I just migrated from Avira to Comodo antivirus. Since this is the feedback forum I am going to post some impressions from a new user good and bad. The bad comes first then the good comes later. This is all constructive criticism and praise so I hope the Comodo staff finds it relevant.
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Initial install and download isn’t very convenient. Using the universal installer, I had to first download a 100+ meg worth of files from Comodo via the installer. Then after that was done, I had to install 80 + meg definition file. I was running this on a standard dsl and it took a while. I can only imagine how long it would take with a slower connection.
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Defense plus on its default configuration is very daunting. I have tons of programs that are not digitly signed and there were a lot of comodo pop up asking me for verification. The pop up would of course gradually decrease as I tell comodo what is safe, but I didn’t have the patience and just set settings to “clean pc” instead of “safe pc”
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The sandbox function is really not user friendly. I accidentally sandboxed a custom firefox build, and for the 30 minutes I could not find the function to unsandbox it despite googling and reading comodo forum faq. The most logical and intuitive path should be a “programs running in the sandbox” option under “sandbox” then it should list all currently sandboxed programs and have an option to unsandbox if need be.
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During a full system scan, Comodo CPU footprint was pretty noticeable slowing down my computer in contrast to Avira Scan’s lighter CPU footprint. However it is comparable to AVG, MSE, and Avast computer footprint when doing system scans.
Now for things I liked
- very easy to add exceptions. In Avira, it was pretty painful to add an exception so this is huge plus for me
- The concept of Defense +, coupled with Antivirus definitions in theory provides strong defense, I personally do not know how effective it b/c I am new user, but the theory is sound
- very fast scan speed. Avira took me close to 2 hrs 30 min to finish a system scan. With Comodo it took 1 hr and 15 minutes give or take. This is biggie b/c long scan times may be the primary deterrence preventing users from doing full system scans.
- After testing this for close to two days, I noticed that the virus database updater on default configuration checks definitions frequently. A plus for zero day threats.
All in all, I really like Comodo. Taking everything in balance, I think it is comparable to Kaspersky in overall usability, and effectiveness (really don’t know b/c I am new user, but I am making an educated guess). So far I like it better than Avira, AVG, MSE and Avast thats for sure. I am going to keep trying it for a while, and if Comodo works as well as I think it will, I buy a subscription to the pro version as a show of support for this potentially excellent software. Keep up the good work Comodo, I am rooting for you!