Avira Free Antivirus is Dead - What to Switch To?

VPN
1

Avira Free Antivirus has been replaced by Avira Free Security, and i hate it, and need to switch now.

I’ve been with Avira for ages, since back in the day when they were known as Antivir.
I always liked them for their lightweight, no nonsense approach.

2 years ago or so they just automatically updated me without question to some all-in-one garbage app, that installed a VPN i didn’t ask for, some 3rd Party Software Updater, some System Optimizer, and god knows what other modules it’s tried pushing on me i didn’t want.

The worst part is that “registry issues” or “files in the temp folder” or “game optimizations” or whatever the hell else it finds make the tray icon display some little yellow warning light that used to be for virus issues only, and you can’t deinstall any of the modules you don’t want.

Back when this first happened you could just download the “JUST Free Antivirus” Version that was apparently hidden in some Small Business Section of their Website, but it now tells me this Version (last update january 2022) is no longer Supported and will automatically update to “Free Security” within 30 Days. It did this once already, and even deinstalling that, downloading the newest Verson of “Free Antivirus” and Reinstalling that will present that message within 15 minutes of installing it.

I don’t want Browser or Email Monitoring, i don’t want a built in VPN, i don’t want 3rd Party Software Updaters, i don’t want Registry and Temp File declutterers.

All i want is JUST an Anti Virus, with a real time scanner, and some Firewall configuration privileges. Windows Defender isn’t as lightweight as Avira used to be.

I am open to Suggestions, preferably free, possibly paid, that are actually JUST Antivirus Software, that either doesn’t come with, or lets me deactivate/deinstall unwanted modules. That is as lightweight and unobtrusive as Avira used to be.

2

Kaspersky Free, or Kaspersky Security Cloud Free, if Kaspersky Free isn’t available in your region. Both very quiet, and low on popups.

Kaspersky Free installs nothing but itself, providing malware, ransomware and browser protection, that’s it. Security Cloud Free auto installs a VPN trial, but can be easily uninstalled. Same protection level as the newer Kaspersky Free.

Use the firewall of your choice.

3

Malwarebytes premium is pretty straightforward

Bitdefender free is also pretty simple

4

If you want to just install the AV - http://install.avira-update.com/package/antivirus/win/en-us/avira_antivirus_en-us.exe

Otherwise, if you’re looking for a decent free AV, see Kaspersky or Bitdefender.

5

You can use the “services” program with your windows to disable the vpn and optimizer tasks from launching, that’s what I did and now only the actual antivirus runs in the processes. Avira is light weight because it runs in the cloud. If you disable the services it won’t let you run the optimizer or vpn even if you try in the app. The browser extensions you can just remove from the browser. I at most get 150mb of ram usage with avira. Also with windows 11 even if you use a different antivirus you can see windows antimalware executable sometimes using over 100mb of ram alongside your other AV. I’ve since switched to atlas edition of windows which removes defender completely and most services that are completely useless and it’s much faster. I don’t wanna use kaspersky because… russia. Avira is german even though they are owned by norton just like AVG, Avast and CCleaner. Bitdefender doesn’t do cloud so uses more than double the ram over avira.

EDIT: Actually I just found something out loool. You can just go to the program files x68 and go to each feature that gets bundled with avira and uninstall it with their uninstaller in each folder, removed optimizer, vpn and spedup utility. VPN option no longer appears in the app.

EDIT 2: Also make sure you never use their smart scan as you don’t wanna mess with the registry and whatever else avira wants to mess with, should be fine as you did delete the speed up system and optimizer but since you are using it as an antimalware program only run normal virus scans like quick scan or full scan, no smart scan.

6

[email protected]
Bangkok Thailand
10820.

7

yes, exactly that package, or other language versions like the german one will install fine, will update fine, will do their initial system scan fine, and then ~15 minutes after initial installation will bring up a popup that will say that this version of Avira is no longer supported, that you will FORCIBLY be upgraded to Avira Free Security 30 days from now, giving you the options of “just update now right away” or “dismiss and be forcibly upgraded in 30 days”.

8

my solution has been de-installing Avira and installing

ESET NOD32 Antivirus

yes, it’s a paid product, but it is exactly the “no hassle, nothing but antivirus” i used to get from Avira.

Hell, i would have paid Avira if they sold me just that, but i guess, the way they finally got me to pay for antivirus isn’t by shoving more and more superfluous crap into their product that i think might be worth money, they did by driving me to a competitor that doesn’t do that.

9

Uninstalling them manually, it works!

10

Well that’s shit :confused:

There were mounting issues with it anyway, and I stopped recommending it a while ago.

There’s really just the 2 free AVs above that I’d recommend.

11

Fair enough, it is easy to fix with a couple clicks however in case you wanted to try it again.