AVG - going from Anti Virus software towards Spyware.

never say it did i can though. none the less when i told him to use ABP and stop disabling it and his infection stop being so frequent, did not stop all the random trojan and virus he keeps getting, which i can only assume are coming the the many SOCIAL SITES he uses and the game on it, cause other then that he dont use his pc for anything.

 

AVG seems cant stand in security war nowdays
so they turn to be "evil company" lol

first things in security is the user
its user the one infecting their system by installing "things" consciously or unconsciously

for my security regimen :
MSE(WindowsDefender) + Malwarebytes + Adblock/NoScript for browser

unsure/suspicious files always check online on VirusTotal

extra scanner incase needed "symantec online scanner" & malwarebytes Antirootkit

spyware also really easy to identified if you using network monitor widget
as most spyware will either upload or download "things" hogging ur bandwith
with network monitor, u can easily spotting if there suspicious activity when u not using ur network
thats why i am using rainmeter widget

a AV that high detection rate isnt proved to be the best
high detection lead to high false-positive either

over-secure all in security software also not good too
to me they are to noisy telling every little things that i know its okay/safe

 

Another one bites the dust. Dunno what Antivirus to use now. All the other free ones have their own issues from what I've seen and every single time I've ever tried Kaspersky on any rig ever it ends up freezing during deep scans. I have some files it just can't scan for whatever reason and it craps itself.

 

No idea man, I have never seen specific options like that in any security software I've come across.

But to be honest guys, if you are going to use some protection (which I highly recommend), there is really no reason to use anything "free". Places like newegg and even ebay have sales where you can pick your favorite one up for, no joke, $10

 

A combination of Adblock Plus and NoScript seems to be more effective than most free AVs, it's quite sad really...

 

Last time I used AVG, I was hit by this weird virus that was actually made worse by AVG! It used AVGs scanning engine to spread itself throughout my computer and infected all exe files (except protected system files). Thats was back in the Vista/XP days. Had to format my PC to get rid of it.

 

Honestly, free stuff isn't worth it. They are full of ads and other crap.

In my experience Windows Defender is slow and uses quite a bit of system resource. Norton is noticeably faster and doesn't hog resources.

 

Maybe its about time us gamers got behind something else rather than something by Microsoft / Virus sh1t. I'm getting tired of being dragged into privacy sh1t like this through no fault of my own

 

You must have forgotten (or were too young to remember) the sasser or blaster worms from back in the day .

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sasser_(computer_worm)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blaster_(computer_worm)

Granted that post XP OS's and networks are now more secure and less likely for that to recur, but where theres a will theres a way for the more creative malware authors out there.

 

It is free after all, and they obviously want to make money from it which is fair enough.
Doubt they will care that it will lose them customers being that they don't currently make money from them anyway.

Eventually all software will go this route, and you will essentially have to pay them well, probably monthly so they don't sell your data.

I'm another who doesn't see the point in using an AV, ADP and some common sense is all you need.
Ever so often i will install one to do a one off check, and it never finds anything so until it does i will save money and resources by avoiding them.

 

Don't think I ever used AVG. Just use Bitdefender Total Security and Malwarebytes. I tend to stay away from free AVs, no matter the brand. Have a buddy who's a software engineer working for a security firm, told me Bitdefender is one of the better if not best AV on the market. Out of all the tests he has thrown at it, it blocks and detects most of it unlike the other guys. There you go.

 

a stuff like that are kind of "special" stuff or maybe goverment backed ops stuff? that we wont face everyday

like NSA stuxnet (fanny), that said to implant malware to hdd firmware
such that is another story

but for the rest like zombie-botnet from injected malware is basically "user-mistake"

why effective is because, primary malware spread nowdays from websites rather than other else, like in old days malware spread on email/chat-mirc

but the bad of adblock is memory hog (especially in firefox)
i did mention on my post, as it become kind of standard nowdays
for few weeks i replacing adblock with ublock in firefox... adblock seems better, but at least ublock is much lighter

when last time u use windefender ?
if windows defender that bad, people already shouting hard asking to not bundle it with windows installation long ago since windows8

i know few people seems have conflict between their system and windows defender, but many not

i dump norton years ago, it might change now
but before, it put nasty stuff on system that uninstallation cause system hard-crash and causing system failed to boot anymore
also to compare footprint


windows defender might not best scanner but at least it the least intrusive, has small (if not smallest) performance footprint and it doesn't use stupid, overly aggressive heuristics that generate false positives.

 

ahhhh norton AV how i hated it back then the uninstall of it was anything BUT simple and even when did mange to get off the system took for ever to be removed cause how embedded it was. forget about how much resource hog it was. I have not touch Norton AV since and probably never will again.

 

The first thing that comes to mind is Linux, but then again it's currently not optimal for gaming...

 

I remember back then plugging a clients PC into the modem, booting the modem, and within minutes of being connected to the internet to install and update an AV (didn't get that far) F-ing LoveSan had infected the machine.
The client was a right a-hole, and I had to drive back 3hrs to work, and back the next day, to clean the bloody thing, and finish the install.

From then on the PC's were AV installed and updated before they were connected to the internet.

After that, many clients had xDSL, and a main gateway for the whole company which had its own protections and AV scanners.

I agree that the biggest problem is the user. Stay away from anything that looks dodgy.
I've accidentally installed malware because the F-ing "download button" when downloading software on a relatively legit site (Sourceforge), is in fact an ad banner.

I've used AVG free for years, and occasionally use Malwarebytes to check.
I had Kaspersky before, in the single core years, and it hogged my system too much back then. I've heard its a lot better now.

 

It would only last a while probably.
Even if every one suddenly shifted to Linux, the virus creators would too.
Not sure how easy it would be for them though.
And you still have the "User" problem. If you click on it, you are basically accepting it.

I think i'll be going to WinDefender for the near future, until I can either find another free AV, or a good one to buy.
MS collects data on you with Windows anyway, why should their AV need to ?

 

Actually, found a link on a recent slashdot story, to a PCMag review of Free AV's.
They rate Panda as N°1, BitDefender as N°2, and then the Malwarebytes very limited free AV.
Bitdefender isn't letting me get a free version, it just keeps redirecting me to the frontpage, so maybe they've stopped doing it.
Going to try Panda out, amusing since it was probably the first free AV I installed back in the 90's. When you bought the AV software then, you got free updates for life.
They very soon changed business model.

 

Panda FreeAV is among my favorites. The only issue I've had is losing network connection after uninstalling it. If you're going to uninstall it later, I suggest downloading Revo Uninstaller and using that to remove Panda as opposed to using the built in uninstaller.

 

Do not see the popularity of Malwarebytes. That thing has been useless since day 1. The only thing it has ever detected on my rigs is if the browser cache was not cleaned out by CCleaner.

 

I've had Malwarebytes remove a ton of crapware from systems over the years. It is becoming less and less useful though as malware writers learn how to circumvent it. These days, I tend to rely more on Emsisoft Emergency Toolkit than anything else.