How should I select an antimalware solution?

Question

As I prepare to reinstall the software on my machine, I am currently reevaluating my choice of anti-malware software for home use. What factors should I be considering? How reputable are AV-test and AV-comparatives? The latter site gave G data a perfect score in their latest tests. I've never heard of that company before, so I be particularly interested to hear from anyone who's used it.

Answer 1

AV-test and such should be taken a bit lightly.

The tests they do, not always match your needs, and the malware they test aren't always real-life situations

each antimalware solution has a different engine, and usually detect differently, but on really widespread casessuch as conficker, or other worms, all (or most) AV companies share information.

for instance, the 0-day that attacked RSA were on VirusTotal for a long time, only no one thought of checking it. The real competition between AV makers is who will block "it" first. But in most cases it won't affect you unless your internet usage is not so good..

as for G-data, I haven't tested it, most people will say "I had AV type X and never had a virus". Well, either the malware bypassed the AV and they never know they were attacked, or their surfing habits aren't risky enough to get attacked.

I use at least 2 or more (currently looking for a 2nd AV) antimalware solutions. I currently have ESET installed, which I'm quite pleased with in addition to Spybot, which also monitors registry changes.

I plan on testing many AV to see what works best.

So far, I've tested Panda Cloud antivirus, but it really slowed my pc and surfing so I had to uninstall it..

Bitdefender seems best according to av-test:

http://www.av-test.org/en/tests/home-user/

also, my advice is to incorporate some type of sandboxing such as sandboxie to help mitigate risks