i want to add some interesting notes:
First, thanks..i am always coming back to this thread because the listed tips/resources are priceless
() according to the latest av-comparatives
http://www.av-comparatives.org/
G-Data AVK has a slightly HIGHER detection rate than KAV !
But i need to mention that those (for the on-demand scanners) comparison on av-comparaitves is from February 06.
But still, there is no way around that AVK in this case beats KAV - even only a few percentage points.
The reason is that AVK uses both, the KAV and the BitDefender engine.
It is unknown to me what version KAV engine AVK uses, some say it uses an older KAV engine.
Also...i still am unsure about memory inprints. (I used to run NOD32 mainly because of good balance "memory inprint" <--> "detection rate"
()
http://www.virus.gr/english/fullxml/default.asp?id=69&mnu=69
Above did not even TEST G-Data's AVK because their policy is NOT to test a AV program if there is no free demo available.
This is on one hand understandable...but NOT professional and should be taken with a grain of salt, especially if you're out
looking for "the best AV checker" (with the best detection rate).
()
I was running NOD32 for the longest time and love it....but was bugged with recent infections which made me think twice about the sense/nonsense
of a AV program (NOD32) which was running all the time with all options on (Amon, Imon etc.)...and still i get (although rarely) BAD infections and have a hard time cleaning my system.
I did EXTENSIVE cleaning/scanning incl. Ewido 4.0, Trojan Hunter, Ad-Aware, NOD32, YOU NAME IT....from what i thought should REALLY get rid of certain infections i had.....but AT THE END i had to run hijackthis and manually delete entries which NO AV program above even complained about.
I had entries like a suspicios "winpsa32.dll" which turned out to be some trojan/virus as well as entries that "something" possibly redirected DNS lookups to unknown IP adressed...the result was that frequently some malware was downloaded from a certain website and executed in windows\temp. Only the fact that i blocked the webadress in my hosts file prevented it from downloading the actual program....still i saw the pop-up coming up all the time and trying to execute the malicious code.
(Again: With all the above scanners (Ewido, Trojan Hunter, NOD, Adaware checkers incl. runing them in safe-mode didnt clean/find ANYTHING suspicious while i got the pop-up every 15mins or so CLEARLY telling me something odd was going on
I am now (for testing purposes) switching to KAV6.
With ALL the resources and sites....it is STILL *not* easy to fine "the perfect" AV program/Trojan killer etc....especially if SOME sites are biased and basically only try to sell certain products....SOME sites just omit programs....and SOME sites use outdated programs for comparison purposes.
(AV comparatives still used KAV5 - but KAV6 is out)
I'd highly appreciate it if we could expand our thread and add some more independent links with comparisons of recent AV programs ?!