Have just got a 1Gb Sandisk Cruzer U3 USB drive. This comes with a 3 month trial of Avast AV. I've installed PortableApps (great stuff thanks) but have just been reading some of the posts about the Avast problems.
I must admit that Avast had sounded more attractive (& useful?) than ClamWin. Auto updating of virus definitions, real time AV scanning. But now concerned about the problems people have experienced. It's too early for me to comment on how it works, but what else would you recommend? I don't mind paying for an AV solution if it's good. On my PC I use AVG, but what will work well on a USB drive?
Thanks for any comments.
Phil
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Avast on U3 isn't, apparently, as realtime as it was made out to be... at least from reports. I don't think you can get true realtime from a portable device. (Installing/uninstalling antivirus asks Windows to reboot for a reason).
Basically, if you plug into a virus-infected PC, there's a good chance it's too late. ClamWin is solid, just do a quick update and manual scan.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
I actually prefer Avast U3 over clamwin, because I did a full drive scan of my flashdrive and it screwed up a couple of my U3 apps. Avast has yet to
Did you scan in read only mode (Report Only)?
Unless you are Sure you have an infection I would not use the other 2 options:
(Remove or Quarantine).
My only problem with ClamWin is that they don't have a quick scan and a full scan takes forever. I like to test for false alarms/positives (Clam has had some) but they update every day and a full scan takes over an hour.
Tim
Geek w/o portfolio
Things have got to get better, they can't get worse, or can they?
Keep in mind that Avast for U3 is not recommended and use of it alongside Firefox or Thunderbird for U3 is not supported due to issues with Avast's scanning engine interfering with all apps published by this site (both the open portable apps and the u3 apps).
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
Great AV comparison:
http://www.virus.gr/english/fullxml/default.asp?id=82&mnu=82
"16. Avast Professional version 4.7.871 - 87.46%"
"17. Avast freeware version 4.7.871 - 87.46%"
"40. ClamWin version 0.88.4 - 51.23%"
Granted, they're testing the desktop versions but ClamWin scored just higher than some *spyware* scanners and way behind almost all other AVs. With those ratings, I'd put more faith in a customized version of a command line AV scanner than in ClamWin.
Xander
My Xoftwares