up items as part of the system protection and more so if a firewall is present. Some programs simply act like bloatwares on the other hand.

It makes sense that an AV program should start running ASAP (especially before the network connects).

I found it interesting, as my PC used to boot up in 30s-40s (at the start of this year).
For the past 4 or 5 months it has been taking 50s-60s to boot up.

The boot up difference without the AV was 20s.
The AV couldn't have been taking that long at the start of the year, or my OS would have been booting in 10s-20s.

I assume that all of the security updates I've installed this year are responsible for the increase in boot time.

Each av program when set for automatic updates or to automatically check for them will tend to load the built in updater while Windows is loading programs at start up. You can expect any Windows install to start slowing down gradually anyways as MS updates continue to come along with new start up items from program you add on later as well.

And A Guy has a good point there too about the better software companies providing a special removal tool for their products. That is common practice with most companies. If for some reason a program ends in a software conflict of some type and has to be removed the uninstaller may not be able to accomplish the task where a special tool is then needed to complete the task. These insure all registy entries are removed even if a program folder is still found on the drive.

List of AV removal tools

http://kb.eset.com/esetkb/index?page=content&id=SOLN146

A Guy

From a simpleton; me.

Every system is one update away from problems. That is all it takes to change a system. How all these anti virus programs and Windows 7 updates manage to work together is a work of art. It takes so little to cause a problem.

Because a quality anti virus programs has to watch so many things it has fingers all over the system. Peaking, inspecting watch for hiding places the infection like to place themselves.

A long time ago when I was using different anti virus quite often I found that completely removing them was very difficult. Whether using the authors removal tool or something like Revo.
If I used regedit I would always find foot prints of the anti virus program I had removed.
I don't know if leaving them would of hurt anything because I always removed them.

The good news.
Because I do read a gazillion threads and post I'm thinking just using the anti virus removal tool will work just fine in most cases.
Sometimes digging a little deeper is needed but that is not the norm.

Along time ago I was always watching those sites comparing anti virus programs. They would show a bunch of charts and explain why now I need to replace this anti virus program with another anti virus program because it tested better. I was buying 3 to 4 different anti virus programs a year. I would have to start all over learning the new anti virus program and train my system.

Then I started thinking, scary isn't it.
Who is paying for these test of anti virus. Who is paying the testers.
Somebody is, they are not doing all this testing just to show the computing how much they love them.

My last store bought anti virus was Webroot with Spysweeper. Try to remove that puppy. It will take the joy out of 2 or 3 days removing all of it.

I said to myself, self why not try one of those free anti virus?
I installed MSE along with Malwarebytes and haven't looked back sense.

I would never say it's the best combination for everybody because everybody's needs are a little different. The combination meets and exceeds my needs.
Both work well with Windows 7 and both are light on my systems.
I personally don't want to have to constantly tinker with my protection programs. This combination has never caused me a BSOD.
Most of all I seldom get a infection. It's been so long I can't remember when it happened.

All those anti virus programs I tried a long time ago might be great today with all the updates and upgrades. I really don't know because I have had no reason to stop using what I have to test them.

This is a long story about my personal experiences with anti virus programs.

Several of those I am already familiar with and seem to work well with the older programs. I definitely know the AVG remover well! F-Secure, Obit, G-Data, everybody knows Malwarebytes! McAFail? only if you are... uninformed enough to put that one on! While the last one is far more recent which would likely be the better one to have onhand since it covers some 40 programs.

andrew129260 said:

This might help in the future:

Avast - Uninstall Completely

Thanks for the link too I installed Avira free on the newlaptop and it drove me nuts every ten seconds popping up something had beenfound and thinking Avast would be ok – same thing – never had such naggyprograms on a machine before . So MSE is going on this morning.

That will be 204days by tomorrow I've been using the "BitDefender Antivirus Plus" (2014) with not a single BSOD and PC slowdown...I'm amaze of its integration and background silent work.

The only thing is that software at uninstall had to be made proper way with the tool Bitdefender provide on their support site, in case upgrading to next version.