Do We Still Need Big-Name Antivirus?
March 14, 2009 by AshPringle
Filed under Gear
Threats from malware in the form of viri and spyware are a constant worry, especially given that the Internet is now an indispensable tool that many of us must use for some of our most crucial daily tasks. But are the big-name antivirus packages, like McAfee and Norton, still necessary?
Recently my computer began to have some serious performance issues. Starting it up took an obscene amount of time, to the point where my computer still wasn’t usable after I went to make an entire plate of waffles for breakfast. Firefox took a full ten minutes to load, graciously giving me plenty of time to tear my hair out and hit my monitor in rage, and my machine would labour intensively at the most simple procedures.
I started to worry that my computer might be infected with some of those “viruses” I’d heard so much about, so I went about trying to get rid of them. After several full scans of my computer’s entire hard drive and running memory, multiple spyware scans, and a great deal of booting from safe mode and investigating the task manager, I decided I had done all I could. Yet only one apparently benign virus had shown up and been dealt with, and my computer was still running like glue dipped in tar encased in cement.
Then I noticed it: a program related to my McAfee antivirus was constantly increasing in memory size. Could my antivirus software have a memory leak? Could the culprit be the very thing that I thought was on my side? With few options left, I took the risk and deleted my entire McAfee package.
It wasn’t easy, because McAfee fought me the entire way. It required that I download some obscure uninstallation program, even though there was already an uninstall in the add/remove programs menu, and it told me many times that I couldn’t uninstall some files because they were still on the computer, which is pretty much the most absurd, frustrating thing a program can tell you. Uninstalling McAfee required just as much effort as deleting the most stubborn spyware.
But lo’ and behold, after deleting McAfee my computer ran flawlessly. No more slow downs or memory leaks or waffle breaks while I waited for the Start Menu to show up. After my horrible experience with this antivirus package, I started to wonder: are big-name antivirus packages worth it any more?
Tech Crunch recently ran an article that brought to the Internet’s attention a strange Symantec-related program called pifts.exe, which seemed to be performing some shady operations. Posting about the application on the Symantec forums resulted in deleted threads and banned accounts, which raised some serious suspicions in the online community.
Was this just a mistake, a series of coincidences, or some sort of conspiracy? It is of course difficult to say, but whatever the case may be, the situation doesn’t exactly give a good impression of Symantec’s service. This is because the pifts mini-scandal reminds us that big-name antivirus software companies are in the business of making money, and just because their programs are supposed to help defend our computers from threats doesn’t mean that those big companies aren’t above sneaking in their own spyware-like programs into the mix. If a company like Sony is apt to do these sorts of things, there’s no reason to think that Symantec or McAfee aren’t above doing the same.
None of this means that Norton, or any other antivirus software, is actually actually sneaking computer-destroying malware onto our computers, but it still brought me to ask this question: is it worth it for me to have big-name antivirus software on my computer if it can be more of a nuisance than the viri it protects me from?
The answer for me has been an unequivocal “no.” McAfee rendered my computer into a machine that had the performance of a profoundly retarded rock, and was just as much of a pain to uninstall as the most tenacious malware. In the past I found that antivirus packages like Symantec’s were intrusive and annoying, constantly bothering me with pop-ups, making computer games crash, and identifying all the wrong programs as threats. Further, if the pifts situation is any indication, Symantec’s software may not be the best choice for users who want to keep mysterious applications from messing with their machines.
The bottom line is that I want my antivirus software to make my computer-use worry and bother-free, which is the exact opposite of what all big antivirus software has done for me. Big-name antivirus has been nothing but a bother for me, and there’s no point in using it if it is just as much, if not more, of a nuisance than most malware.
For now I’ve resorted to using AVG antivirus, because it’s free and seems to do the job. Whether this will hold up is another question, but the reality for me is that big-name antivirus is unnecessary and annoying, and I wouldn’t be surprised if others felt the same way.
Stumble It!
pedant on Tue, 14th Apr 2009 2:05 pm
the plural of virus is viruses.
Steve on Tue, 14th Apr 2009 3:52 pm
Re: McAffee memory leak
I don’t know who originated it, but someone came up with this mashup of Napoleon and Sir Arthur in response to the notorious bugs and malware-friendliness of Windows:
A sufficiently advanced incompetence is indistinguishable from malice.
Ken the Geek on Tue, 14th Apr 2009 5:06 pm
AVG is nice but it has become bloatware as of recent. Try going with Avast! AntiVirus for max protection, or ClamWin for light protection. Also Spybot is an invaluable tool in keeping your PC from eating itself. Also, for cleanup and to regain speed, use CCleaner. There’s really no reason to pay for something you can get for free.
James on Tue, 14th Apr 2009 6:30 pm
You may want to look into Avira’s free edition. It does a much better job of detection than AVG and is also free. Can probably google it, but there are AV benchmarks that go on every year and those should do a great job in the way of informing which AV products are a good option.
Raul on Wed, 15th Apr 2009 7:55 am
If you don’t mind paid solutions, may I suggest Vipre Antivirus? It’s very low resource use, and from my own computers is better at detecting viruses than the Norton product I had before.
AbetComputers on Wed, 22nd Apr 2009 5:12 pm
I prefer Avast its low on system resources and finds everything, I put it in all my customers computers, and they have all been very pleased with its performance.
AnandB on Sat, 6th Jun 2009 5:59 pm
Well I used to use big name AV software before but now I just use MBAM. And even the free version is great for me as I dont really need live protection. It is so small and some time ago it removed the malware which Avast couldnt. But still avast does most of the job as free live AV.
John on Thu, 2nd Jul 2009 6:36 pm
I have found that both mcaffee and sophos are completely useless when it comes to blocking some very devious malware. I work for a company that provides IT support and we are constantly finding systems with fake anti virus software that can be classed as either a trojan or rootkit which tries to force people into giving up their credit card details in an attempt to remove the problem.
What can be considered the main two antivirus solutions do literally nothing to prevent this type of malware getting onto a system and are unable to remove them.
Best bet is to install one of the lesser know antivirus programs such as: Kapersky, Avira or AVG. They are not perfect but provide a lot more protection against Malware launched within webpages. However it is still good practice to run multiple anti spyware/malware programs such as: superantispyware, malwarebytes, spybot and ad aware as these all seem to use different definitions and can individually pick up malware that the other programs failed to spot.
Not to mention the Fake antivirus programs I’ve come across are designed to block known antimalware programs from installing and running(best bet is to rename the installer you download and rename the main .exe file before you run the scanner or it can be blocked/disabled from running at al)
Sorry I’m not trying to derail this topic but it’s pretty embaressing having to explain that what should be definitive antivirus solutions are completely unable to deal with problems that many users face.
dave on Wed, 22nd Jul 2009 1:56 am
Might as well consider moving to open source OS. I use Ubuntu Linix and I never have to worry about viruses
rafi on Fri, 14th Aug 2009 4:52 pm
Have just spend the last three hours of my day helping a customer get rid of dodgy programs clogging his pc to a snail’s pace. I coudnt agree with you more, the main culprits to remove were symantec and mcfee. Actually I have failed to delete all of the former hence my bumping onto his site. I tried c cleaner and revo uninstaller and revo fails to see symantec files remaining while c cleaner sees them but fails to uninstall them(normal and safe mode both attempted).
personally i wiil never ever use this two nor recommend them to anyone. they are viruses literally.
ian on Thu, 3rd Dec 2009 6:17 am
linux – that is all you need
unbound on Sat, 19th Dec 2009 7:56 pm
Norton has been going steadily downhill in quality and morality for 2 decades now…once the best of the utility software, I had it with their shoddy workmanship over 8 years ago. Much better products out there…