Avira Free Antivirus 2013 released – 238 days old

[Alakazam]

"Not everything that security company Avira did in recent times has received a positive reception by the company’s user base. Especially the bundling of the software with the Ask Toolbar has been criticized by users, even though it is completely optional.

The company has just released its 2013 lineup, including Avira Free Antivirus as well as the commercial alternatives Antvirus Premium, Internet Security and Internet Security Plus. You may have already noticed that the year has been removed as part of the product name."

Article at ghacks.net

Release Notes (PDF)

Avira Home Page

[Dark Angel]

That Ask crap has had more than one person asking me for help with their system. I hate it.

[Grogan]

I'm not happy that there's a whole new version to contend with already. They have only just stabilized 2012, really. What now, are all my people going to get notices to upgrade to some new version already?

I have been installing Avira less and less, because quite frankly it's gotten annoying. It's also got the potential to waste my time when people are confused by it.

Bollocks to their Ask Toolbar plugin. That's a horrible way to implement a security module. Foolish, even.

[Grogan]

OK, I take back everything I said (well, almost everything). The new version has not seriously changed the user interface, and has not introduced any new annoyances. I now have it on two of my friend's computers that I look after, and I have tested it with the eicar string, and the behaviour on detection is the same etc. It shouldn't cause anyone grief if they upgrade (unless maybe they install the Ass Toolbar)

It doesn't seem bad at all, probably for the good. (though it's early to say that)

[Michael_Horatio]

Hmmm, thanks for that Zammy...interesting. I stopped installing it for people a long time ago for the same reasons DA and Grogan mentioned, but I would start peddling it again if it behaves properly...

I put it on an XP machine I have here that I use for a file server/miniclip gamer for my nephews and I will watch it for a few days. I noticed you get a message during the install now (after a scan for incompatible program conflicts or something) telling you to manually uninstall Malewarebytes and probably anything else I guess - that was the only thing I had on that machine...But you can skip that.
also tried the eicar test
I've been giving people MSE for some time - not because I like it - but because it behaves and gives people that warm fuzzy 'safe' protected feeling. I don't tell them that the chances of it stopping anything they are likely to actually get are slim.
For most of the people I look after, I make a cold image of the system partition once in a while and in the unlikely event they get some rogue or something that I can't remove, I restore the image and get them back up to date.

It hasn't updated yet, so I'm wondering if it still spits out a popup every update...anyone notice that?

[Grogan]

That behaviour has not changed. I don't know if it's every update, but I saw it. I don't care so much about that popup, for finding it on the screen periodically serves as a notifier that the updates are getting done. I just tell people to ignore it, no matter what it says. "Just click OK"

What bugs me are incessant nags to install the toolbar, but they have stopped those. You are only presented with that now on a major application update. It comes up in the side bar. Messages popping up from there annoy me. The i/o intensive "scanning" and "repairing" steps when the real time protection goes off on something annoy too. Not so much for my sake (I'm not the one that has to use this shit), but because they are painful, and confusing to people.

But I don't think any of the other free ones (or most paid for ones) have detections as good as Avira. It's the one I trust the most in that respect, overall. It's fairly comprehensive in what it detects, some of which is outside the scope of antivirus software.

[Michael_Horatio]

thanks Grogan,
I'll watch it for a few days and see how it goes. I always liked avira for their detection abilities and would like to put people on it again.
If it can run without confusing people it is still probably the best free option.

I noticed by default the product updates get downloaded and installed automatically and probably require a reboot.
that kind of thing always scares and confuses people. I would set it to just notify people if a product update is available.

[Grogan]

This is Windows. If there's one thing that people are used to having to do, it's rebooting when prompted.

[Dark Angel]

This is Windows. If there's one thing that people are used to having to do, it's rebooting when prompted.

and after prompting, and again after that, then again to roll back the crashed updates ...

[Grogan]

OK... I found the Ass toolbar on one of my parents' computers last night. Ironically, I went there to upgrade to the latest version of Avira Premium... I had already paid for the renewal, I just hadn't installed version 2013 on there yet.

I wondered how the Hell the Ask toolbar got on there. My parents don't install software, only I do that. They ask me about everything... they won't even so much as let the Flash player update without telling about it.

I noticed that during the install of Avira 2013, yes even the Premium version, they still offer the Avira branded Ask toolbar. What a bunch of sleazebags trying their luck, eh? It serves no benefit to premium users, because they already have the web filtering module that Avira piggy backs as an Ask Toolbar plugin!

So I figure that if it asks there, it also brings up a systray slider offering it too, during a program update like the free version does. I asked my mother about it and she said she always does everything Avira tells her to do, per my instructions. Doh! (Again, I paid for the premium so there shouldn't be any tomfoolery. "Do whatever it says, and I'll look at logs and/or quarantine later if it found something")

Too bad I already paid, for I certainly would not have renewed their Avira licenses had I known it was going to be doing that.

I don't care how good the antivirus software is, if they are going to junk up my clients' systems with rubbish, a CONFLICT OF INTEREST on the part of a security vendor, then I am going to steer people clear of purchasing their products. I have tolerated it for the free version, but for the paid for versions there is just no excuse.

To use a phrase I borrowed from dear floppybootstomp, "Avira can go boil their bum"

[Michael_Horatio]

I agree, that is total sleeze and greed to do shit like that on premium version. I installed the free version on one of my machines just to see what was noticeably different from the older versions, although it hasn't slipped the ass toolbar past me, I've found it to be just about as big a nag as it always was, good as it is, I will not offer it to anyone else. I'll probably wipe it off my file server machine. the test is complete..result: fail

[Bad Haircut]

So what's half decent for Windows these days?

[Grogan]

It's still good if it's you or someone competent using it (you won't fall into the traps) but other than that, I'd probably say Microsoft Security Essentials.

I care a lot about "non crippling, non irritating, non interfering". Probably more than effectiveness and certainly more than aggressiveness. MSE is more effective than AVG, for sure.

I don't like Avast. Bloated, CPU intensive and has a bad history with me.

I would just use either Avira Free or Microsoft Security Essentials. I don't think I believe in spending money on antivirus software anymore, either... expensive ones still annoy and fail to protect.

[Grogan]

I worked on a computer today, a Windows XP computer, where I was told "It has a virus". (I was just there a few weeks ago). I asked why he thought it had a virus... "because it's slow and there's this Avira thing popping up"

First thing I do is check software, get the scanners up to date etc.

Avira slides up its systray naglet advertising Premium for the holiday season. I notice I can't close this thing or get it to slide back out of view... hmm, it's deadlocked. System is slow as Hell. I bring up Task Manager and I see ipmgui.exe using all the CPU time. That's the program that runs to display those notices that come up from the system tray area. Kill the program, the Avira nag goes away and everything is back to normal. It makes sense, because that thing is animated. (slides into view, with often animated content on it). Some video drivers might get tickled the wrong way by something like that.

When the geezer came back downstairs, I established that yes indeed, that's what was happening to him.

Now, this is a case of their silly nags actually causing a problem. Something completely unnecessary, that caused harm... and the people thought that was a virus itself. Way to go, Avira.... you just earned the prestigious "Crawl up Grogan's arsehole and die" award.

I took Avira off and put on Microsoft Security Essentials... problem solved. I left Avira on their two other computers because it wasn't causing a problem. (It's still got some of the best detections)