I’m kicking around different AV products untill CAV V3 comes out. I’ve tried AVG, AVAST, AVIRA and now PCTools. Out of the four PCTools runs it’s full system scan faster then the others. Approx. 40Gig of data on a 225Gig hard drive in 63 minutes. It also has a reatime monitor called IntelliGaurd which monitors all files or just processes and E-mail and both can be turned on or off. I was wondering if anybody was using this product and if you would share your experiences with it pros and cons. :■■■■, :■■■■ and more :■■■■
As of now for realtime protection I have:
CFP V3 +Defense
BOClean V4.25
PCTools AntiVirus V4
For on-demand:
PCTools Spyware Doctor V5.5
Spyware Terminator V2.1
Greetings!
I haven’t tried it, I’m happy with Avira AntiVir.
By the way, I edited your poll since it didn’t make any sense with the options “vote” and “poll”, so I changed them to “yes” and “no”, if you don’t mind 
Also, I made users able to choose only one option, since you can’t answer both yes and no on this question.
Cheers,
Ragwing
My experience with PC Tools AV is the lack of speed. If you find it to be faster than others, that’s great! I have noticed that if you turn off the intelliguard (such as to install something), or even just exit the AV, when you reboot or turn it back on, intelliguard will be turned off. Turn it back on, and next time you reboot, it’s frequently off again. Just something to keep in mind.
As far as detection, it made the Checkmark and VB100 lists (more than once, I think). For these, it has to detect 100% of all viruses they throw at it (via definitions/signatures and heuristics), with no false positives (as I recall).
I’ve not read any decent reviews of it from other sources (such as av-comparatives and whatnot); it doesn’t seem to have made it into the common public testing circles.
Antivir is continually highly rated; the primary complaint there is that to get highest detection rates, heuristics have to be cranked up; it’s reported that this leads to a lot of FPs. However, there are a # of users here who have reported no such issues, so it may depend a lot on what applications the user is running, that might generate a heuristic FP.
Hope that helps,
LM
Happy with Avira. No need to try something else.
Hey Little Mac,
Thanks for the reply!!! As you mentioned intelligauard turning off after a reboot or when shutting down the AV and then restarting it, I don’t have that problem. Perhaps you’ve experienced this with an earlier release. If that’s the case and you have time to experiment try installing the new version 4 of pctool AV and perform a full system scan. Let me know what you think of the scan speed. And yes it did pass the VB100 test. Thats the first thing I look at before installing any AV software…
Thanks again! :-TU :■■■■
Far more important than the relative speed of the various AV scans is whether it detects all the malware that may be residing on your system.PC Tools,although a newcomer appears,so far,to have a decent detection rate,although not as high as Avira Antivir.The vb100% testing is worth taking into consideration when choosing a product alongside results from the likes of AV-Comparitives,but they can be a bit misleading.A user could well think that a vb100% award implies that a product will make you immune from all threats,not the case in the real cyberworld.
:BNC PCTools AV is on top of the free list in my view. Scan problem has been fixed in version 4 .
Some hasstels with linux mail servers but it works well. Comodo AV 3 must be muth better for me to change back to comodo.
Running 60+ coppies of PCTools av and very happy with me protection.
A
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Morphie, it would be nice if you wrote a reason for why to choose Avira ;D
Reason for why I’m using it is low resource usage, high detection rate and it’s free 
Funny that you mention these products, because that’s exactly what I am considering as my defense system, apart from BO clean.
Also not sure about Spyware terminator. Used them, but if you research the holding company, they used to be spyware. Although no longer such, they are a portal with loads of adverts, and not a very good portal. I do not accuse of tem of anything, they could be a “poacher turned gamekeeper”, but my “gut feeling” makes me feel a bit uneasy about them.
Re PC tools Antivirus, seems to work well in my initial tests on a spare PC but I do not yet understand if their Intelliguard system is just a real time virus scanner, or actually a HIPS like Defense+
If anyone knows more about Intelliguard, much appreciated to learn more about it, thanks!
(:NRD)
funny I sometimes have the feeling people are sent from forums/software companies to make these polls, like a survey that could be used to either improving a software, or just spreading it among users over the internet…OK I might be wrong but I’d rather not give my opinion in such a thread.
ps also noticed that these polls are being often posted by very new forum members here.
I thought I had a suspicious mind ! (:LGH)
You’re right though that on certain other forums suspiciously enthusiastic individuals pop up out of nowhere to endorse a product,happily Comodo software has no need for such tactics :■■■■
Latest version of PC Tools Anti Virus tends to twink your IP stack after the first reboot, post-install. I Think it’s something to do with the LSP they add to check emails. This occured on three separate Vista 32 bit systems.
Ewen
Hey - I am not sure that I like that potential negative suggestion pointed at Newbies!!!??? (:AGY)
Whilst a newbie here, I have 20+ years of PC experience. Also have zero to do with any software company.
Of course I cannot speak on behalf of any other newbie (:WIN)
My personal experience of most of Comodo’s products is actually very mixed - some great apps, but some really questionable ones.
Also had various issues with CFP3 and AV which has caused me to steer away from my initial goal of a “simple life” with one vendor of Comodo (I had reckoned that many companies were now producing a wide range of security products, probably not much difference between them, so why not try one company that seems to be good and really going places… Comodo :BNC )
So far the result for me is that -
CF3 is worth keeping on my system apart from suspecting it of screwing up my Broadcom network software on a dell laptop and me wasting 2 days on troubleshooting then eventually needing to re-installing XP then drivers to fix the issue (:SAD)
AV is not yet ready for primetime, hence me narrowing down the free antivirus to PC tools…and now myself finding out that Intelliguard is in no way a HIPS.
Still need an AS at least as a second tool to complement Defese+ , and my extensive research and experience seems to point to the PC tools product as well, for various reasons. I was therefore happy to find that someone else had already started a thread on my topic of current concern!
…Hopefully sometime in 2008 Iwill be able to remove PC Tools and be a complete “Comodoist” (or whatever the word is for a Comodo fan) !
(R)
Hey cavehomme,
DITTO on everything you said with the exception of various issues you’ve encountered with CFP V3, I’ve had none. I to have extensive experience with PCs. In fact the first PC I purchased was a TANDY from Radio Shack came with 384K of ram and no hard drive. Purchased a 10Meg internal drive for $280.00, which I install myself. Talk about ancient… I belong to no other forum and joint the Comodo forum because I believe in the company and their security products. To bash newbies was uncalled for. In-fact, Everybody on this forum was at one time a newbie…
my statement had nothing to do whatsoever with the status of newbie, but it had to do with the fact that some guys register new accounts in forums around the web to advertise products. This might not be the case for you, might not…you perfectly understood what I was saying; no newbie bashing was intended and that was clear. The fact that you’ve used computers for a while is clearly off topic here.
adding: first thing that actually comes to mind to a “genuine” newbie in a forum, especially in his first ten posts, is to discuss the product related to the forum only, and ask questions, troubleshooting etc…and not post a poll about rival products - even when in that case PCtools is no competitor for Comodo (at least for CFP); Registry Mechanic and Spyware Doctor are brilliant, the rest is software drivel to maintain a presence in the field.
Quote “…Hopefully sometime in 2008 Iwill be able to remove PC Tools and be a complete “Comodoist” (or whatever the word is for a Comodo fan) !”
I believe the correct term is a Commodore…ok I made that up but it works for me (brings back memories of my computing youth) :■■■■
I think we’re all getting a little defensive for what reasons I don’t know. I believe that most of us on this forum newbies on up to the comodo hero’s all have the same interest, the Comodo security product line and if you don’t then you should’nt be a part of this forum. Now, I thought a forum was used to discuss experiences either pro, con or mixed, ask for relative information, or just feedback on certain software. I don’t think a “genuine” newbie has be limited to what he or she wants to post and or poll related to a topic if it has any value. If someone wants to express their proficiency and or skill level with PCs no matter what the topic is I’m all for it. I would rather gather some insite and so called expertise advice from someone of that nature then one of a novice.
One more thing and I’m not trying to be a wise guy but I do see a little contradiction in your statement regarding advertisement, that some guys join forums to advertise products and here you are promoting Registry Mechanic and Spyware Doctor which has nothing to do with this topic. Like I said I’m not trying to be a wise guy. :■■■■ (R) :■■■■
300+ KB of RAM!!! Oh my, that sure is a lot! Probably more than you’ll ever need! ;D My first “box” had 32KB RAM, and its name was “Vic”…
As for PC Tools, as has already been discovered, Intelliguard is a real-time scanner, not a HIPS. I’ve not had any issues with it (any version I’ve used) and the stack on any XP box (which is all I’ve used it on).
Only thing I’ve found is that if you turn it off (either Intelliguard or Exit the application) from systray icon, on reboot they won’t automatically restart, and email plugin will have been killed as well. Re-starting Iguard from systray icon doesn’t actually turn them back on; you have to go into the GUI to each module and reactivate them there. Probably not an issue for most folks, but on one machine I have reason to turn it off quite a bit, as I can’t have an active AV changing file metadata upon occasion. So then I just have to remember to turn everything back on manually.
LM
Little Mac,
Did some testing on the PCTAV IG. Through the system tray icon I turned IG off I chose to shut IG off for 5 minutes. Went into the GUI to verify and IG was off all real time protection was disabled. After the 5 minutes checked the system tray and IG was back on. Opened the GUI and IG was on and all protection was enabled (file and E-mail) . Took it one step further and shut IG off for 15 minutes, check GUI and again IG was off as previously stated. Re-booted my system and waited 25 minutes checking every so often after the 15 min. and IG did not turn itself back on. Went into system tray turning IG on then checked GUI the activate IG box was checked but file and e-mail was off had to manually turn them back on. So my conclusion is as long as your system is up and running the automatic IG off/on feature works. If IG is off when shutting down the system when the system is re-booted it will remain off. Could be a bug or that’s just how it was designed to work. Something to look into on the PCT web-site. Hope this helped in any shape or form… :■■■■ (R)
P.S. that 300+KB of ram was all I had, no hard drive everything was stored in memory including the DOS operating system. and have no clue what “Vic” is… :THNK