Avast Free Anti-Virus - Comments Page 1

For several years, I have used Avast! on both a laptop and on one of my two desktop PCs. I find it easy to deal with, totally effective, and much less obtrusive than the apparently equally effective McAfee software I have on my other desktop. I can get McAfee for free from Comcast, my ISP. Thus I could install McAfee on all three machines for nothing, but being not just satisfied but highly pleased with Avast! I have no reason to do so. As a bruised and bedraggled survivor of wars with the rapacious Symantec over its Norton programs, I am grateful to Alwil for providing such fine software for free.

EDITOR'S NOTE: I always advise people to shun bloatware packages like McAfee, Norton, etc. The collateral damage they cause is just not worth the price. And the freebies are SO good, why bother?

I have a couple of XP machines connected by a cross-over ethernet cable and AVG would not install on the main machine. Kept getting errors, so gave up and used Avast on that one and it seems to do the job. One minor quirk was that it kept denying me access to a couple of perfectly safe .exe files (no-install programs) when I wanted to use them. A Windows (not Avast) box came up saying that I didn`t have permission to access and the short-cut icons kept changing to the generic Windows ones. Took me a while to realise that it was actually Avast`s resident protection that was causing it and I had to disable it to rustle up the programs. The only clue I have is that they were originally downloaded into my "Downloads" folder but subsequently moved to the "programs" folder and a short-cut created and I vaguely seem to remember reading somewhere that Avast regards the files as suspicious because they have come from elsewhere. Could that be the case?

Yes, I swear by Avast too ! (I'm using it for 5 - 9 years now...) After (many) friends complained about their (PAID!) Nortons, McAffees, Pandas etc., I installed for them the free Avast AV. They ALL agreed that Avast is Ffffffantastic and much easier, smoother, nothing-to-worry-about...
Especially McAffee and Norton kinda "take over" your system, while Avast is just sitting there nice and quietly and only comes to action when it's needed.
Thumbs up for Avast !

So far i had no problem with useing AVG-- but a first i did not like the new format-- adding spyware to a anti vius-- but now im sort of use to it. to each his own i guess.

I wouldn't have or own a computer without Avast in control. Just install it and let it do it's thing. You'll love it.

I used Kaspersky for a while, and setting it up just gives me a headache. Now? Avast runs nice and replys to what I ever demand. Wise choice, I'd say.

I would not go past Avast. It is better than a whole lot of paid antivirus solutions and has never let me down. I have managed to get my family and friends to change to Avast and everybody has been very happy with it. It just goes to show that there is a free alternative for all sorts of software - which works very well.

Avast is indeed a friendly and reliable anti-virus program. However, I noticed that on the machines I have Avast installed, downloads occasionally "stop", meaning, download data (speed, estimated time, progress bar, etc...) won't update. When I disable several providers, it doesn't happen at all.

Been using Avast for years, have installed it on many others machines after their purchesed big name programs were infected. M%f^e and N@r^#n were a couple that I've seen miss infections caught by Avast. Great program, the price is right and auto updates!

We've used and loved Avast! for several years now. When we were using McAfee, a virus got through & crashed our system. A "geek support" guy cleaned it up for us and brought it back with Avast! installed.

We've been completely virus free for the entire time we've used it, with only one exception. About a year ago the Pakes virus somehow got past it and infected our laptop. Hopefully they have updated it by now though to catch Pakes. Still, you can't beat Avast!, and I wouldn't use anything else.

Another cool thing I recently discovered: I bought a SanDisk Cruzer micro thumb drive, and found that a free trial of Avast! came with it! So, wherever I take my thumb drive, on whatever computer I plug it into, Avast will check that computer system to make sure it's infection free and to protect the thumb drive from being corrupted. After the free trial ends, it still works but no longer updates automatically when you plug in the thumb drive. I believe the purchase cost is about $20.