Secure Computing: Free Virus Protection with Comodo AntiVirus Beta 2.0
Continuing in our series on free anti-virus utilities we need to take a look at Comodo AntiVirus, from the same people as the popular Comodo Firewall. We'll take a look at their beta version running under Windows XP, although it is Vista compatible.
Note that this utility doesn't work on Vista 64-bit in my testing.
Installing Comodo AntiVirus
First we will start with the installation process and agree to the EULA. Does anybody actually read them?
You will get the following License Activation screen where you just need to enter a valid email address if you wish, it is not required.
After going through the install wizard a reboot is required.
After rebooting a user profile safelist database will be created, which identifies safe files on the system under the current user profile. The database helps HIPS (Host Intrusion Prevention System) technology identify unknown executable files and alerts the user when they attempt to run. This will take a few minutes to scan and create the database.
Once the initial setup is complete, the Comodo UI shows us the status of different components available. The virus database runs in the background and checks for updates on a regular basis.
The length of time for full system scans are comparable to those of the other Free Anti-Virus Utilities we have covered. Similarly a progress screen is displayed and we can stop, pause, and resume.
Scheduled Scans are included with this version of Comodo. Just click Scan Schedule and create a name and description.
You have the ability to create a custom scan or you can go with a default full system scan.
Then you can select the day, time, and frequency for the scan.
Another of the more noticeable features is the Reporting capacity. Several reports are available and broke down into scan types.
Conclusion
Comodo is a solid Anti-Virus utility and offers a lot of features available in the commercial products, like Real-Time protection, email scanning, process monitoring, worm blocker, and several more. Comodo is light on system resources and highly customizable.
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Thanks Geek!
More choices in the free AV market is a good thing. I was happy to see you can still get AVG 7.5 and they still support it.
I am using Comodo Firewall for a long time and really satisfied with it. Hope Comodo Antivirus is also that promising.
Does it make your system slow?
I mean, I use nod32 and and it's never slows down the system like Norton, AVG etc.
How is it compared to NOD 32?
Are there benchmarks that compare the effectiveness of these free anti virus packages. All I have been able to find don't include the free AV's
jfxg.
As far as I know, there are no benchmarks for those free av scanners, so and advise would be to use them only for a second layer of computer defense, not the primary. They may be good but they may also be bad programs. So it is up to you to decide. (those is an opinion of gizmo richards I read in the past, and I must say it sounds wise)
I personally do not use any av. I only use comodo firewall with hips. If I get accidentialy infected by virus I will immediatly know that, because if it does not stop it my hips, it will stop it my comodo firewall by blocking it phoning home.
Anti-virus just slows down system and sucks battery life on notebooks.
According to the computer, I have a 32-bit Vista system, but Comodo is acting like it's a 64. The spyware program seems to be working fine, but the anti-virus one won't have anything to do with me. Shame, I do like the looks of it.
Comodo Antivirus 3.0 is expected to be announced at any time. It is supposed to be a huge improvement.
– Patrick B.
Comodo Antivirus 3 is already released, but it's not stand alone anymore. It's included in Comodo Internet Security (along with their firewall).
I have hear from the television programme advisors that comodo is best fo window XP 2000. So I choose to gain some experi