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Review:
Avira returns to the security field with a second major revamp in as
many years of its flagship free antivirus and paid upgrades. Whereas
last year's overhaul focused on a breezy new installation and
modernizing its interface, the 2013 version is all about offering
competitive and forward-thinking security features.
All
that sounds well and good, and Avira has even killed off its obnoxious,
interrupting pop-up in the free version. However, some aggressive
components of those features gave us pause when using the suite.
Installation
Last year's improved, zippy install has been changed slightly, and that may cause problems for some people.
Getting
into Avira has never been easier, and it still has a two-click install.
The company says that it developed the two-click installation as part
of its "less is more" strategy, where it offers the same level of
protection as before without the hassle. Of course, that's a tacit
acknowledgement of prior problems.
Anyway,
the install is the simplest of the major free security suites. The
two-click process will autodetect competing security components and
remove them, so be warned if you think you're going to be more secure by
running two overlapping AVs. Avira won't let you.
However,
this is so aggressive that sometimes the program won't install
properly. A conflict between Avira and a security suite previously
installed on our test computer that left half a dozen registry keys
behind caused the computer to crash and resulted in a "blue screen of
death" on an otherwise stable computer. At the end of the day, whether
it's the fault of Avira or the previous security suite is irrelevant.
Nobody wants to be faced with a BSOD when installing a program, and most
people will blame the new software.
Another
click will take you past the Ask.com toolbar and search engine
redirect, but at least Avira is polite: it's an opt-in, not opt-out,
experience. The toolbar screen itself is a bit unclear: it's actually
Avira's WebGuard feature, powered by an Ask.com search engine that's
part of the toolbar. There's also an option to have Ask.com become your
browser's default engine, although that's not checked by default.
We discuss the toolbar and the changes to it in the 2013 version in the Features section below.
At
the end of the installation process, Avira will begin a quick scan. On
our test machine, it took about 1 minute, 43 seconds to complete, a
completely reasonable wait to endure before the suite is ready to go.
Interface
The interface is virtually unchanged from last year. It has been tweaked
to include the new features, but it's the same look and feel as in the
2012 version. This is perfectly acceptable, as the interface is simple
and mimics that of many competitors.
A
left nav shows you your tools, while the center pane focuses on a
deeper dive into your security. On-off buttons make it easy to toggle
features, although it's noteworthy that the free version is still quite
restricted when compared with the free competition.
A
red banner with the program name serves as a wrapper to anchor the
suite, with a Windows XP-style menu bar above it. It doesn't look bad in
Windows 7, although it is definitely archaic. It looks even older in
Windows 8. The only feature that you can't reach from any other part of
the interface except the menu bar is the Help menu -- a little tweaking
here could've made this more appealing.
The
main interface is the Status window, with a green check box letting you
know when you're safe. It turns to yellow when there are security tasks
to perform or when you've turned off a feature, like real-time
protection. It turns red when there's something mission-critical that
requires your attention.
Below
that, you've got two categories: PC protection, and Internet
protection. What this really means is that the former protects you from
threats locally, while the latter guards you against new threats from
attacking you. Under PC protection, you can toggle your real-time
protection, manually run a scan, start an update, or upgrade to a paid
version of Avira. Use the gear icon next to each option to open the
configuration window, which has its own slider in its upper-left corner
to quickly change between the standard view and expert mode.
One
hint about the system scanner option from the left nav: this is where
you would go to initiate specific types of scans, or scans on specific
parts of your computer, such as a rootkit scan in C:/Windows. For a
generic scan, use the Scan System option from the Status window.
Under
Internet protection, you only get one option in Avira Free: Web
protection. If you chose to not install the toolbar, then this entire
section will appear grayed out.
It doesn't sound like much, but that's the point. This is the easiest-to-use version of Avira yet.
Features and support
The new features in Avira are the best part of the 2013 update, but they
do come at a price. The company has focused on expanding its security
features to cover social networking, tracker blocking, and Web site
verification, as well as a huge push into crowdsourced tech support.
Longtime Avira Free users no doubt will be delighted that the daily
upgrade pop-up will go away permanently if you install the Avira
toolbar.
The
toolbar has become a major focus for Avira, and the company is using it
to provide multiple in-browser security features. The company has
partnered with Abine to bolt its Do Not Track Plus tracking and ad blocker to the toolbar. Also in the toolbar is the new Web site reputation adviser, also on loan but from CallingID, and social networking protection courtesy SocialShield, a company Avira bought earlier this year.
A
new "Experts Market" is also accessible only from the toolbar. It's
crowdsourced tech support, where Avira fans can sell their expertise to
others and set their own rates. The Experts Market is designed to
connect tech experts to people who are looking to solve tech problems.
These user-experts can then charge whatever sum they'd like for their
services, and Avira will take a 10 percent commission.
The
toolbar is a mixed blessing. If you install it, it grants you those
security extras. But it also redirects your default search to
Avira-branded Ask.com search. This is not insurmountable in Firefox,
which has a dedicated search box, but it makes Chrome painful to use
since that browser uses a unified location bar/search. Abine's Do Not
Track Plus is available for free on its own, so if the search
commandeering is intolerable to you, there are still other ways to get
the protection it offers.
Avira
has changed other parts of the suite, as well. The virus definition
file and protection engine now checks for updates every six hours
instead of once a day. Premium Avira makes the same check every two
hours. There's also an Android app that provides anti-theft and device
tracking features, but unlike competitors both free and paid, Avira's
Android app lacks a security engine. Basically, it won't protect you
against Android malware.
Avira's
core security features remain intact. The scanner checks for virus,
Trojans, rootkits, and adware. There's a generic threat removal engine,
but Avira -- like many security suites -- is much better at preventing
threats from infecting you, rather than removing ones you've already
got.
The
advanced options menu doesn't contain much that's new, either. It's
quite easy for a savvy person to drill deep into security settings and
either extract the information they want or set a very customized level
of security. This includes scanning as Administrator from the main
interface, a window showing real-time scan performance, configuring how
to scan of archives, and a restart reminder in case you enjoy that kind
of automated nagging.
The
engine powering the scans protects your Hosts file by default, and
resource usage remains low following last year's update. If a problem is
discovered, a one-click Fix problems button appears at the top of the
Status window. Click it, and even if the fix is something as simple as
reactivating a deactivated module, the program will do it for you.
The
WebGuard feature, available only if you install the Avira toolbar,
takes a more aggressive approach to detecting sites that could be
hosting malware before they load on your computer. This is not unlike
Avira's competitors. However, for the performance cost to the browser
for a toolbar, search result ratings would be a nice compensation. Too
bad they're only available if you use the dedicated search box on the
Ask toolbar.
Features-wise,
the free version provides the kind of security that most people will be
comfortable with. For people who want more, Avira Antivirus Premium
2013 ($29.99 for a one-year license) comes with malicious Web site
blocking and live telephone support. Avira Internet Security 2013
($59.99 for a one-year license) rolls in parental controls; an e-mail
spam guard; antiphishing measures; Wi-Fi guard; and a firewall that I
found to be obnoxiously chatty and intrusive. If you're obsessed with
Avira, you can upgrade to Avira Internet Security Plus 2013 for $81.99,
which gets you an additional system performance optimizer and file
encryption.
Avira's performance in the past has been hit or miss, with strong
detection rates but high false positives. Avira's been doing a lot of
work in that area, though, and this is one of the best-performing
versions of Avira that we've seen.
Avira Free Antivirus 2013 shares the same detection engine as its premium upgrade siblings,Avira Antivirus Premium 2013 and Avira Internet Security 2013, so all three are discussed here.
In
a real-world test, Avira completed its initial scan during installation
in 1 minute, 51 seconds, about 30 seconds slower than last year. The
Full scan averaged 1 hour, 25 minutes over three installs, which is an
appropriate benchmark for such a resource-intensive scan.
Download Here (100MB)
Source: CNET
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