Topic: Avira anti-virus labels itself as spyware

[Clive]

I have it installed on two computers myself!   

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/10/26/avira_auto_immune_false_positive/

[Rik]

That must cheer you up, Clive.

[chorleydave]

Oops! 

[Simon]

What happened to F-Secure, Clive?

[Clive]

I have four computers with an F-Secure licence for three of them.  However, one of my machines had to be reformatted after which F-Secure refused reload as I had used up my quota.  A bit of a swiz really so I downloaded Avira.  I also use that on my netbook.

[Simon]

You should have been able to reload F-Secure if the licence was still valid.  It might have said that the existing installation would stop working, but that would have been the one you'd just formatted, and as long as only three machines are operating under the licence, it should have been OK.  I'd be tempted to email them, if you have paid for a licence you now cannot use.   

[Clive]

I think my subscription will need renewing within a few months anyway and the two most important computers are protected by F-Secure.  The Avira machines are not used a great deal and contain nothing of any importance.

[GillE]

Gulp!  I use Avira .

[Clive]

I wouldn't worry Gill.  It has a very good reputation. 

[Rik]

But for what, Clive?

[Clive]

I've not heard anything bad about it Rik.  Detecting itself is hardly anything to worry about.  And it's better than using bloatware such as AVG or Norton's. 

[Rik]

Detecting itself is hardly anything to worry about.

Except that it should then try and stop itself working...

And it's better than using bloatware such as AVG or Norton's. 

Norton's got better lately.

[Clive]

I still uninstalled it from my new netbook and installed Avira instead.   

[Clive]

And to be fair, I think the fault only persisted for a couple of hours before they rectified it.   

[Den]

I ran Norton 360 and was very happy with it, until I found it was blocking things that I needed to do without checking with me first. I uninstalled it and put the paid for version of Avira on both my machines and they run much better and don't block things without warning.