I’ve been pretty popular at Christmas parties this year talking about virus software and the limited choices we have. This has been on my mind for the past few weeks, so I figure it’s a popular party topic. I have noticed that I get a lot of pass-offs and introductions from one new acquaintance to another when I broach the subject.

My frustration came about when a customer’s copy of Avira wasn’t removing a virus on her computer. Although I manually removed the virus, my plan was to install Avast with the logic being that the alternate title would have different virus definitions. When I started to uninstall it I noticed the publisher was Gen Digital, the same company that publishes Avast.

Turns out Gen Digital also publishes AVG and Norton. To the average user it would appear that AVG, Avast, Avira and Norton are competing products – and they were at one point. Several years ago Avast purchased AVG and consolidated their virus definitions. Presumably the same is true of Norton and Avira. It would make business sense to limit resources and use as many common functions as possible.

The issue, as I see it, is there aren’t as many unique antivirus solutions as there were a few years back. Luckily there are a few holdouts like McAfee, Eset, Kaspersky, Trend Micro, Microsoft and others. But these titles come with tradeoffs and issues of their own.

McAfee, arguably the pioneer in antivirus software, has changed hands a half dozen times since its founding. Although this doesn’t seem terrible, buyouts and mergers typically come with layoffs and budget cuts while they move to make the company more profitable. Historically McAfee has been included as free trials which makes me think their product isn’t so fantastic.

ESET NOD32 is a Slovakian product that receives mixed reviews. Although it does a good job at picking up viruses and malware, it’s not as good as some of its free rivals including Avira. Program (or engine) updates aren’t as frequent as its competitors. Moreover, many people are hesitant to install software from Slavic countries on their computers.

Kaspersky has historically been an excellent utility. Since the war in Ukraine and sanctions on Russian products, Kaspersky has been forced to stop selling in the US. In September this year Kaspersky was automatically replaced by UltraAV. To be honest, I’ve removed UltraAV at least 100 times from customers’ computers because it looks and feels like malware. In my early research I couldn’t find any actual reviews.

Trend Micro used to be an excellent product. Lately though it’s been picking up false negatives from the built-in Microsoft Windows Security. Although it’s an independent American-Japanese product, I wonder if it’s taken a backseat to other product offerings. Of note, and why I don’t recommend Trend to my customers, is they purchased companies which publish malware. Apple removed all Trend products from it’s app store several years ago because of this.

Finally Microsoft. It’s actually very good basic software for blocking most threats. It’s free and comes with Windows. But, by default I disable it and always install alternative software with more features. I feel having a well rounded antivirus solution is good for most people, where having a basic solution is good for users who may be a little more savvy about online threats.

Consolidations are great for business but not necessarily for protecting customers. I also know there are many other antivirus offerings I didn’t mention because they’re either obscure or not so great at catching viruses. The market needs alternatives that are truly competitive and different so we can capture and remove new threats.

Jeromy is the president of Laptop & Computer Repair, Inc. located in Gardner and Greenfield MA. You can read more articles at LocalComputerWiz.Com