Are Premium Malware Suites Worth Their Price? - Comments Page 1

You missed one of the most important reasons for paying for Avast -- not having to be constantly bothered by ads for the full version. It was so annoying I dumped the free version and went back to relying on MSs built in protection.

I do not have any problems at all I us PCMATIC is the best for me and will recommend it to all

To William Dickins: Have you researched "Disabling popups in (name of product)"? There are methods one can do to prevent those annoying notices from appearing. Worth a try.

Regarding Avast beware if you have a single core CPU and 2 Gig of ram. Avast can take all CPU resources and freeze your computer. It is also extremely hard to delete. It requires another program from Avast to fully delete it. It's not for older under powered computers.

Yes, they are...been both routes. Windows firewall totally sucks. Rankin, why you plug for avast! is beyond me...unless they pay for your Burger King Whoppers. avast! is, and always has been, a resources hog. Anyway, no more time to waste on this drivel...Toodles!

I had Avast free to start with. Then I bought the Firewall for ten dollars and it upgraded to the
Avast Internet Security. I had it for a full year until May 3rd, 2018. They nagged for a full month to purchase for $39.99 before my subscription expired. I hate their persistent notices and decided to try something different so I went with Webroot Secure Anywhere for $19.99 for a full year. This is awesome! Light in system resources and fast 3-minute scans. The computer runs perfectly. I also use Windows Defender periodic scanning with no issues plus all the rest of the Windows Defender has to offer mentioned above in the article. I recommend Webroot Secure Anywhere. I also noticed that an update for Ccleaner came up with a checkbox to install Avast Free. They bought Ccleaner and now they want you to download Avast free with Ccleaner or it won't download Ccleaner. I Had to use Patch my PC to download the latest update for Ccleaner. It worked perfectly!

@Peter - Simply uncheck the Avast installation box and then install CCleaner. If it's not installing after that, then something else is wrong with your machine. CCleaner does not force you to install Avast to use CCleaner.

Why would anyone choose Windows Defender over something else? With a lot of people hating Microsoft and creating viruses, malware and whatever else, wouldn’t it be better to choose something not related to Microsoft?

I have Win 7 and have been using Avast Free Antivirus and Comodo Free Firewall for at least a year with no problems. They seem to play well together. I also follow your advice to regularly run Malwarebytes and PrivaZer and thus far have found only an occasional PUP.

I have been using Norton 360 with free Maleware antimalware for years and it works just fine. Norton is free from most cable providers by the way.

Been using Windows Defender and Malwarebytes Premium (24.95/year, 3 computers) for last 2 years. Works for me. Malwarebytes catches quite a few suspicious sites, especially on wife's PC and does reasonably well with PUPS. Defender/Smartscreen has surprised me by blocking some websites before Malwarebytes. My ISP offers Norton Security as part of package, but I consider it to be a resource hog and too much of a nag.

I used the free version of Malwarebytes for years, it was always the most highly recommended app for deep cleaning. They offered a lifetime license for like $20 a few years back, always on, auto updates, scheduled scans. I took it. They regret it. I tried to get one for a MacBookPro but they told me they no longer offer the lifetime license, but the one I have is good forever, every upgrade, all the time and I can move it from one machine to another, so I use it on my Win10 desktop. Free version on my MacBook.

I don't think there's anything better out there. Sophos may come close and they're now hawking a paid version for home users too. But it is also an always on version which is compatible with Malwarebytes. They completely rebuilt their program a year ago, it wouldn't work with Sophos running, even with my old free license they did NOT give up until they had a version that let me run both. It took maybe three months. THAT is customer service, for something they don't even offer anymore. They do have a customer for life. Not a single piece of malware has ever made its way to any of my home machines since I've had home machines going back to DOS days. I've used various things over the years, but nothing tops Malwarebytes. For me.

I am currently using Trend Micro and have been very happy. It does an automatic scan every day, etc.
I had a bad experience with Avast on my laptop; it may have been a virus that slipped by the "paid" version; when I went to do a disc clean, it started writing data on my hard drive and filled up my drive completely. Had to have hard drive erased and new ops system replaced!

Avast buys Piraform and the first thing released is a compromised version of CCleaner.
It’s not very reassuring when a security vendor, who supposedly has it's users trust, could allow something like like that to happen to their own servers, AND be unaware of it for almost a month (27 days).
I have no confidence that something similar wouldn't happen again.

There are some of us sophisticated users who use a variety of programs to match the full featured internet security modules while there are other basic users who do not have the knowledge of patience to put together a free comprehensive software bundle to combat malware. They want to push a key and be done with it. No worries.

Some of the respondents seem to have ignored that you have written an article about Avast in the 1st of a series, and want to tell us about their own preferences instead of commenting on Avast as requested.

However, the most probable effect of your article showing there is little justification for the cost of the premium over the free version will be that the manufacturer will simply stop trying to justify the price and just place a price on the "free" version!

I've been using Avast free version since about 2005 when I needed something that would still work with Win98. Everything was fine until a couple of year ago when the up-to-date version started failing to update the definitions (I think).
I couldn't find a solution, or even any acknowledgement by Avast that there was a problem, so I downgraded to Version 6.0.1000 and everything is fine again.
Has anyone else experienced the problem of Avast failing to update, and has it been resolved?

Thanks for this. It prompted me to look, and I found something concerning.
W10 Pro + Avast free. Once I found the Controlled Folder Access option, it's greyed out OFF, and can't be turned back on. Quick googling suggests that this is because it relies on Defender to be active, which it isn't (?shouldn't be?) while Avast is running. Therefore, it suggests that Avast's anti-ransomware feature is MUCH more useful than you might think, because when running free Avast, you DON'T (?can't?) have that feature through Windows.

Or do I have something wrong?

Great article, Bob! I'm running two laptops with Windows 7 and Chrome browsers. About a month ago I downloaded the freebie trial for Malwarebytes on one of the laptops and it did a great job of getting rid of malware and preventing more from getting into that laptop. It picked up tons of stuff that slipped by Spybot. When the 14 day trial was over I went to pay for the "Home" version and found the Malwarebytes' payment sites were (to me) untrustworthy. I contacted them about it and was told, sorry; that's who we use. I could buy a disc from a third-party site but they could not guarantee it. I then bought Webroots - 20 days ago - and have had two browser hijackings so far. When I write to their support department, they want ME to do the majority of the detective work I pay THEM to do. With my using Webroot, there should not be browser hijackings in the first place, right?!?! I think I just might go with what your article recommends, Bob - Live and Learn. . .at least, for me, that is.

Great article, Bob!

It totally amazes me how others handle their own computer protection. I say, if it works for you and your computer is safe, than go for it. It doesn't matter if it is the Free version or the Paid version, what works is the most important.

Now, Bob you are able to tweak and twist things for the best outcome. Not everyone is capable of doing that. Sorry, but that is the reality of good computer safety.

I used the Free versions of Zone Alarm, AVG and Avast for years, before I purchased the Paid version of Avast. It has only been these past few months that I stopped using Avast. I was upset that I had been a good customer for over 3 years of being a paid customer and not one offer for a good discount from Avast! I was also upset that I was noticing more and more resources being used by Avast.

I am much older now and simply want to quit messing with my computers. I can't trust my Hubby to do things right, so having a Paid version settles lots of issues, since you can "schedule" aspects of malware protection, for example, routine scans and the level of those scans. With a Paid version, I don't have to be concerned about when definitions or updates are done, they are simply done automatically.

I have worried a lot less about my Hubby's computer, when I started using a Paid version. Just that fact alone is worth every penny I spend on computer safety. I am using Bitdefender right now and I must say, I am impressed. I got a great deal for 5 devices, for 5 years. I purchased the Bitdefender Total Security 2018 and it does cover up to 5 different devices for the whole 5 years. This coverage includes computers, laptops, tablets and cell phones.

For me, this is my solution and it works. 5 years ago, I had a different solution and that worked, for that time. So, I say do what "floats your boat" and be happy.