How The Most Popular Anti-Virus Software Performs
Anti-Virus Software Performance
Anti-virus performance chart comprised of many sources and not official in anyway, and is just for reference when comparing anti-virus software
We all know there are a lot of Anti-virus scanners and tools out there, but which one is the right one to use? You might decide to pay a yearly subscription as an Anti-virus that costs ‘x’ amount of dollar a year has got to be the best? perhaps, but perhaps not.
There are also more factors to consider than just which AV scanner was ranked number one in any given year. Factors such as: performance and how much system resources the AV software consumes even in a passive state. many Anti-virus software will protect real-time, but whilst doing so can randomly cause CPU spikes or hog a good chunk of memory.
Some anti-viruses have high CPU usage and a low detection rate so if your anti-virus is not doing its job and your system has become somewhat bogged down soon after installing it, then this could explain it.
Other virus scanners such as Avast will periodically update themselves when a new update becomes available. Automatically downloading the latest virus definitions database and updating the core software when available.
An anti-virus isn’t an anti-spyware program as such,but it may detect, prevent and remove adware, spyware, and other forms of malware. So ideally, you want an anti-virus and an anti-malware, or the two combined.
Then there’s the most important factor of all detection and removal rate. Which anti-virus software detects and removes the most viruses. The two best anti-virus software’s that I’ve come across so far with the best definitions, detection and removal are Avast and Malware Bytes. And the best part is they both happen to be free (standard versions), have massive definitions databases, and are not resource demanding.
How Does An Anti-Virus Work?
An anti-virus program detects, prevents, and removes variants of malware such as viruses, trojan horses, worms and sometimes spyware/malware.
Signature-based anti-virus detection pertains to searching for known malicious patterns in executable code. There are a few anti-virus programs that also predict what a file will do if opened/executed by emulating it in a sandbox and analyzing it running to see if it performs any malicious actions. If it does, this may mean the file is malicious. This goes back to what was said earlier about keeping your anti-virus up-to date so that it has the latest definitions to detect viruses.
Avoiding Viruses
Despite the plentiful amount of tools available to prevent you downloading/running program that contains a virus, not all viruses are detected. Just because you have installed a decent anti-virus doesn’t mean you should download anything you want carelessly without facing the consequences. The most important thing is to know what you’re downloading. If there’s any doubt in your mind whenever, either google the name of the file you’re going to run or use an online virus-scanner where you upload the file or preferably both.
