MSE vs Avast! Free

[Hamster]

I've never used Avast, but I've seen MSE in action before and based on that, I'd recommend Avast. It is understandable that MSE has so few false positives, mainly because it has so few positives to begin with.

Sure, if you're using MSE and you're a cautious user, then you probably won't get a virus anyway... but in real life, loading it for a standard user that clicks on anything that pops up and puts flash drives in their computers from just anywhere, it is pretty useless.

/goes in search of facepalm pic.

Be right back.

EDIT:

[ViperGTI]

/goes in search of facepalm pic.

Be right back.

EDIT:

Say what you want, but I've seen MSE fail every time when loaded on a non-IT person's computer. This both in our own company as well as with friends and family. There is a reason I recommend to stay away from MSE.

As for Avast, although I haven't used it personally, I know people who do use it and they're very happy with it. Personally I prefer Avira (which is what I was using before converting to a paid anti-virus), but that wasn't in the OP's question.

I like the facepalm pic though

[Hamster]

Say what you want, but I've seen MSE fail every time when loaded on a non-IT person's computer. This both in our own company as well as with friends and family. There is a reason I recommend to stay away from MSE.

As for Avast, although I haven't used it personally, I know people who do use it and they're very happy with it. Personally I prefer Avira (which is what I was using before converting to a paid anti-virus), but that wasn't in the OP's question.

I like the facepalm pic though

I'll give you a +1 for mentioning Avira, but still think MSE > Avast on a Windows machine.

[beans100]

Avast is better than MSE anyday of the month...finish en kla!!
We have MSE at work and I have Avast at home. Scan a friends flash at work, picked up nothing. Took it home to copy him something, scan at home, picked up 4 virusses...

[Flidiot]

I swear by MSE, the only time I don't recommend it is when the PC is really really old. And by old I mean even Noah would climb off his ark, give the thing a look like ->

Anything that is capable of running XP well, get's MSE. It's installed on my laptop, my SO's laptop and just about every other PC that I have spent more than 5 minutes on.

One thing I did like about Avast...the voice clip that played every time it did something - update, detection etc.

[McT]

Been using MSE for over a year now with no hassles at all.

[boggom]

MSE. Way lighter on resources and haven't had any problems for years. Have installed this on a number of different user's pc's and none of them had any problems. Common sense is the best virus ware though.
Avast is good but way heavier on the resources and tends to "get in the way".

[Flidiot]

...Common sense is the best virus ware though...

AMEN!

[NomNom]

Guy brought me his Pc last night and it was completely full of viruses, the virus that stops you from getting into the regedit and msconfig and restarts the Pc (brontok virus). So I popped on Malwarebytes and it removed the buggers. The Pc was running avast and the virus seems like it completely disabled Avast, so I popped on MSE. If it happens again I'm just going to suggest he get a paid anti-virus.

[Flidiot]

Brontok is a name I haven't heard in a while... It always amazes me how people manage to get their PC's so loaded up with crap.

Like boggom said, common sense is the best security.

[iceman23]

I have actually forgotten that I had MSE installed. Its virtually non-existent except when its required.

Another vote for MSE. Before MSE, I actually didnt use an AV as most are bloated to the nth degree.

[ponder]

I like Avira but the nag screen can be annoying so I just install MSE for people.

[ChocolateBadger]

Avast is better than MSE anyday of the month...finish en kla!!
We have MSE at work and I have Avast at home. Scan a friends flash at work, picked up nothing. Took it home to copy him something, scan at home, picked up 4 virusses...

That is not a conclusive test. MSE has one of the lowest false positive rates for a reason. If the 'Virus' was removed, then you may just have lost some important documents.

For e.g. The company I work for runs trend micro and the amount of 'viruses' that it finds makes me want to pull my hair out. It finds 'viruses' on myBB quite regularly.

[b1nary]

For some reason i just dont like avast,im running MSE.

I had a look at http://www.av-comparatives.org it seems avast detects more virus than mse,but mse is better at removing infections and avast has plenty of false positives where mse has none.

[mercurial]

For some reason i just dont like avast,im running MSE.

I had a look at http://www.av-comparatives.org it seems avast detects more virus than mse,but mse is better at removing infections and avast has plenty of false positives where mse has none.

More viruses being detected does not mean it's better. Those could very well be false positives.