Get our latest top picks
Subscribe to our Top Picks RSS Feed or enter your email address below to get the feed delivered to you by email:
|
Follow Gizmo |
 |
 |
 |
Register/Login
Top Rated
Gizmo's Freeware is Recruiting
We are looking for people with skills or interest in the following:
- Mobile Platform App Reviews for Android and iOS
- Anonymous Surfing Service
- Rootkit Scanner and Remover
- Streaming Media Recorder
- PDF Writer
Interested? Click here
Best Free Antivirus Software
|
Other Language?
|
 Read this article in Spanish |
 Read this article in Chinese |
|
In a Hurry?
|
 Go straight to the Quick Selection Guide |
|
Introduction
|
|
Antivirus software provides an essential layer of protection from a multitude of virus, trojan, worm, spyware, adware, dialer, keylogger and rootkit infections. Traditionally antivirus programs just detected viruses and spyware removers just detected spyware but nowadays the boundary between antivirus and spyware removers is unclear. Most current antiviruses have at least reasonably good detection rates of all forms of malware. Malware includes viruses, trojans, worms, spyware, adware, dialers, keyloggers and rootkit threats that perform malicious activities on a computer. With the huge increase in malware, antivirus software cannot keep up with detecting all of it. Despite vendor's claims, no single antivirus solution, or indeed any one security software, can be relied upon for total protection without safe surfing and computing practices. But using more than one real-time antivirus uses much more system resources, can cause conflicts and even reduce protection. So I recommend you only choose one antivirus for real-time protection. Instead, you can increase your protection using other security software; for more information check out our Security Wizard. I looked at several free antivirus programs which are vital in protecting your computer from virus threats and other types of malware. |
|
Discussion
|
|
The main downsides are the slow scan speeds and the lengthy amount of time it takes to quarantine malware, though in my opinion these are rather trivial concerns, as for example a scan just be run overnight. MSE also is not available in certain countries so users there will have to look elsewhere. Note that Microsoft Security Essentials requires a genuine copy of Windows to install.
Panda Cloud Antivirus has a behavioural blocker and web protection, which will certainly increase your security. However as you can simply use one of the other free AV's with a separate behavioural blocker (for further details see our Security Wizard) to achieve possibly even better protection, this is not necessarily an advantage. One minor reservation I have is that PCA seems to erroneously detect certain browser/system-related applications, for example VideoCacheView, and because of the automatic quarantine this made it a fraction bothersome.
However, there are some minor reservations. First, AntiVir does not include web or e-mail scanning capabilities; this is only available in the paid version. The lack of an e-mail scanner is not a disadvantage, it just means that AntiVir won't warn you of infected emails before you open them. But should you open an infected email, AntiVir will still spring into action, so it doesn't mean that you're not protected from email-based infections. Also, AntiVir contains a rather intrusive advertisement every time it updates. Although AntiVir had signature updating problems in the past, this issue seems to be fixed now.
These free antivirus programs are excellent software that provide a real alternative to the major commercial antivirus products. Please help us by rating this review |
|
Tags
|
|
free antivirus, antivirus software, antivirus download, best antivirus software, anti-virus, anti-virus software, avast antivirus, avira antivirus, microsoft antivirus, free anti virus, anti virus software. |
|
Have Your Say
|
|
Please visit our freeware forum to share and discuss your views and get advice on free security software, including antivirus software. To post in the forum you need to register first but that's quick and immediate. |
Quick Start Guide: http://www.avast.com/download-documentation
Forum: http://forum.avast.com/
Forum for support
|
Editor
|
| This category is maintained by volunteer editor JonathanT. |
|
Tags
|
|
free antivirus, best free antivirus, free antivirus programs, free antivirus program, antivirus software, free antivirus software, antivirus program free, anti-virus programs, antivirus scanner, best antiviros, best antvirus |
Back to the top of the article
- Article type:
- Login or register to post comments
Printer-friendly version
Comments
You should never run two antivirus programs together if they both have a real-time scanner. Some folks of course will say you can and some vendors say their product is even designed this way but ultimately something will happen to cause you grief with such a setup. The most likely scenario is protection will actually be reduced this way instead of increased which is what folks believe when they set out down this road.
I used Ad-Aware some time ago and found it to be very good except for some high CPU spikes and quite a delay when opening program folders. Recent test results have not been so good however and although it is dangerous to rely on these totally, I have since changed to Zone Alarm Free Antivirus + Firewall (Windows 7) and have not had a single issue with it ( uses Kaspersky antivirus engine).
http://www.av-test.org/en/tests/home-user/windows-7/sepoct-2012/
The daft thing is I always had issues with ZoneAlarm firewall but not so when using it as part of the free suite. :) It certainly out performs many of the paid solutions in the above tests so if you think these are relevant to how you use your computer, then ZoneAlarm might be another option to consider. MC - Site Manager.
How does Zonealarm compare to these antivirus products above? I currently have zonealarm, but I will consider switching to Avast if it is significantly better.
Thanks.
Avast is a lot better than ZoneArlarm; it has better overall detection rates. Avast has auto sandbox where suspicious programs are now automatically placed inside the avast! Sandbox. Avast has a Boot-time scanner that scans your computer for infections before the OS can start to activate any viruses beneath it.[Removed unnecessary list of program features which users can see for themselves on the Avast! website].
Bear in mind that depending on where you look, variable test results can be found for all products. Some of these are more reliable than others, but none will be exactly relevant to how you use your own computer. This is one that gives ZoneAlarm a higher rating than many commercial programs.
http://www.av-test.org/en/tests/home-user/windows-7/sepoct-2012/
I use the ZoneAlarm suite including firewall myself (Windows 7) and have been completely satisfied with it. MC - Site Manager.
Hi John,
I highly suggest that you remove MSE from second place. It has a poor detection rate (look at the latest tests).
Brian
Tests are tests and although they can be a useful guide, users should not rely on these solely when choosing a product. You give no link to the test referenced but if it is AV-Test then their results take no account of MSE's integration with Windows firewall, UAC or other Windows security components. Additionally, many of the exploits they reference require users to click through Windows system warnings several times in order to get infected. Another point is the higher scoring products are employing heuristic elements to make these detections, the majority of which require user interaction with the general tendency being to click through.
The bottom line is I see no more infections in MSE installed machines than I do those installed with Kersplonsky and other commercial programs.
Additionally, MSE is licensed for business use at up to 10 machines and in this environment, employees generally take far less care with their habits than they would for home use. This being the case, their respective forums would be awash with infection reports, and they are not.
The Windows PC security industry is alive with hype, unverifiable claims and sponsored tests tailored to the ability of individual products to pass them at one snapshot in time. This is one of the reasons why folks insist on installing a third party firewall they don't understand instead of relying on the excellent Windows firewall to do the job it was designed for.
Even accepting that some antivirus products are better than others, the average detection is still no better than 95% and a 5% exposure to malware is massive. This means that all users need to adopt additional measures in order to reduce this exposure to the minimum possible. In light of this, MSE performs as good as anything else and better than most in terms of system integration and the need for user interaction.
Others may find these articles of interest. MC - Site Manager.
http://windowssecrets.com/langalist-plus/mse-delivers-mixed-results-in-a...
http://www.techsupportalert.com/content/safe-computing-under-hour.htm
Hi Glyn,
Yes, I was referring to the AV-Test. You have excellent points, but it doesn't change the truth. Let me provide you with some evidence:
1. “Most of my new clients that are infected have MSE installed. I’ve been steadily switching clients to Avast.” (Matt Rizos) - September 2012
2. “I have found [MSE] to be a very poor product. On numerous occasions, I have had customer’s computers get infected and yet the software reported that the system was Protected. (David Caley) - November 2012
Sources:
- http://remove-malware.com/tweets/tweets-for-2012-09-27/
- http://www.geek.com/articles/geek-pick/microsoft-security-essentials-bom...
I appreciate these guys are supposedly reporting what they see locally, but so am I and the two don't match. In truth you can find both quotes and tests to either support or rubbish one product over another depending on how much time you have to spend Googling for them. Of course what these reports don't tell you is if the users concerned would still have got infected with another product.
This quote from one of the pages you linked to is much nearer the mark.
"I am glad you said that because a lot of people expect their AV to catch every piece of malware they download. That way of thinking is simply not realistic".
With so many good freeware alternatives nowadays, we would not be promoting MSE if our hearts were not fully behind it. Overall though IMO it remains the most logical and easy to manage solution for Windows users. MC - Site Manager.
Hi Glyn,
I agree. MSE is very user friendly.
By the way, the article that John links to in this review was written 4 years ago.
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/securityfix/2009/09/stress_testing_micr...
You're right, that is too outdated to be of much use now, however I agree with MC that MSE itself still has good detection rates.
Thanks for pointing out the ancient link Brian12. :) It could do with an update although newer findings are going to be very similar.
Just to expand on this general topic a bit more now which hopefully might be of interest to other readers.
I've lost count of how many “massive” new Windows exploits have been reported only to find out the attacker would need physical access to the machine to launch it. :) The same applies to Linux in which I have a major interest since I use it 95% of the time. This is typical of yet another Linux rootkit report.
http://threatpost.com/en_us/blogs/new-linux-rootkit-emerges-112012
Reading the comments under it though and you come to this.
“How did it get the escalated privs... yes, I think you've got it.
Must be the person is running a browser as root for the "local user" or some such.
Come on people this doesn't even pass the SNIFF test of a real threat.
Stop reacting to these things like Linux has no privilege separation. Gads!”
Back to Windows and universally, many Windows users tend to be their own worst enemy. Many must think LUA is just the initials for yet another African rebel group, and the first thing they want to do with UAC is switch it off because it's “annoying”.
Unfortunately, the way Windows is designed and the way the majority of Windows users want to use their machines are not compatible. There are no such things as “quick” and “easy” to secure a Windows machine (except maybe Sandboxie) unless you leave Windows firewall alone, install MSE and forget about it. Adopting other methods does in theory reduce your threat exposure, but all require a level of knowledge and commitment many Windows users do not wish to attain.
One of our own members who is as clued up as anyone about security has now been running a Windows box without an AV for almost two years with zero infections. The method he uses is quick and easy and frees him from the burden of babysitting a collection of security apps when he would rather spend this time doing other things. It does though require a level of discipline which again in my experience, many Windows users do not wish to apply. They mostly want to surf where they like with no regard to site ratings, download from anywhere that offers the “deal of a lifetime” and then install their booty as quickly as possible without reading the EULA or bothering with those silly firewall popups.
Despite the hype though, Windows security is still a concern and so I long ago gave up worrying about it and run all my machines as dual boots, using Windows only for testing. The exception is my original box which is so knackered even XP won't install anymore, but Bodhi Linux runs on it fine. This is what I give visitors to play with when they tell me Linux is difficult. Jeff Hoogland ought to give me commission for the number of Bodhi installs I've “sold” off of this machine which I affectionately refer to as “The Heap”.:D MC - Site Manager.
I have become very dissatisfied with MSE due to it is not detecting like it should, the real time protection will not activate, even after doing full scans it still comes back saying you are at risk when clearly it did not find anything, and the scan speeds are slow as well.
I am looking at going back to AVG as I did have Avast at one time but was not satisfied with that software either as it would not detect anything or give you alerts when or if it did find something.
Stay away from MSE or Avast
I've used Avast for six years now and I can say it has NEVER created any problems. I am real puzzled that some people report major issues with this AV.
My experience shows these instances are not just confined to Avast! and are 99% due to already existing system errors resulting from poor general maintenance, the failure to use the vendors own removal tool for a previous product, trying to click through the install process too quickly or access features before it has finished, or the previous use of registry "cleaners", optimizers and other tweak tools. In such systems the introduction of new product "A" might fail, but product "B" install correctly. It's all a bit of a lottery trying to work out exactly what the cause might be. Maybe Avast! is more sensitive than others in this scenario but I've never had a problem with it. MC - Site Manager.
Avast THAT bad? How do you reconcile this opinion with not only the experience of many users as well as the very good ratings and reviews from independent testing groups?
@LEW. Sounds like you have some system problems not related to these antivirus programs. MC - Site Manager.
JonathanT,
Although I've never used Kingsoft AV, I recently had a very gratifying experience with them.
As a long time user of Freeplane mindmapping, I've started to use Docear which wraps several applications including Freeplane into an academic research manager suite. Another user notified the team that Kingsoft had detected malware in Docear. See website: http://www.docear.org/support/forums/docear-support-forums-group3/genera...
I used VirusTotal (thanks Chiron) and notified Kingsoft (thanks again Chiron) of a suspected false positive. As you can see from that thread, Kingsoft responded quickly and eliminated this false positive.
As I said, "Thanks to services of many like VirusTotal and Chiron of Gizmo's Freeware and vendors like Kingsoft, we are able to mitagate the collateral damage in this war on malware."
John, Wizened Web Wizard Wannabe
"The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them." — Albert Einstein
Hi,
I am an Avast user since version 4. But I had to change my AV to MSE ever since version 7 of Avast came out. The issue with the current version is that my system hangs up on desktop forever after the boot. Neither I am able to open any applications nor shut down the system, every time I have to force shut down! Though currently I am using MSE without any hassle, I am very obsessed with Avast. I never felt fully secured with MSE or any other free AV for that matter apart from Avast. So I keep on downloading and installing Avast every time after a program update, but this problem still persists. I can’t believe it is something to do with my system configuration because I never had issues with the previous versions of Avast. I have listed few recommended free AVs & my personal experience with them.
AVG: I had nightmare with this AV once, even after uninstalling it! After that I did to dare to try it again, though the current version has received positive reviews.
Avira: It always has been my second choice of AV. However I had issues with on demand scanning as it used to terminate in between (some memory related issue). Also I felt system slowness with the current version.
Panda: I gave a try to this AV briefly without any problem. It had simple interface & very light on system. I uninstalled it after sometime as I wasn’t confident about the security it offered due to its cloud based technology.
MSE: My current AV, works well for me. But lot of reviews and forums I visited stress on one point that it is not so good on XP machine.
I use Firefox (With Adblock Plus, BetterPrivacy, Ghostery, KeyScrambler, LastPass, Redirect Remover and WOT) and Chrome (With AdThwart, LastPass and WOT) for browsing. Occasionally I do use IE (With KeyScrambler, LastPass and WOT). I also use SuperAntiSpyware and Malware Bytes for on demand scanning, WinPatrol and Spyware Blaster for additional security.
So my question now is, Do I really need an AV since I am not confident about any other AV other than Avast, but I cannot use Avast in its current state. Should I keep MSE or safe without an AV???
Thanks - Arun
I've used about half of the antiviruses you mentioned above and wasn't happy either. I think you should still use an AV, it's always better than nothing even if you're not confidant that it's a perfect AV.
I'm using Unthreat Antivirus and I'm really happy with it, it doesn't slow down my computer and it's pretty easy to configure to your own preferences, I haven't had a virus since I downloaded it.
When Unthreat was first released, performance was top class and it was a very promising product. Since then though a change of ownership with a not so promising reputation and a P.O. box contact in Cyprus, together with dreadful test results leads me to believe users would be much better served by something else. MC - Site Manager.
http://www.virusbtn.com/vb100/rap-index.xml
http://www.mywot.com/en/scorecard/scandium-security.com?utm_source=addon...
Your setup is good. You can add Sandboxie to your security setup... it's a great tool. Read about it.
About AV, do keep one. Regarding Avast, it has had some issues with the latest release, so maybe you are facing that. Because of that, I am still using the 7.0.1466 version... although the latest version does seem to be stable now, and I will install it later maybe. You can download 7.0.1466 and give it a try.. u can find the link a few comments below, to download that version.
Also, before installing Avast, download the Avast Uninstall Utility, and run it in safe mode, and then reboot and install Avast.
Can Avast free AV be installed without Google Chrome along with it? It seems that over on their forum a few users have been frustrated with this but it is not clear to me. Second, any conflict with Sandboxie?
Yep you just untick the option. No conflicts as far as I'm aware.
I've been using Avast! for several years now. My only issue with it has been that occasionally after a prog update, it would begin to "argue" with ZoneAlarm - they would temporarily not play nice. I'd have to revert to a previous version, or be patient while the kinks were worked out.
The most recent prog update to Avast!, however, has caused issues I cannot ignore, and reverting to the previous version did not fix the problem. Suddenly, my windows profile wouldn't fully load. My desktop wallpaper is nothing more than a purple background (low resources hog, that). I'd get the purple screen, but absolutely nothing else would load. The only way to reboot was to hold down the power button on the tower for ten seconds. On reboot, it would often load the taskbar and such, but not everything that was supposed to load on startup would be there - mainly ZoneAlarm and Avast! would be missing. Going to Start/All Programs/Avast! to manually load did nothing. Nothing. I'd try to reboot using Start/Turn Off Computer/Restart. Nothing. Nothing would happen no matter what I did. So I again rebooted via the power button, but into Safe Mode.
Long story short, the only thing that was getting me rebooted normally was to do a System Restore to an earlier point. And that only worked until the next time I shut down/booted, and it started all over again. That's gone on ever since the prog update a few weeks ago, and I finally had enough. I went into Safe Mode and uninstalled Avast! Problem solved immediately, so I know for a fact Avast! was the problem. Only now I'm naked and completely freaking out.
I need to know the best AV that isn't Avast! and fast, so I'm looking around. I had Essentials recommended to me, but another site's review said it's not good with zero-day threats, although it rocks threats that are months old. This makes me nervous, and now I don't know what to do.
"Although it scored 100 percent at detection of widespread malware and slightly better than average spotting 2-3 month old threats, it was a long way behind in zero-day detection, scoring 76 and 80 percent in consecutive months, against an average of 88 percent.
All this means that top protection from brand new malware will be better provided by one of the other free AV applications." http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/reviews/security/3376831/microsoft-security-essentials-4-review/
Does this mean that if I also run, say, MalwareBytes alongside, I'd be good to go? I'm not sure.
Has anyone had experience with the issue I'm having with Avast!?? Has someone discovered the problem is indeed that it's arguing with ZA again? Because if the problem could be solved with changing firewalls instead, I'd do that - keep Avast! and switch to Comodo or something. Thing is, I'm trying to not have to keep rebooting my machine the bad way, it's been done so much recently I'm afraid of the damage it might be causing. If I can find out more without actually DOING IT only to make things worse, I'm all for that.
If anyone has any information on this that I haven't found yet, I'd be SO completely grateful. Thank you so much.
I am running Windows XP Pro, Service Pack 3
Pent 4, 1 GB Ram
~Gypsy
Hi Gypsy,
The problem you posted about can be because of any of the reasons... because of Avast, or, because of Zone Alarm firewall too.
I am a long time user of Avast.. have been using it since many years now. Which version of Avast are you using on your PC, or had installed before you removed it?
I am using the version 7.0.1466. It's not the latest, but it's the last stable version, that did not cause problems for the system. If you visit the Avast forums, you will see that the few latest versions have been having some issues. And this has been this way since some releases... so, nowadays, I watch the Avast forum first, and if there are no reports of any problems, then I upgrade. The latest version of Avast is 7.0.1474. The versions before that, after 7.0.1466 have had a number of issues, and the version just before this had many issues, and therefore, the latest version was released with fixes. So, which version are you talking about?
You could post about your problems in the Avast forum, and get some help, and it will also help the developers in improving the release. Because, now Avast is integrated with more features, like Sandbox, webrep, etc.. and the number of Windows systems is growing, like Win XP SP3, Win 7 32-bit, Win 7 64-bit, and now there's Windows 8... so, issues keep cropping up. The latest version seems to be good with XP SP3, so I have downloaded it, but I havent installed yet(I also have XP SP3), so I can't say about it. I will keep the 7.0.1466 version in case I encounter a problem and want to revert back.
It could also be a problem because of ZoneAlarm firewall. I had given a try to ZA firewall last year I think, and it had caused problems... not related to Avast though. But, it's well known that the last few releases of ZA have had issues across all systems. So, I would uninstall ZA, and see if it solves some issues. You can give Private Firewall a try. I am not using any firewall presently. I wouldn't recommend that to others though. PC Tools Firewall played quite nicely with Avast, but sadly it's not being developed anymore. If you have the firewall activated in router, you could go without software firewall, and just turn on the Windows firewall for a few days, and see how it goes with Avast.
If you do not want to go for Avast for time being, then you can go for Avira. It is also a good firewall, and I had tried that in between, just for a change. It had worked well.
I hope this helps. Do take a look around the Avast forum, and maybe post there about your problems if you want.
Anupam, I have hunted through my files, and I do not appear to still have version 7.0.1466 - at least, not where I can find it. I have been looking through the Avast! site, and cannot find that specific version there - and I'm not really willing to go with version 7.x as it's probably the same version that gave me grief in the first place.
Does anyone know a safe site to download a previous version, on that it is SAFE to get it from?
I have temporarily turned on Windows Firewall, so as to have at least *something* in place, while I try to figure out what to do about that half of the equation. My system has been unstable for weeks, I'm not anxious to put something in place to make it unstable again, so I'm trying to figure out the best "protection buddies" for my system before I go installing.
Thanks for your help,
Cherie
You can download Avast 7.0.1466 on FileHippo :
http://www.filehippo.com/download_avast_antivirus/
Look on the right under old versions.
It's also available here :
http://www.oldapps.com/avast_antivirus.php?old_avast=8127
I will be offline for a few days, and after that, I will most probably install the latest version of Avast. Will let you know how it goes, and if all is well, you can try it on your system. Meanwhile, you can install the above version. Make sure to download the Avast Uninstall utility, and run that in safe mode to make sure it clears the previous remnants. Then, reboot and install the above version.
And it would be great if you could register on the site. You can then post in the forum about such problems, so it's better to follow there :).
Thank you! I knew the older files were out there somewhere, I was just reluctant to trust the sites hosting without knowing whether they were safe. Just a note... when I downloaded the file from filehippo, once I got it in my Downloads folder and hovered the cursor over the file to see the info popup, that popup said it was a later version. I triple checked to be sure I downloaded the correct one, according to the link, and the link says it's 7.0.1466, but the info popup in my Downloads folder says it's version 7.0.1474.765. I then grabbed the file from the oldapps site, and the info popup says it's the version I wanted. Not sure what's going on there, but I'll install the one from oldapps.com.
Also, I tried to register on the site but it tells me my username and email address are already in use. :/ I suppose I'll have to change my ID, but then I'll be confused about who I am. LoL I'll figure something out.
I look forward to your review of the stability of the newest version. I hope it's good news.
I managed to have a router given to me that is the exact same brand, model and version I already owned and fried. Cool, right? :) It's true it's an outdated piece of equipment and I need to get a new one, but it'll do for now. Happiness is a working router.
Oh, and I'd downloaded the uninstall utility and tried to run it several times, previously, before I ever came looking for this site. It refuses to run. I keep getting an error box telling me it's not a valid 32 something or other, I forget exactly what it said. I should have typed the message into a Notepad file, I knew I wouldn't remember the wording more than a couple of days. I even checked to make sure I had the most updated file from the Avast! site. It wouldn't let me run it from Safe Mode or my regular profile either one. I never did figure out what the issue was, with that.
What I did do was uninstall from Control Panel, then delete the Avast! folders via Windows Explorer, then run a registry cleaner to find the specific keys relating to the program and remove those. Hopefully that's good enough because apparently it's what I've got to work with.
I'm so grateful for the help and advice, you have no idea.
Gypsy
Strange about that download problem from FileHippo, but it has happened with me on different occasions, with different download sites, and even the product homesite. These things can happen. Must have been a mistake with FileHippo. You can go for the oldapps one.
With what ID did you try to register on the site?
Did you download the Avast Uninstall Utility from here?
http://www.avast.com/uninstall-utility
In case of problems regarding Avast, you can post on their forum too.
It would be helpful if you could post the exact error message, because it helps greatly in solving the problem.
Deleting folders is OK, but you shouldn't have gone for the deletion of registry entries by yourself... registry is not something to be messed with. Also, I haven't seen Avast cause any problem in uninstalling, or reinstalling, so such a step was not needed. Just a deletion of folders would have been enough. Anyways, if the computer is still running properly, no need to format it... just observe for a while. And in future, please do not take such steps of cleaning the registry.
Yes, it is a little strange, but I know that sometimes, on occasion, a link can point to the wrong file. That's why I took the precaution of hovering my cursor over the file to read the info popup and check the version number before installing it, because I suspected I'd already reinstalled the wrong version previously, assuming the link info matched the file info. I was so glad you had told me about the second possible site to grab the file from!
As for the ID I tried to register with, I tried to use the email address I input for these text box replies and username Gypsy. At first I thought another user named Gypsy was already registered and tried OneGypsy, but then it told me my email was already registered, too. I sighed and decided to come back to that problem later. Bigger fish to fry right now, not to mention Life outside this machine. heh
Yes, I did download the utility from there. That was the first one I downloaded. I can't remember the message specifically, but it told me it wasn't a valid 32 bit something... I could try, later, to run it in Safe Mode and take the time to type it into Notepad and paste it to you guys, if you'd like. My luck, it would run this time... lol But I will try it a little bit later if it would help. Once I've typed it into Notepad and saved it, I can paste the info to the Avast! forum to see if they can tell me why the heck it didn't work. I also tried an older version of the file to see if I'd have any luck with it, but got the same error message. After something like five or six attempts to run it to no avail, I gave up and moved on.
I'm not really sure why I ended up posting here instead of on the Avast! forums. I guess it's because this thread appeared active (an important thing to note when deciding where to post a question), and not so big that I would get lost in it. I really have no other explanation. I did search their forum to see if there was already an identical or at least very similar situation being discussed, but after an hour of reading, couldn't find one. I don't know why I decided at that moment to come back here, I just did. I'm not sorry at all.
I went for the registry keys pertaining to the Avast! folders I deleted simply because the first time I uninstalled via the Control Panel and deleted the folders, then reinstalled, I was still having problems and issues. It was as if all that uninstalling and folder deleting hadn't happened. I just felt the need to remove as much evidence of the previous install - of the later build - as I possibly could without actually combing through the whole registry and dinking with thing I don't understand. But the section of the scan that strictly points to empty folders and deleted folders, I felt safe in removing. I glanced further down the scan just to see if there were other entries with Avast! obviously in the name, although I would not have touched them for all the ice cream in the shop. I would, however, have made a note of them for discussion purposes. If I'd learned their existence was causing my troubles, I would have reformatted and started over clean rather than touch them.
I'm lucky, or at least, I appear to be lucky, because as of right now I'm up and running in normal mode, using the last known stable version of Avast! you pointed me to, with Windows Firewall and the firewall in my router. Everything is running smoothly. In a few more days when I'm more confident that longer usage/more rebooting isn't going to show breakage somewhere, I'll either try reinstalling ZA or I'll try out Comodo or something. I held off on Comodo because I read so many user reviews in various places complaining that they had issues, they found no relief in the form of technical support via phone, email, chat or threads, and that they couldn't get Comodo off their system cleanly. This was about an hour's worth of reading. When I continue to research, I might find that those posts are a small percentage of the whole, with the larger percentage saying something quite different. Time will tell. I know I won't feel entirely comfortable though, until I have found a firewall software that plays nice with my AV, works and is rated well, and that isn't so complicated that I can't study and understand it enough to use it. Even though I now know that there's a built in firewall in my router, I'm nervous without ZA running. ZA and I have been buds as long as Avast! and I have.
I am so very grateful for all the advice and help. And yes, even for the scoldings for touching my registry. Because you're right, the registry should be left the heck alone, it's a huge, huge risk to touch it at all. It's not something I normally do, and believe me, I did a whole lot of reading on the topic before I stuck a toe in the water. I held my breath when I did it, and had my XP Pro disc in hand, fully aware and ready to start from scratch if needed.
In a few days, I am going to pretty much wipe out earlier Restore Points (so many were created during this whole mess, and most all of them, if used, would likely cause me enough headache to cry) and create one to go back to if my next attempt at installing a firewall proves ugly. If adding the firewall software works out, I'll create another. And it's time to re-copy My Docs and my Downloads folder to my USB backup drive. Because as we all know, that registry will eventually be full of stuff that isn't there anymore to the point that performance is degraded enough to just plain need to start fresh. It happens, even if there's isn't actually technically "breakage" with anything on the system. We try things, we get rid of them. It all eventually piles up like a hall closet or an attic, and makes it danged hard for the system to find what it's looking for. Dem's da berries. :)
Thank you, again, so much. Y'all are just awesome.