Best Antivirus Programs for 2014 - Comments Page 1

I thought AVG got good scores in previous years...that's what I use now. Any comment Bob?

EDITOR'S NOTE: AVG got good scores from AV-TEST (99% of prevalent malware detected, and 98% of zero-day). AV-Comparatives gave them a 96% detection rate. Still good, but Avira and Avast seem to be doing better.

My favorite Antivirus program is Vipre! One bad one got through for the last 2 years. I hardly know it is there. Denny S.

Although I am signed up for AV-Comparitives newsletter, and find it an interesting read as well, I've learned to never believe eveything I read. That's not accusing the results of being skewed. Merely that ESET's NOD32 is the best, regardless of their published findings.

Interesting article ... I'm a little surprised Malwarebytes didn't rate a trial or mention and as for Defender formerly Security Essentials - total waste of space IMO and have disabled it.

while i agree that kaspersky is the best anti-virus, their off-shore service agents are the absolute pits. at any hint of trouble they want to remotely take control of your computer to "have a look around"! for this reason alone, kaspersky fails!

(btw, they terminated my service in the middle of the night with over fifteen months left on my coverage. and then the bitter "you must be quiet and allow us to have access" hassle began...)

never again!

Many of the users and Admin in PC Tech room in Paltalk use and recommend Avast 2014 free as well as some of us who have been using Bit Defender Free since it came out about a year ago. What I like about Bit Defender is that is a totally set it and forget it.

Bob. I just finished re-reading your "Why I changed from AVG to Avast" and the problems you encountered. I never would even consider "upgrade" unless I was expecting the paid version. Since I know this, then I know you know this. So why were you surprised when you saw the paid version of AVG was pre-selected? What am I missing here?

EDITOR'S NOTE: An upgrade means moving from the current version to a newer one. It doesn't necessarily imply moving from a free version to a paid version.

I wonder why Norton Internet Security isn't in the ratings for 2012 and 2013. I thought about getting Kaspersky for our church computers but read comments about problems running on Win 8.

I didn't see an entry for Norton Anti-virs.
At one time, Norton was truly stellar software.

Also, the last installation of Zone Alarm (free) had an anti-virus option. However, I didn't see the Zone Alarm product either. Do they use another company's AV engine?

I think if there really was a "best" product, everybody in the world would be using it and other companies would be out of business overnight. What AV-Comparatives should be saying is Kaspersky scored highest for this test. Next time it will probably be some other company.

Kasparsky is a great anti-virus if you can actually use your computer after installing it. I have seen so many cases where we had to physically rip it out in safe mode just to be able to get the computer to run again. Avast does a great job for both protection and performance.

Well, for my bit, I have nothing but raves for Comodo Internet Security. I have been using the free version for over 5 years and have yet to have a false-positive or anything like that. Just me, but I'll stick with what works for me.

Must agree with Tony regarding Malwarebytes Careful study of one's machine with very comprehensive reports which are easier to understand than most.
Some years ago I had a persistent trojan which NONE of the major names could remove. I had to come to Bali to be introduced to SuperAntiSpyware (which the locals love)to find the trojan's nemisis since when it has faithfully protected me.

I don't see ZoneAlarm on the list. Was it tested with the others?

Why didn't they test Norton products? They are widely used, and it would have been useful to see how they perform relative to others.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Only the companies that agree to be evaluated will appear in the AV-Comparatives reports. Apparently Norton/Symantec did not want to participate. The product DOES appear, though, in the AV-TEST reports.

I haven't seen Webroot mentioned here? I recall it recently was rated highest by several PC columnists?

I'm with Motown Man. What about Webroot? I have used it for years with no problems. These AV guys can't seem to agree.
Nezzar

Bob, I am a nurse by trade, but I also serve pretend to be the IT person at our small home health agency. We've used Symantec Endpoint Protection for our server because it was what the real IT professional installed a few years ago. AV-Comparatives site for business/server products. It compares features of several business products, but does not rank them in the same way that the article you discussed above. So, if a company's stand-alone product is ranked high, can I assume that the server product by the same company will have similar success/failures?

Bob, I'm a bit surprised by your note in reply to John about upgrades.

I would say that "moving from the current version to a newer one" is updating; and that upgrading means changing to a concurrent version with more features or capabilities.

I update my AV software (Avast free) whenever they release a new version but I don't intend to upgrade to the paid version until my business depends on it (if that ever comes about).

Many thanks for you unbiased informative articles. I am currently using the free versions of Avast and Online Armor. At times I feel guilty receiving this protection for free. What is the business model of these companies who offer free versions? I receive upgrade offers but so far have resisted. Should I show my appreciation and buy their paid versions?