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The addition of Avira Crypto to this product a few years ago wasn’t without controversy. On sufficiently powerful PCs, this component would offer to mine the Ethereum cryptocurrency using the CPUs unused cycles. Avira totally managed the process and took a 15% cut when users cashed out. Some people felt it inappropriate to combine security with cry...

To supplement my hands-on testing of antivirus products, I turn to reports issued regularly by four independent labs around the world. The mere fact that a given product appears in a report means that the lab’s experts thought it significant enough to merit the effort of testing and reporting on it. The more lab results the better, and, of course, ...

Lab results notwithstanding, I always perform my own hands-on tests. I start by opening a folder of malware samples that I've curated and analyzed myself. Avira immediately started quarantining those that it recognized. It eliminated 83% of the samples on sight, which is a little bit low. G Data and ZoneAlarm both wiped out 97% of the samples at th...

Coding a Trojan horse or other malicious program that can steal passwords while evading antivirus utilities is a tough slog. Fooling unsuspecting consumers into innocently handing over their login credentials is a lot easier. Phishing fraudsters simply create a website that’s visually identical to, say, PayPal. Sometimes they manage a URL that’s cl...

Selecting Security from the left-rail menu opens the Security page, which offers access to five security features: Virus scans, Protection options, Quarantine, Software updater, and Firewall. Selecting the Virus scans panel lets you launch or schedule the expected quick or full scan. You can also scan just removable drives, active processes, or Win...

When you click the Privacy option in the left-rail menu, you get access to five useful privacy-related components: Browser safety, VPN, Passwords, File Shredder, and Privacy settings. Clicking Browser safety installs the Avira extension in your default browser (provided that your default is Chrome, Edge, Firefox, or Opera). I’ve already discussed t...

The most significant component on the Privacy page is Privacy Settings. This feature incorporates the functionality of the separate Avira Privacy Pal, which is no longer in development. If not configured correctly, Windows and popular apps can potentially leak information about your computer and browser usage. Avira puts you in control of over 140 ...

People sometimes blame their security software for performance problems. Avira works to head off that kind of thinking by including a collection of features designed to improveperformance. Clicking Performance at left reveals a page with six button panels: Optimizer, Battery saver, Driver updater, Duplicate finder, Advanced tools, and Game Booster....

Now that I’ve run through this suite’s many features, I can spell out just how Smart Scan puts them all to work. You click a button on the main page to start the fun. Smart Scan checks for privacy issues and performance issues. It runs a quick scan for malware and checks for outdated apps. Finally, it runs a scan for network threats. That last item...