Every time the word ‘antivirus’ is mentioned, everybody goes absolutely ballistic, and Avira certainly takes advantage of this. This German company may not be one of the mainstream names in the AV market, but the performances of its products certainly proves that it deserves the top spot. Anyway, its logo may look like it’s drawn by a toddler lacking imagination, but a company and its software isn’t judged by its visual representation, right?

So, let’s take a look at the Avira Anti-Virus and learn what you can get from it.

 

ESET SMART SECURITY PERFORMANCE AND EXPERIENCE

Perhaps, you can imagine how a company that have been in the industry for 22 years. The first time it was installed in my computer, never I was able to experience that my machine was embedded with malware or other virus that couldn’t be fixed. Imagine how an expert basketball player does the shot block. That is how Eset works. It is good at real-time blocking. You may have noticed on some flaws of the software before, as days has passed, its service just keeps getting better.

 

INSTALLATION AND SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

Like other AV software, Avira Anti-Virus 2014 requires your computer to run at least the Windows XP operating system, or anything that came after it, like Windows 7 and 8. That being said, Avira’s installation process is anything but complicated: once you click the download button on the company’s website, the wizard will appear and it will be installed like any other downloaded program. That being said, you also wouldn’t need to register an account – plus points for user convenience.

 

USER INTERFACE

The main downside of Avira is its user interface. At first, a user might feel rather intimidated with all the buttons and crannies on the screen, but once he takes a close look, he’ll be able to figure it out. That being said, it’s not intuitive, compared to other AV software. Aside from the big check mark and the buttons showing which features are on, it uses text instead of icons. It does not show everything you have in a single screen, but it does have everything you need on the left-hand side.

All in all, Avira’s UI looks like it was made from designing software from a decade ago. Compared to the UI of Avast!, Bullguard and other AV software, it lacks intuitiveness. However, it is minimalistic, organized and not that difficult to use once you get the hang of it.

 

Features and Functions

An AV software’s user interface does not measure how good it is, but its features does and its ability to protect you does. The program has five main features, and these include PC Protection, Internet Protection, Child Protection, Mobile Protection and Administration. Here’s a detailed look:

 

• PC Protection – this pertains to the scanning function of the anti-virus. Whenever you press the scan button, Luke Filewalker comes out (clap, clap!) and looks for malware hidden in your drives. Once it detects suspicious files, it will quarantine them and will give you the option to restore if they have been wrongfully-flagged, or delete them personally, like some sort of Jedi knight. That being said, you can also customize the scan and only look for malware in specific folders.

• Internet Protection – this has a tool labeled Firewall, but the only thing it does is check if your Windows firewall is up and running. Mail and Web protection are also listed, but you have to pay to get them. Avast! And AVG actually gives you these features in their software.

• Child Protection – this is basically a way to monitor your child’s social networking activities (best parent ever!). This identifies friends and contacts which have adult-themes, like drugs, alcohol, obscene language and pornography. You’ll need to create an Avira account and encode your child’s login details though.

• Mobile protection – if you’re running an Android device, this feature enables you to manage the device’s software from your computer

• Administration – it contains the quarantine tab, which isolates programs and gives you the option to delete them or not. This tab also shows previous scans and details your activity.

 

PERFORMANCE – SIMPLY ONE OF THE BEST

Avira Anti-Virus 2014 is simply one of the best programs out there, at par with Kaspersky and Bitdefender. According to tests conducted by independent testing labs like AV-Test, AV-Comparatives, Virus Bulletin and ICSA Labs. It garnered high marks in detecting and blocking the zero-day old malware. From my personal experience, I transferred a folder containing programs full of suspicious files: instantaneously, a barrage of pop-ups and warnings came up.

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