Avira – freeware virus protection June 17, 2013 by Q
Product Overview
Avira AntiVir Personal provides basic protection against viruses, worms, and Trojans, and also has basic anti-spyware protection. Avira claims the application monitors all user activities on the system for maximum pro-activeness.
Program Interface
Avira has a simple yet drab and outdated-looking interface. Basic navigation is handled in the left pane, and the selected item is displayed in the center. The overview tab shown above displays the status of program components including security, last scan and update times, and license info.
Use & Effectiveness
Avira generally stayed out of the way with one exception: the occasional pop-up advertising for the paid version.
Since the software is free it is hard to complain about this, however AVG has a far less intrusive way of doing so through the program interface.
To test the effectiveness of Avira I used several virus files from Eicar.org, an IT security website. Please see the test description for extensive information on the tests.
Avira detected one out of four upon download and discovered the others during a system scan. It performed the appropriate actions to remove them from the system. This is the same level of pro-activeness we observed with AVG. Avira performs as expected with no surprises.