I do not like AVG 8.0! It cannot be installed without the link scanner that slows your net connection to a crawl, and if you disable it, you get a permanent ! on its tray icon to tell you it's disabled.

It has EVEN MORE STUPID FALSE POSITIVES than 7.5. It thinks several of the Farb-Rausch graphics demos are "viruses" and the common.dll from ERD Commander 2005 is also a "virus". Turning off heuristics doesn't change a thing. It will not allow the Magical Jellybean Keyfinder to run. The ignore button does nothing.

An ignore button should do EXACTLY THAT. It should make the software completely, totally, 100% IGNORE THAT FILE! But not with AVG! You can tell it to ignore something all you want and it still will not allow the user to access the "infected" file or run the "infected" program.

AVG WAS good, but it's caught the same "virus" that software like Nero Burning ROM and WinAmp have... BLOATWARE!

Any recommendations for a free AV program that's not ad-ware, has as close to zero false positives as possible- and has a way for users to report false positives so they can be corrected, and does NOT force the user to install crap like link scanners and other "features" other software like Spybot S&D does better?

Two others I know of:

Avira - http://www.free-av.com/


Avast - http://www.avast.com/eng/avast_4_home.html


Both free and very good.

Another vote for avast here

Vote for Avira!
TIP:
create through secpol.msc a software restriction policy to stop avnotify.exe running and that stops the annoying pop up too

I would recommend Avast as it has a good rating and does a good job and it is free. I too got rid of AVG 8.0 for much the same reasons you did, it has turned into bloatware and junk.


Go here to find this free antivirus if you like: http://www.avast.com/index.html

I don't use a free virus scanner so I cannot suggest one to you. But when it comes to bloatware, I can only agree with your comments on Nero and WinAmp; both great programs.... a long time ago. I'm still using Nero 6 and WinAmp 2.5 (if I must).

Hope you find a solution that satisfactory to you. Thanks to others for the tips on free virus scanners.

Avast and while your there join the super helpful forum. Them guys ROCK and with a superior AV

Thanks. I got Avast. I really like how they have an e-mail address right there on the site. AVG doesn't want to hear from anyone who hasn't paid them $$$.

Avast is a bust. A clean install of XP slipstreamed with SP3 will not shut down after installing Avast. Remove Avast and it shuts down and reboots fine.

Avast also dragged the system down to a crawl, a 2.53 Ghz Prescott Core Celeron with 512meg RAM- acting like it's 1/4 that fast, especially with games.

Sounds like you have a problem with your system that needs to be fixed.

It does the same thing with Avira. Without an AV program it shuts down and reboots fine. With Avast or Avira it won't shut down properly and games in full screen run slow.

I haven't tried AVG 8.0 yet on this new install of XP, but (aside from the no-option install and bloatware factor and slowing down internet use) it had zero effect on the system shutting down or restarting properly or on games.

So what else is there for free AV software?

I have Avast on my 1.73 Ghz Celeron 530 laptop with 1G RAM and Vista Ultimate, no problems detected- yet. I haven't tried it on dialup or the games Avast and Avira cause problems with, but I will soon.

I just wish AVG hadn't decided to ruin their product!

There is Comodo Antivirus but its protection is very weak compared to AVG/avast/Avira.

There is also ClamAV but it lacks realtime protection and its detection rates arent very good either.

I think Avira is a much better AV if you dont mind the annoying pop up. That is why i use AVG 8.0 for now.

Linkscanner is a good product. And it doesn't / shouldn't slow down your Internet much at all.

However its AV Engine is now much heavier then previous version therefore system slow down is expected.

While setting up a PC for a friend I went through trying out a few of the free AVs. AVG annoyed me with the browser integration that when disabled caused the system tray icon to have a large red exclamation point over it, Anti Vir occasionally threw a pop up window at the user and upon seeing it the second time I immediately unistalled the app, avast! is now installed.

avast! has a boot time scan option, is unobtrusive, reasonable resource footprint, and a wealth of options. I almost considered uninstalling my paid for AV to use avast! instead due to my excellent overall impression of avast! , actually I might look into buying the paid for version. AV consumers has a link to an independent test ranking avast! rather high on detection rates.