2013 Antivirus Software Reviews

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Avira Antivirus Premium 2013 Overall Score: 84%

Avira Antivirus Premium 2013 is a good product with a lot of great features not usually found in basic antivirus software.

We're not impressed that its antiphishing filter missed some sites usually uncovered by competitors and and it wasn't able to remove bad rootkits.

We do give high praise to Avira for its free phone technical support and found their self-help options good, as well.

The user interface is clean and simple. We find Avira to be a great product.

Certified by:

• VB Bulletin
• AV Comparatives
• Anti-Malware Test Lab
• PC Security Labs
• AV-Test
• ICSA

In our tests, Avira detected and stopped most of the zero-day viruses and other emerging threats we threw at it.

However, its antiphishing filter, which is a great feature, missed some known phishing sites.

In addition, Avira failed at detecting and removing some stubborn rootkits, requiring a call to technical support. Avira's resource was very good. CPU usage was just below 1% when the system was running idle and memory use was average.

During a full, manual scan of our test PCs, resource usage was on the higher site, CPU at 62% and memory at about 69%, but there was no noticeable system drag. Scan time was also short compared to most competitors.
The interface is clean and modern, well-labelled and easy to use, though a bit sluggish at times.

Avira offers two levels of use: Basic and Expert. The Basic mode provides a general sense of protection options without overwhelming the user with details.

The Expert mode offers full transparency and control over every option and setting and is geared towards the advanced user.
We find Avira's technical support second only to VIPRE — it's free and of superior quality. All you need is your purchase ID number to access their free phone support that address anything from installation questions to full virus removal.

In addition, their self-help support is also good, easy to use and comprehensive.

Avira and VIPRE have raised the bar offering free technical support and we now expect this out of any competitive product.

Antivirus definition updates are set to download and install automatically every 2 hours, an interval you can change if you desire, or there is a manual option, as well.





Avira Antivirus Premium 2013 offers several great extra features.

Email Protection scans all incoming emails via IMAP and POP3 and offers an option to scan SMTP/outgoing emails. Dangerous emails are automatically deleted, or you can choose to quarantine them or replace the body content with pre-determined text.

Browser Tracking Blocker is a toolbar that allows the user to determine which websites can track user information, such as location and click behavior.

Social Networks allows parents to check children's social media accounts for any comments, photos or behavior patterns of concern. Avira Antivirus Premium 2013 a strong, competitive product.

We were concerned at the misses on phishing protection and rootkit removal.

However, we cannot stress enough our respect for comprehensive, free customer service.

And their user interface is refreshing and easy to use.

Overall, though we recommend a few other products over Avira, we still feel this is a strong, capable choice.