Anti-Virus Horror Stories

One major worry PC users have when choosing an anti-virus program is whether it will slow their systems down.

One user who has installed Norton Anti-Virus has complained in a forum that his computer’s start and shut down time has increased. He says that his computer is slow even when there are no programs running in the background. In desperation, the user disabled the anti-virus background scan with no improvement in sight.

One PC technician, also writing in the forum, said that in every PC he removed Norton Anti-Virus from, the speed of the computer picked up tremendously. Norton is not the only program which slows down your PC. There are a host of other `pro’programs, too, which have this`hidden menace.’

Then there’s the problem of uninstalling. Some anti-virus programs will not allow you to uninstall them no matter how hard you try. One such program is a suspicious-sounding program called Anti-Virus 2008. How’s that for an anti-virus name?

One user has installed it in his system . He became suspicious when the program started detecting viruses and trojans in his supposedly `clean’ system. When he wanted to remove it, it did not want to allow him to. He later discovered that the anti-virus program itself is a virus. He soon learned that to remove it he has to buy the upgrade version of the software.

Frustrated, he turned to a forum where a kind member helped him uninstall the rogue program with anti-malware software.

With this in mind, wouldn’t users be suspicious of freeware anti-virus programs? Many have suffered after being tempted to download an anti-virus software after getting the online message that their computers were infected with viruses or trojans.

Peace of Mind with Avira

With Avira Antivir Personal, you don’t have to worry about installing a rogue program into your computer. For one, the PC Pro magazine put it through a grueling test, and Avira emerged with a `clean bill of health.’

Like AVG free, Avira has a paid version. The developer’s hope is that users would graduate to the paid version after Avira wins their trust. But does Avira perform for that to happen? Let’s look the freeware through.

The specialty about Avira is that it detects not only viruses but also malware. Other than that it works like any other anti-virus program scanning selected folders or the entire system and picking up suspicious files for quarantine.

In the PC Pro test mentioned above, Avira managed to detect 92 percent of the threats. A user review at a reputable download site said that Avira managed to pick up a threat that his paid anti-virus program could not.

Still, the downside of the program is it doesn’t scan emails for threats. Then there’s a `Big Brother’ nag screen that keeps reminding you to buy the premium version. Also, it gives no notification of whether a threat has been wiped out or not after action has been taken.

If you’re not satisfied with your current anti-virus program, then you should not hesitate to give Avira a try. It could just be the ideal replacement you’re looking for. As a user review puts it, “it’s free, fast, does not slow down the computer and updates are plentiful.”