Avast Renew

[mspl]

My laptop came with Avast installed, I noticed it say's registration expires this May what do I have to do to renew will it do it automatically? Free version

[PsykoPenguin]

My laptop came with Avast installed, I noticed it say's registration expires this May what do I have to do to renew will it do it automatically? Free version

http://www.pressbyte.com/2433/avast-...ey-valid-2038/

I've been using the first key of that set for ages and it still works. You just have to use offline registration then copy and paste the key. Tada, free version registered til 2038.

Just be sure to update Avast to the latest program version.

[mspl]

Thanks Psykopenquin, Why is a key even needed for free software? Are you only allowed a year free?

[RaisinCain]

Uninstall it and download Comodo Free Edition (they offer a free AV as well as internet security). Much better AV solution. Avast just doesn't cut it anymore.

http://www.comodo.com Click on the free Comodo downloads section on the middle left of the page.

[YARDofSTUF]

For free options I'd go with Microsofts scanner or Avira's. Avast does seem to be falling slowly and Comodo doesn't get the best reviews(partially cuz they refuse to be tested by some sources that release results publicly)

[RaisinCain]

For free options I'd go with Microsofts scanner or Avira's. Avast does seem to be falling slowly and Comodo doesn't get the best reviews(partially cuz they refuse to be tested by some sources that release results publicly)

MS Security Essentials is crap- always has been. IMHO Avira was a pretty good AV solution but went the way of Avast. Comodo works VERY well. Like I said, I use it all the time with no issues.

[YeOldeStonecat]

Comodo still has wicked high false positives....needs some more time to cook in the oven and mature well. Some decent features..hopefully in another year and another few versions it'll solidify. False positives had it fail AVTest.org and VirusBulletin tests so far.

http://www.virusbtn.com/vb100/archiv...e?id=93&id2=94
http://www.av-test.org/en/tests/test...quarter-22011/
Quite a few other av-test.org reviews if failed from FPs.
And then that whole baloney when AV-Comparatives finished their test of Comodo and it nearly broke records for high false positives and Comodo's CEO tried to smokescreen that with the whole payoff thing and got egg on his face.

MSE is danged good...I've installed it on hundreds and hundreds of computers and it's done quite well. It's what I use for the cheapie and freebie jobs that I do for friends/family/neighbors, so naturally I'm going to use whatever does the best job of preventing them from calling me again with problems. If there were any better free ones I'd be using them.

Avast...confusion over renewing, and expiring licenses
AVG..stinks
Antivir...naggy with upgrades
UnThreat...very good, Vipre engine, but brings ads to browser
Panda finally got very good....we're using that commercially, may start using their free one for some freebie clients.
MSE...still consistently good, simple, reliable updates, no license confusion, no nags for upgrades, easy for end users.

[RaisinCain]

Comodo still has wicked high false positives....needs some more time to cook in the oven and mature well. Some decent features..hopefully in another year and another few versions it'll solidify. False positives had it fail AVTest.org and VirusBulletin tests so far.

http://www.virusbtn.com/vb100/archiv...e?id=93&id2=94
http://www.av-test.org/en/tests/test...quarter-22011/
Quite a few other av-test.org reviews if failed from FPs.
And then that whole baloney when AV-Comparatives finished their test of Comodo and it nearly broke records for high false positives and Comodo's CEO tried to smokescreen that with the whole payoff thing and got egg on his face.

MSE is danged good...I've installed it on hundreds and hundreds of computers and it's done quite well. It's what I use for the cheapie and freebie jobs that I do for friends/family/neighbors, so naturally I'm going to use whatever does the best job of preventing them from calling me again with problems. If there were any better free ones I'd be using them.

Avast...confusion over renewing, and expiring licenses
AVG..stinks
Antivir...naggy with upgrades
UnThreat...very good, Vipre engine, but brings ads to browser
Panda finally got very good....we're using that commercially, may start using their free one for some freebie clients.
MSE...still consistently good, simple, reliable updates, no license confusion, no nags for upgrades, easy for end users.

I've never had a problem with Comodo- EVER (the last 3 + years). MSE sucks and always will (unless you use FEP). Avast is just crap. Although a free AV, they've dropped the ball.

[YARDofSTUF]

I've never had a problem with Comodo- EVER (the last 3 + years). MSE sucks and always will (unless you use FEP). Avast is just crap. Although a free AV, they've dropped the ball.

Oh, well now that you've explained it so well...

MSE has been Advanced or advanced plus with AV Comparatives during all its tests. Comodo had too many false positives to be tested by them, and tests from other sites havent been great. So I'd say Comodo is crap.

[CableDude]

Sophos > ALL

[RaisinCain]

Oh, well now that you've explained it so well...

MSE has been Advanced or advanced plus with AV Comparatives during all its tests. Comodo had too many false positives to be tested by them, and tests from other sites havent been great. So I'd say Comodo is crap.

Why would I trust AV Comparatives? ICSA certifies the vast majority of security software and is recognized industry wide. Now that you have explained it so well...

https://www.icsalabs.com

[mnosteele52]

I don't care what any tests show, even AV Comparatives (which is by far the most reliable), I go by real world experience. I work on hundreds of computers that are infected and I use and recommend MSE (I actually use FEP), all my clients use MSE and infections have dropped noticeably. I have seen infected computers running every brand of antivirus, so in my opinion NOTHING is perfect. What has made the biggest difference in my clients staying clean is installing and setting up Google Chrome for them, since I have been doing this I have yet to have a client infected while they were using Chrome. It's sandboxing technology is by far the safest way to surf the internet, 99% of infections these days are from drive by infections and these are next to impossible with Chrome.

[RaisinCain]

I don't care what any tests show, even AV Comparatives (which is by far the most reliable), I go by real world experience. I work on hundreds of computers that are infected and I use and recommend MSE (I actually use FEP), all my clients use MSE and infections have dropped noticeably. I have seen infected computers running every brand of antivirus, so in my opinion NOTHING is perfect. What has made the biggest difference in my clients staying clean is installing and setting up Google Chrome for them, since I have been doing this I have yet to have a client infected while they were using Chrome. It's sandboxing technology is by far the safest way to surf the internet, 99% of infections these days are from drive by infections and these are next to impossible with Chrome.

While I agree to a certain point, I have been using Comodo for years without issues (never have had a false positve) and I also install the Comodo Dragon browser and have yet to see any issues with my clients (even the ones who have kids that think it's OK to DL music from Limewire, torrent sites, etc.).

[YARDofSTUF]

Why would I trust AV Comparatives? ICSA certifies the vast majority of security software and is recognized industry wide. Now that you have explained it so well...

https://www.icsalabs.com

Anywhere to read the details of the reports? I only find info that products are certified and have passed monthly testing. And it seems like every product meets the ICSA requirements for certification.

Why care about AV Comparatives? They're independent(like ICSA) and do quality testing reviews. They provide detailed reports of their tests to the public. With their rating system, you get a better comparison between products instead of just seeing "certified" next to the product on the ICSA site.

[mspl]

Glad to see the renew confusion as negative for Avast so I know it's not just me. I have MSE on desktop don't know what FEP is. The other night when updating Avast they loaded Chrome, I like it seems faster than others will get it for my desktop too especially after hearing about it's security feature.

[CableDude]

FEP = Forefront Endpoint Protection. Microsoft's business class AV.

[YeOldeStonecat]

I've never had a problem with Comodo- EVER (the last 3 + years). MSE sucks and always will (unless you use FEP). Avast is just crap. Although a free AV, they've dropped the ball.

Glad you haven't had an issue with it....in the past I've promoted and used Comodo's products, and I hope their AV product does mature and I'll probably start using it as it does have some promising features. I haven't had an issue with it either in my own use on a rig over the past year. But it's false positives are still too high...and doing what I do for a profession, in the past I have had clients bitten by the false positive bug before...and it's a disaster and a big time pain in the butt to have to rush around a huge bunch of clients that have the same emergency in the same day. A couple of years ago AVG had a huge one that blew out a windows sytem file, rendering peoples computer unbootable. Also a couple of years ago Eset had a similar one that played with some other Windows sytem file...gina.dll or userinit or something critical. When one supports huge numbers of people..and some F/P bug comes out one day and you're cell phone has rung so much before 10 in the morning from panicking clients that its battery is dead already....you learn to get more selective and patient for "new products".

If I do start using it more down the road, I hope their upload servers improve. Have gone to download it (from a fast connection) and see that 50 or so meg download take about an hour to download. I'm also not confident in how much longer it will remain free...and/or, if they'll start pushing "Upgrade to our Pro" nag/ads in it like AVG and AntiVir constantly do.

[YeOldeStonecat]

Why would I trust AV Comparatives? ICSA certifies the vast majority of security software and is recognized industry wide. Now that you have explained it so well...

https://www.icsalabs.com

ICSA certified is a freaking joke....it carries about as much weight as "FDA Approved". Verizon needs to stick to cell phones and ISP stuff and stay out of security.

AV-Comparatives is widely respected amongst those in the IT/security profession. He does real world testing scenarios that produce more accurate results than sterile "in the labs" tests by many other AV testing sites. Specifically his "Dynamics" tests are the best out there....giving "real world" results that usually match what those of us in the trenches see every day.

[YeOldeStonecat]

For yucks....I gave it a shot on one of my laptops. An hour 'n a half to download the 60 meg file, regardless of source....even Comodo's site timed out.
Updates too so long for the first update it timed out with errors.
Reboot...and it bagged 4x things that it should have left alone. False positives still a problem I see.

*My "JungleDisk" offsite backup client..by Rackspace. One of the oldest, biggest hosting companies out there..and Jungledisk has been around for a long time.
*A Verizon/Samsung applications for my smartphone.
*Quicktime qttask...wow, that's been around for a long time, can't believe it bagged that.
*My standardized login script at the office

No biggie for me to go in and set those to "trusted"....but for the typical end user...they'd get confused and messed up.

Installed other Comodo software without presenting me with a choice to opt out during install....Dragon (no biggie..it's a decent browser)..and their "Comodo Geek Buddy" subscription client. I'm gonna run this laptop for week and see if any nag/adware crept in.

[RaisinCain]

For yucks....I gave it a shot on one of my laptops. An hour 'n a half to download the 60 meg file, regardless of source....even Comodo's site timed out.
Updates too so long for the first update it timed out with errors.
Reboot...and it bagged 4x things that it should have left alone. False positives still a problem I see.

*My "JungleDisk" offsite backup client..by Rackspace. One of the oldest, biggest hosting companies out there..and Jungledisk has been around for a long time.
*A Verizon/Samsung applications for my smartphone.
*Quicktime qttask...wow, that's been around for a long time, can't believe it bagged that.
*My standardized login script at the office

No biggie for me to go in and set those to "trusted"....but for the typical end user...they'd get confused and messed up.

Installed other Comodo software without presenting me with a choice to opt out during install....Dragon (no biggie..it's a decent browser)..and their "Comodo Geek Buddy" subscription client. I'm gonna run this laptop for week and see if any nag/adware crept in.

Proving what? I download the installation file and updates withing minutes. Sounds like a problem on your end. Anyway, you're user base and their AV requirements are more than likely very different from mine. Don't like Comodo? Don't use it. Each of my clients PC's are setup very specific to their needs and security concerns.