Get Your Hands On Antivir
 | by Jennifer on May 5th, 2008 |
Finding a good, free antivirus is a difficult task. When I purchased my new computer, it came with a trial of Norton Antivirus. I used it for the 60 days, and then I decided not to keep it by purchasing it. I had purchased a few others over the years, but nothing seemed to do the trick.
A MinuteFix Tech sent me a link from PC Magazine which conducted some testing of antivirus programs; an independent report by Av-Test.org . Pretty interesting stuff. I have always used more than one anti-virus program and spyware/malware program for protection on my own system. I’ve tried AVG, Avast!, and several others, even paying for a few like Panda.
I wasn’t familiar with the first product on the list, WebWasher, but I was thrilled to see Anvira’s Antivir listed as #3. Douglas Wong, another MinuteFix Tech, recommended this product to me, and it has become my absolute favorite program to use and recommend. The best part is that is has a free version. In my experience, Anvira finds all kinds of things that others miss. I use it in conjunction with NoAdware , and Spybot Search and Destroy. Between these three products, my system runs pretty smoothly, and stays pretty clean of viruses, spyware, and malware.
There are a couple of things I really like about Anvir. It can be set to auto update, so I don’t ever have to worry about that, and I can run it automatically with an easy to use scheduler. Scans can also be run in Windows Safe Mode, which is terrific for times when you can’t get Windows to boot totally into full mode (a lot of programs such as this won’t run in Safe Mode), so that is a definite plus. It leaves a very small resource footprint, unlike other competitors, and it seems to find things that other programs don’t.
On a downside, unlike Avast! and AVG, it does not scan incoming our outgoing emails. Its built-in on-demand scan doesn’t quarantine found items, it only tries to delete or repair them.
Antivir has also received positive reviews by PCMagazine, Sofotex, and About.com.
Everyone who I have recommended this product to loves it.
If you need any help configuring your system, we’re online and ready to help.
How do you deal with Viruses and Spyware? Please let me know, I’d be very interested in hearing your thoughts on this product, if you’ve tried it, or others you use, both good and bad.