Is Avast Free better than Microsoft Security Essentials?

[rdmaloyjr]

I don't like the evil dragon either.

[Vladimyr]

2. Free for all use. AFAIK there are only 2, PC Tools Security/Antivirus Free 7

There no such security with that name are you sure he exist or what ?

Hi Mr.Agent
"PC Tools Security" is both the folder location and Program Menu name for 'PC Tools Antivirus Free', 'Spyware Doctor with Antivrus', etc.
Sorry for any confusion.

[cwr64]

So in the end I have MSE on my Win7 laptop and Avast on my Win7 desktop.

[CraigB]

Iv alway's come back to avast, i found mse 1.0 and 2.0 to be no different in there detection rate's which were poor and there was a noticeable slow down in system performance and update's were slow and not very frequent, like every 2 day's. Full scan's were ridiculous, mse 50 min, avast 15 min, so with all that you have my answer 

[Dch48]

Yes, I have taken MSE off of the Vista machine after experiencing a total meltdown when the latest program update was available. It failed to install the update but in the process only partially uninstalled the earlier version and left it deactivated. I had to manually remove all remaining traces of the older version and then download and install the new one to regain protection from malware. After that, I found that the DB updates were failing half the time. The machine is now running Avast! 5 and it's more responsive, updates much more frequently, upgrades flawlessly, and scans much faster. MSE is the only Microsoft product I have ever been disappointed in but I can't recommend it at all.