Free Avira Antivirus 2013

It's hard to make money if you give your product away for free, yet quite a few antivirus vendors do just that. Some of them offer a free version for home users and an effectively identical commercial version for business users. Avira Antivirus Free 2013 doesn't quite fit that model. The company's premium antivirus, which I'll review separately, includes additional protective features, among them cloud protection, behavioral detection, and access to remote-control tech support.


Avira's main window has a lot going on, because it includes links to all the features of the paid edition and the full security suite. Most of the window is devoted to common tasks like checking for updates, launching a scan, or turning protection on and off. A panel at left contains links to detailed configuration and other tasks.

Clicking a button at lower right takes you to Avira's new "Experts Market," which is currently in beta. Experts from around the world can sign up to provide support, posting profiles of their special expertise. You submit your problem, choose an expert, and work out a price. Much like an online auction site, experts accumulate a reputation based on ratings by those they've helped.
Installation Failures
When I hit problems in testing, I relied on basic tech support, not the Experts Market. And wow, did I ever hit problems. Malware forced a reboot during install on one system, which required a repair/reinstall. After repair, Avira reported that essential services are disabled. Users of the free product are entitled to tech support by email, so I put in a query. Tech support recommended using the Avira AntiVir Rescue System, a bootable antivirus environment. After the Rescue scan, the keyboard became completely unresponsive.
My Avira contacts offered to remote into the system to attempt a fix, but since the ordinary user wouldn't get that level of support I declined. They only remaining recourse would have been to boot from the Windows CD and choose Repair, or totally reinstall Windows. Like many users, I don't have a Windows CD that matches the installed version. This system wound up with no keyboard and no hope.
On another system, Avira installed but absolutely would not run. I scanned using the Rescue environment, but it didn't help with the problem. Once again tech support recommended using the Windows CD to repair the system or completely reinstalling Windows.

 Avira installed and scanned yet another test system, but never managed to remove all the malware. Its realtime detection system reported threats and offered to remove them. The antivirus performs a mini-scan after a realtime detection. This scan revealed that most of Avira's own executable files were infected. The cleanup process terminated Windows Explorer, leaving no visible desktop. After a reboot, the whole thing happened again, and again.
I encountered similar problems in testing AVG Anti-Virus FREE 2013, but tech support managed to solve them all. AVG users can get free remote-control tech support if necessary to solve installation or cleanup problems. They do have to go through several other levels before escalation to top-level support.

Reviewd by: Neil J. Rubenking