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Review Details :
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.
Performance
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.
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