Sorry if this ‘problem’ has been posted before, but I have searched the forums, and cannot find any mention of it.
Simply, I have been runnning Grisofts home edition of AVG for a number of years, no problem. Then someone suggested I check out Avast.
Now I am running both to see if one or the other finds a virus that the other doesn’t. Hopefully this will never happen, and I will be virus free.
But I now get messages from Avast that I have the Win32:Buttons (Joke) and Win32:Stupen (tools) virus in files started with filename of $*****.t$m where the asterisks are numeric. This is always reported once each for each virus, and the files are deleted by me. I now find these files are created by AVG as temp files whilst it checks them and are deleted almost immediately. So the question is,
Does AVast suspect these files as suspicous because they are, or because it doesn’t understand the file type?
Thanks for your help
What you encounter is basically a conflict between 2 antivirus programs; it’s not a good idea to use 2 AV programs simultaneously.
I believe the files are reported because AVG unpacks them (from some files found on your disk), stores them as a temp files on disk, now avast! resident protection detects them and reports.
If they are reported as [Joke] and [Tool], it’s probably nothing dangerous… but I think the report from avast! is intentional.
Real_Oldman, there is a possibility (remote) that avast and AVG could live together but only in Windows Vista.
If you don’t have it, just don’t try to test. Even if you disable one of them, even if you do not install some resident parts of AVG (like email)… sooner or later, trouble.
As a convert to Avast - i’d say stick with it. I’ve played around [tested!] with both for a few months. Avast isn’t so cosmetic as AVG but i think it does updates more often and the screensaver is great. I leave the screen saver to my scanning.
Only thing i would say is email scanning isn’t worth bothering with - i manually scan my USB portable thunderbird. I did try the webmail for email scanning and then found there was a glitch - it wiped my inbox and created another directory.
I’d go further and say it’s often impossible to run more than 1 AV (resident.) Conflictions are likely (my experience from a while back) and I’ve read from a few experts that the level of protection can actually end up being less.
I’ve used AVG, Avira, Norton, and Avast. I prefer Avast, and believe it has, through its configurable options, webshield, and boot scan (currently u/s but should be fixed soon) a better level of protection.
Personally, I’d uninstall both of them, (be disconnected from the net) run a disk cleanup with CCleaner (or similar) restart, and install fresh the one you want to use.
If you choose Avast I doubt that you’ll be disappointed. I find the forum support excellent and fast, the program excellent, and have been pretty much malware free since using it. (With a few other security applications.)
I’ve used Portable Thunderbird and avast scanned its mail. To see if avast! is scanning emails, check one of these points:
Is the avast icon (the special one of email scanning) be shown in the system tray?
Is your email header with the lines X-Antivirus: avast! (VPS XXXXXX-X, XX/XX/2007), Inbound message and X-Antivirus-Status: Clean? (Right click the message, choose Properties and Details)
Are clean notes added at the bottom of the email? (Internet Mail provider settings)
Thanks to all for your swift response, and comments.
I guess I now have to make that hard decision, AVG which I have had for years and trust, or the newbie ( to me) of Avast, which does appear superior.
The only way is to suck it and see as my old Mum used to say
I will try Avast and see how that goes. I can always revert to AVG. if I do find a nasty lurking.
Once again, thanks for your comments.
Oldman
I deserted AVG anti-virus three and a half years and jumped on board the god ship avast! I didn’t find anything nasty lurking, just probably the most flexible and configurable anti-virus application around, so no need to revert ;D
Welcome to the forums and soon to the avast family.
I’ve done this decision too, four years ago. I did not regret even once…
Better configurability, updates are reliable and fast, skinable interface, at the most of the time better detection…
Just to reinforce Tech comment. I’ve just had the screen saver running and it detected a “Trojan”. AVG missed this a couple of weeks ago.
Would be interested to know! when Avast protection sensitivity is set to ‘HIGH’ is this also the case when the screen saver or a manual scan are running. Also agree the updates Avast do are more frequent than AVG. Think i owe Avast an advert on my email signatures.
As “our friends across the pond” would say ‘you’d do well to dump AVG.’
I’ve tried all the free AVs and have settled on avast, it just works better with little or no problems and the support here is the best.
I also use AVG Ewido anti spyware free, I just run a scan periodically.
I’ve also tried AVG’s free anti root kit as well as Panda’s and like that the best.
I’m just a regular user and I don’t use ‘test’ virus programs to see which anti virus program is the best, I just don’t have time for that.
Avast just plain works, at least for me, IMO.
Resources V protection isn’t a balance I would tip in favour of less resources, especially RAM as it is cheap and an easy upgrade. Not only that memory is there to be used and managed by the OS that is the whole idea of RAM so you aren’t constantly going out to the HDD/swapfile for data, which slows your system more.
You also can’t compare apples with oranges when it comes to resources as avast has additional providers which avg doesn’t. avast is relatively light on resources, but that also differs from system to system depending on your use and applications running, etc. further making it difficult to compare. This is my avast resource use shortly after boot, this will change depending on use.
Since I’m frugal (AKA cheap), I tried AGV, avast, and AntiVir and really couldn’t see much of a performance hit worth mentioning with any of them, but I am a newbie : and my needs are modest. I only ran the resident scanner on all three. I have 1 gig, AMD 3000+, and XP SP2 and I only use Firefox.
I just had some issues with AVG and AntiVir and I have had none with avast so that’s why I’m staying with it.
i have used AVG before and i can say that it is more lighter than avast but it did not provide added protection so i made the switch. also not all users have up to date and fast computers.
nod32 is one good example of a compact, slim antivirus and yet provides great protection. but it does’nt come free unlike AVG/avast.
Just a simple and boring event…
avg is the worst…
avast is more powerfull then avg…
i have already use the avg to many time and at last i having trojan mirror and many trojan that are not detect by the avg virus database as fast we need…
kaspersky is the best antivirus in virus database…
avast is the best free antivirus…
another antivirus dont know… ;D
and my needs are modest. I only ran the resident scanner on all three. I have 1 gig, AMD 3000+, and XP SP2 and I only use Firefox.