Don't trust Avira

[Jimmil43]

After 3 weeks of waiting for instructions from the second level virus lab and 4 weeks of lies from the first level I am told that to rid my computer of be crypto wall virus I should reinstall my OS windows 7, why do I need Avira to do this? Oh but they have extended my service contract for two years...so I should install Avira once again and get the same virus? Does anyone have a solution to this?

 

[Mushkins]

The only way to properly be rid of cryptowall or any of it's other ransomware variants is to format the drive, reinstall, and restore your files from a good backup.

These cryptoviruses use built in OS file encryption tools, very few antivirus products are going to protect you from them.

 

[Jimmil43]

Unfortunately my system restore had somehow been turned off. Do you know if .jpg's would be safe to keep?

 

[zmaster]

switched from avira when it became bloatware last year (i was using it exclusively for over 6 years).
now im with kaspersky and couldnt be happier

 

[Elixer]

Unfortunately my system restore had somehow been turned off. Do you know if .jpg's would be safe to keep?

Picture files should be safe, unless they have been messed with.
An easy way to tell is boot up a linux distro, then check the files with that.
If they look fine, then go ahead and do whatever with them.
If they are corrupted, then delete them.

 

[Morbus]

Yeah, Avira has given me problems in my work machine. I use avast on my home computer, though I'm not too happy with it, even if it hasn't given me too much hassle.

 

[Jimmil43]

I paid for Kaspersky and it hosed my last system on the install. I spent a month on emails back and forth and finally gave up when I received an email saying my problem was fixed, I wrote a nasty gram back to them and rebuilt my computer from the ground up

 

[Berryracer]

I paid for Kaspersky and it hosed my last system on the install. I spent a month on emails back and forth and finally gave up when I received an email saying my problem was fixed, I wrote a nasty gram back to them and rebuilt my computer from the ground up

I use NOD32 Antivirus, never gave me a problem and I never got infected ever. I don't use ESET Smart Security though as it causes a big slow down on my system due to its firewall. The Windows firewall plus NOD32's awesome HTTP scanning which prevents you from downloading anything bad or even prevents your computer or any program on it to connect to malicious servers/hosts + it has excellent PUP detection (potentially unwanted programs) that are not classified as a virus but could cause major damage to your system which Kaspersky and many others fail to detect even due to legality issues.

 

[John Connor]

OP, Bitdefender Free and Sandboxie. Learn it, use it, love it!

 

[grimpr]

You can't find a better antivirus for free than this, it doesnt exist yet.

http://www.360totalsecurity.com/en/

 

[Fardringle]

You can't find a better antivirus for free than this, it doesnt exist yet.

http://www.360totalsecurity.com/en/

There are plenty of better options. 360 gets way too many false positives, and misses a lot of actual viruses. It's not the WORST free option, but it's certainly not the best.

 

[balloonshark]

You can't find a better antivirus for free than this, it doesnt exist yet.

http://www.360totalsecurity.com/en/

http://weblog.av-comparatives.org/?p=504

 

[smakme7757]

Once a filesystem encrypting virus is on your PC it's game over. It doesn't matter what A/V you're running.

Avira, Kaspersky, ESET, Trend, MSE - You name it. They can't do jack shit if you're files are encrypted.

 

[MustISO]

I've used Avira for years and recommend it to my clients along with Symantec, BitDefender and Avast. I have seen recent issues with Kaspersky which has dropped it from my recommended list.