Win32 Virus Removal

When it comes to antivirus protection you want a company with experience. Avira has been around for 25 years, which is about as long as PC viruses have existed. The company's principals want everyone to be safe from malware, so they give away Avira Free Antivirus 2012 (free, direct) for non-commercial use.

Avira can't survive just by giving away free protection, of course. Commercial users must purchase the paid edition, and those using the free product are encouraged to upgrade to Avira's full security suite. In fact, the free antivirus's main window includes all the same components as the full suite, with the unavailable ones tantalizingly grayed out.

Good Lab Results
All of the independent labs I follow test Avira's technology with the exception of West Coast Labs. ICSA Labs certifies Avira for virus detection and removal. In both the on-demand and retrospective tests by AV-Comparatives.org, Avira took the top rating, ADVANCED+. And in all of the last ten tests by Virus Bulletin, Avira received the VB100 award for complete success.

AV-Comparatives also runs a dynamic whole-product test, challenging multiple products to defend against real-world malicious attack over a period of weeks. In this test Avira rated ADVANCED, the second highest rating.

Every two months AV-Test.org releases antivirus certification results based on real world testing under Windows 7, Vista, or XP. Products can earn up to six points for protection, remediation, and usability, with a total of 11 required to pass. Like BullGuard and Trend Micro, Avira averaged 12.5 points in the latest three tests. Bitdefender's average of 16.33 is currently the best. For more details on what these tests mean, see How We Interpret Antivirus Lab Tests.

Good Malware Cleanup
Avira installed without incident on my twelve malware-infested test systems. The antivirus runs a quick scan for active malware immediately upon installation. This scan caught quite a few threats and required a reboot on most of the test systems. One even needed a second reboot.

A full scan of my standard clean test system took 20 minutes, a bit below the average. However, a second scan came in only a couple minutes shorter. AVG Anti-Virus Free 2012 (Free, 4 stars), Norton AntiVirus 2012 ($39.99 direct, 4.5 stars), and others cut the time for a repeat scan by 90 percent or more.

Avira's real-time protection also nabbed a few of the threats. By default it simply blocks access to the threat and asks for permission to fully remove it. When you grant permission it runs a mini-scan to detect related malware traces. A couple of the test systems had three or more of these mini-scans running at once, making for a very busy desktop. I'm not complaining; if the system is badly infested with malware the antivirus should be busy.

After running a complete scan on all of the test systems I tallied up the results. Avira detected 88 percent of the threats, the same as AVG. It scored 6.7 points for malware cleanup overall, a bit better than AVG's 6.5.

In the breakout test looking specifically at scareware, Avira detected all the threats and scored 9.5 points. That's exactly the same as AVG, Norman Malware Cleaner 2.1 (Free, 3.5 stars), and Panda Cloud Anti-Virus 1.5 Free Edition (Free, 3.5 stars). Of recent free antivirus products, only Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware Free 1.51 (Free, 4 stars) did better, scoring a perfect 10.

Avira didn’t do as well against threats using rootkit technology. It detected 86 percent of those and scored 5.0 points. AVG and Panda detected 100 percent and scored 6.7 points and 4.1 points respectively. The champion against rootkits is Norton, which detected 100 percent and scored 8.9 points. To fully understand the source of these scores, see see How We Test Malware Removal.

This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters featured article: A 'Malign Intellectual Subculture' - George Monbiot Smears Chomsky, Herman, Peterson, Pilger And Media Lens.

When it comes to antivirus protection you want a company with experience. Avira has been around for 25 years, which is about as long as PC viruses have existed. The company's principals want everyone to be safe from malware, so they give away Avira Free Antivirus 2012 (free, direct) for non-commercial use.

Avira can't survive just by giving away free protection, of course. Commercial users must purchase the paid edition, and those using the free product are encouraged to upgrade to Avira's full security suite. In fact, the free antivirus's main window includes all the same components as the full suite, with the unavailable ones tantalizingly grayed out.

Good Lab Results
All of the independent labs I follow test Avira's technology with the exception of West Coast Labs. ICSA Labs certifies Avira for virus detection and removal. In both the on-demand and retrospective tests by AV-Comparatives.org, Avira took the top rating, ADVANCED+. And in all of the last ten tests by Virus Bulletin, Avira received the VB100 award for complete success.

AV-Comparatives also runs a dynamic whole-product test, challenging multiple products to defend against real-world malicious attack over a period of weeks. In this test Avira rated ADVANCED, the second highest rating.

Every two months AV-Test.org releases antivirus certification results based on real world testing under Windows 7, Vista, or XP. Products can earn up to six points for protection, remediation, and usability, with a total of 11 required to pass. Like BullGuard and Trend Micro, Avira averaged 12.5 points in the latest three tests. Bitdefender's average of 16.33 is currently the best. For more details on what these tests mean, see How We Interpret Antivirus Lab Tests.

Good Malware Cleanup
Avira installed without incident on my twelve malware-infested test systems. The antivirus runs a quick scan for active malware immediately upon installation. This scan caught quite a few threats and required a reboot on most of the test systems. One even needed a second reboot.

A full scan of my standard clean test system took 20 minutes, a bit below the average. However, a second scan came in only a couple minutes shorter. AVG Anti-Virus Free 2012 (Free, 4 stars), Norton AntiVirus 2012 ($39.99 direct, 4.5 stars), and others cut the time for a repeat scan by 90 percent or more.

Avira's real-time protection also nabbed a few of the threats. By default it simply blocks access to the threat and asks for permission to fully remove it. When you grant permission it runs a mini-scan to detect related malware traces. A couple of the test systems had three or more of these mini-scans running at once, making for a very busy desktop. I'm not complaining; if the system is badly infested with malware the antivirus should be busy.

After running a complete scan on all of the test systems I tallied up the results. Avira detected 88 percent of the threats, the same as AVG. It scored 6.7 points for malware cleanup overall, a bit better than AVG's 6.5.

In the breakout test looking specifically at scareware, Avira detected all the threats and scored 9.5 points. That's exactly the same as AVG, Norman Malware Cleaner 2.1 (Free, 3.5 stars), and Panda Cloud Anti-Virus 1.5 Free Edition (Free, 3.5 stars). Of recent free antivirus products, only Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware Free 1.51 (Free, 4 stars) did better, scoring a perfect 10.

Avira didn’t do as well against threats using rootkit technology. It detected 86 percent of those and scored 5.0 points. AVG and Panda detected 100 percent and scored 6.7 points and 4.1 points respectively. The champion against rootkits is Norton, which detected 100 percent and scored 8.9 points. To fully understand the source of these scores, see see How We Test Malware Removal.

This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters featured article: A 'Malign Intellectual Subculture' - George Monbiot Smears Chomsky, Herman, Peterson, Pilger And Media Lens.