I use both MSE and Avast. I have MSE set to turn off real time protection (generally not a good idea to have two anti-virus programs with real time protection at the same time, you'll at least use more CPU time and memory, and at worst make your system unstable).
I have Avast run its scheduled scans in the middle of the night, so I don't find it intrusive. I also have a scheduled daily quick scan from MSE at a different time but also really late.
I like the way Avast can set up customized scans. With MSE its just quick scan or full. (You can run a customized scan but not schedule one, or save one for later manual runs as far as I can tell.) If I had to use just one I'd go with Avast.
I formerly used ESET and Kaspersky but decided that I didn't want to pay for anti-virus any more (at least not if it wasn't clearly better). I've also used AVG, and Commodo. Commodo anti-virus isn't that good IMO. It runs slower than most of the others, and when I click on cancel it takes a long time to stop, and sometimes doesn't stop at all. I also tried out Clamwin. Its doesn't automatically scan files as they are opened, so its not a good choice for a primary anti-virus program. I thought it would be good as a backup manual scan only program, but I did have a glitch or two, and also the scans where slow, and it reportedly has a poor detection rate, so I eventually uninstalled it. |
