Do you mean the skin only, or the whole program in general? I always install avast without any skins, and use the simple interface. I like that one, except for the slightly non-logical tray icon options and other options. Well, when I think twice, I don’t like it too much at all.
CAVS has the best GUI in my opinion, compared to avast and Avira. I really like CAVS’ interface - easy to work with and stylish.
(:LOV)
/LA
I’ve use Avg,Avast,etrust,norton,nod32,kaspersky and now avira antivir and i avira antivir wins hands down for a few reasons 1. High detection found 3 viruses that the others couldn’t find 2nd. Very low systems resources 3. Able to surf when it’s updating or when using the on demand scanner with no lag whats so ever,which the others didn’t do for me. Also it’s not a bad thing if users wants all the extra anti-virus modules like e-mail scanner,web scanner p2p scanner and im scanner,most of the time users that want that need that since they aren’t safe surfers. Me personaly don’t need all that. Avast is for people that have poor surfing and download habits,which doesn’t have a high detection like antivir which on the lastes av-comparatives score over 99.45% and found 11 of 12 polymorphic viruses that is great. Avast score 95.24% and only found 3 of 12 polymorphic viruses not good. And AVG that almost everyone use score 97.75% and only found 3 of 12 polymorphic viruses not good either. And before anyone of you guys say it thats these was run on the paid verisons,well antivir free is the same as the paid except no email scanner or spyware so im getting 99.9% the same so im very happy so put Antivir down all you want i know and over 15 million other users know we are safe with antivir pe classic…
I didnt mean the skin. I remember one of its interfaces (it has 2 rite?) looked like a media player. I stil remember wen i 1st opened it, i wondered did I instaled Avast media player instead of Avast AV. But quite long time ago so I dun kno how it looks like now and now I also now dat its skinnable fr u, LA 
I like a ‘serious’ UI as a security app (haha) and intuitiv. i dun mind simple, some ppl complaint ClamWin but Im ok w it.
CAVS and CPF 2.4’s UIs r good, however, I also like KAV, very intuitive.
Avast is a resource hog (for me anyways) but It’s saved my ■■■■ about a dozen times on malware just by accidently clicking on a few popup windows. Cant wait to switch to CAVS though (R)
With skin I meant that “media player”. Except for the non-skin version (which I’ve always used during my avast periods) I think there is one or two skins to choose from, of which one is the media player look-alike. Like you, I also prefer a more serious look for a security application!
Avira is great, I just don’t like two things, as I remember it: you wont get any notification when the signatures are updated, and it’s not completely obvious what you scan when you’re making an on-demand full scan. CAVS “full system scan” is really a full system scan, with Avira you’ll have choose hard disks and memory separately. Someone please correct me if I’m wrong, because this is - in my opinion - really a disadvantage with Aviras functionality (or GUI).
/LA
Well you have to click away that stupid notifier window almost always when signatures are updated. It is nagware to say it harshly. And I agree that the scanning options could be made a little clearer but they are not that confusing.
When updating, Avira shows a small window and when it’s done that window will close if unattended for a while. Just like AVG if I remember right.
From the dedicated scanner tab you can select very precisely what you want to scan and that’s a good thing, I’m yet to see another AV that grants you that level of detail. And if you want a full system scan that option is indeed available, from the main summary tab that acts as primary control panel.
About the ad, again I don’t consider it bothersome, and I don’t think it’s too much for a free product that beats the whole competition hands down (let’s wait for CAVS future versions) and is even better than many pay AVs. If you prefer a worse product that’s ad-free then by all means go ahead. Besides if the ad really gives you the creeps that badly, you can block it with your HIPS, the ad’s EXE is called avnotify.exe if I’m not wrong. Not sure if blocking only Internet access from the firewall will do the trick, haven’t tried myself.
ok, i really dun remember abt avast.
you wont get any notification when the signatures are updated:)at least u can update. I waited for 2 days, the sigs was 1 wk obselete, avira stil couldnt update so it had to get out..
Another good thing about Avast is that it updates Daily. But then again alot of AV’s Do
heey, don’t debate about AVs without including CAVS in it.
CAVS has rapidly growing virus sigs (updated daily)
CAVS has HIPS
CAVS is absolutely a freeware (not Free crippledware),and
don’t forget, it still a BETA! we’ll see how good it is once it out of BETA phase
(V)
CAVS will be a top AV when it’s final. Right now it’s getting there! (V)
Avira does update daily. the problem is its update process always got problem, lots of users complaint too, some blaim the server.
I suppose that Avira’s free servers, besides being laggy in general, might be even more laggy in some countries. Here in Spain the updates are a tad slow in comparison to other AVs but not a nuisance.
Of course the delivery to the free version is not top priority. They have monthly server bills for the free version alone close to the price of a small car…
that’s exactly the difference between FREEWARE and CRIPPLEDWARE
(B) (J) (L) (R) (V)
actually, watever free or crippled, the provider need to dedicate servers.
If the freeware provider cant afford more servers, the users haf to suffer. So if u wanna enjoy w Comodo, come to da section “Want to help Comodo?”
Thank you for the explanation and information. As for the updates though, I think that small window appears only when you perform a manual update? When you boot and Avira automatically updates, I don’t think a pop-up box appears like with avast or CAVS?
As for the scanning options maybe I haven’t look carefully enough. But if you look at this screen shot, there is no full system scan option available from the main summary tab. http://filehippo.com/screenshot/antivir/3151_1/
I prefer CAVS full system scan option from the main page, but still, Avira seems to be a very good antivirus. Though, I’m not sure if it has e.g. a web shield like avast. E-mail protection doesn’t matter to me, I only use web mail.
/LA
The update window appears the same when updating manually or automatically. What I don’t like about it is that if I’m off-line (I use ADSL modem not router), AntiVir asks me to go on-line instead of waiting to update. It’s the same thing BOClean does, and I prefer that automatic updates never bother me, like CFP’s.
As for the complete scan from the main tab, I have it. It must be due to the fact that I’ve got the so-called “expert mode” activated. See:
@ganda: The problem with an AV freeware is that the more users you have, the more traffic they generate on the update servers. I fully understand that Avira have dedicated servers for the paying customers. And I have to say that for me Avira update works absolutely fine. Only when there is a new version released (and therefore big packages have to go through the servers) the update may take one day or so until the servers stopped sweating under the load of several million users.
I think there is a huge difference between freeware (you give your program for free) and software that makes YOU (the software author) pay money if someone uses it. To name AntiVir crippleware is just insulting and shows that you are just greedy and have no understanding what it means to pay the server costs for the millions of users of the free version.
urhh, weaker, ganda ddint mean insulting. Coz u like Avira and he likes CAVS so theres a lil conflict of taste here.
