Avira是一家德国IT 安全(IT security)公司，以其免费的防病毒软件(antivirus software)而闻名。它是如此受欢迎，以至于在 2012 年，他们拥有超过 1 亿客户，并被评为全球第六大防病毒软件供应商(antivirus vendor)。这是一项了不起的成就，该公司在接下来的几年中继续保持其知名度。如今，他们不仅提供免费的防病毒软件，而且还提供免费的安全套件(security suite)，承诺包含有效保护Windows 计算机(Windows computer)所需的所有工具。它被称为Avira Free Security Suite，我们已经对它进行了几天的彻底审查。要查看它是否是好产品，请阅读此评论：
Avira 免费安全套件擅长(Avira Free Security Suite good)什么？
Avira Free Security Suite是一款出色的安全软件(security software)，适用于以下用户：
- 想要良好的反恶意软件保护
- 想要一个免费的安全套件(security suite)，但没有商业产品的预算
- 想要一个免费的VPN工具(VPN tool)，并且愿意在有限的流量下凑合
优点和缺点
以下是关于Avira Free Security Suite(Avira Free Security Suite)最重要的优点：
- 杀毒引擎(antivirus engine)强大高效，轻松拦截恶意软件
- Chrome 和 Firefox(Chrome and Firefox)的浏览器安全(Browser Safety)扩展运行良好，可以保护您的网络浏览体验(browsing experience)
- Phantom VPN 工具(Phantom VPN tool)可免费帮助保护您的网络连接，无需您注册帐户，只要您同意每月 500MB流量限制(traffic limit)，或者如果您在Avira注册帐户，则为 1GB(Avira)
- 本产品是免费的
还有很多负面因素需要考虑：
判决
Avira Free Security Suite是一款不平衡的安全产品(security product)。它确实提供了一个很好的防病毒引擎(antivirus engine)，能够保护您免受各种恶意软件威胁，但这是该安全套件(security suite)的唯一重要优点。有许多负面因素，例如组织不善的用户界面(user interface)，它包含的工具不起作用并试图说服您购买专业(Pro)版，或者安全购物(Safe Shopping)只是为了通过您的在线购物(online shopping)获利。如果您想要 Avira 的免费防(Avira)病毒产品(antivirus product)，我们建议您使用Avira Free Antivirus(Avira Free Antivirus)，而不是Avira 免费安全套件(Avira Free Security Suite)。这是一个更直接的选择，包含更少的过时软件。
下载安装体验(download and installation experience)
要在您的计算机上使用Avira Free Security Suite，您必须先下载(download)它。您得到的是一个名为avira_en_fass0_[some_random_characters]_ws.exe的 5.12 MB 小可执行文件，您必须运行该文件才能下载和安装所有安全模块。我们注意到Avira Free Security Suite的一个优点是它不会要求您提供任何个人信息。安装过程(installation process)简单易行：接受许可条款并等待向导下载并安装所有内容。总的来说，安全套件(security suite)需要从 Internet 下载 364.5MB 的数据，这是一个相当大的下载量，尤其是在您使用计量连接的情况下。
在安装过程中，您可以看到您获得了哪些保护模块和附加工具，您还可以单击“了解更多”("Learn more")以查看有关主要功能的一些详细信息。
安装完成后，Avira Free Security Suite会加载其用户界面，起初看起来很简单。
无需重新启动计算机，因为Avira的防病毒软件会在您完成安装后立即开始保护您。此外，安全套件(security suite)已经使用了最新的可用病毒定义，因此您可以获得目前可用的最佳保护。
下载和安装 Avira Free Security Suite 非常简单直接。只需单击几下，安全套件就会安装在您的 Windows 计算机上。我们还喜欢 Avira 不会强迫您提供任何个人信息来安装其产品这一事实。(Downloading and installing Avira Free Security Suite is easy and straightforward. All it takes is a few clicks, and the security suite is installed on your Windows computer. We also like the fact that Avira does not force you to provide any personal information to install their product. )
与Windows、网络浏览器和通用Windows 平台(Windows platform)应用程序集成
Avira Free Security Suite在安装过程中会禁用Windows Defender。这是一件好事，因为同时运行两个防病毒应用程序可能会导致意外的冲突和性能问题。但是，我们没有看到Avira禁用了Windows 防火墙(Windows Firewall)，而且起初我们对此很警惕。同时运行的多个(Multiple)防火墙解决方案也可能对您的计算机造成风险。当我们仔细观察时，我们发现Avira Free Security Suite不包含专有防火墙，而是依赖于Windows 防火墙(Windows Firewall)。
然后我们检查了Avira Free Security Suite是否与(Avira Free Security Suite)Windows 10的网络功能很好地集成在一起。由于这个安全产品(security product)依赖于Windows 防火墙(Windows Firewall)，不言而喻，它与Windows 10配合得很好：我们可以创建和加入家庭组(Homegroups)，我们可以通过网络访问网络(access network)共享和流媒体文件，下载没有问题，安装或使用通用Windows 应用程序(Windows apps)。Avira Free Security Suite使用Windows 防火墙(Windows Firewall)的另一个直接后果事实是，您将始终为公共(Public)和专用(Private )网络应用适当的防火墙设置。
我们还检查了Avira Free Security Suite如何在浏览网站时保护用户。坏消息是该安全产品(security product)不能保护您免受在线危险。此安全功能(security feature)仅在套件的专业版中可用，需要付费。(Pro)
但是，Avira Free Security Suite还提供了一个名为Browser Safety的(Browser Safety)浏览器扩展程序(browser extension)，旨在保护您在网上冲浪时的安全，但前提是您使用 Google Chrome 或 Mozilla Firefox(Chrome or Mozilla Firefox)。
我们还使用任务管理器来监控(Task Manager)Avira Free Security Suite需要多少RAM才能运行其进程。安全套件(security suite)使用大约 147 MB 的RAM ，(RAM)这对于现代计算机来说价值不大。然后，我们还检查了它对我们测试计算机(test computer)的启动时间的影响程度。为此，我们使用了BootRacer，我们测量到Avira Free Security Suite为我们的(Avira Free Security Suite)测试系统(test system)的启动增加了 2 秒。也就是说，原始启动时间(boot time)增加了 9.87% 。检查 Internet 或本地网络速度是否受Avira Free Security Suite影响(Avira Free Security Suite)，我们还使用Speedtest.net和LAN Speed Test进行了一些测试。安装安全套件(security suite)前后的传输速率相同，这意味着它对 Internet 或本地网络数据传输没有不利影响。这是一个很好的结果！
Avira Free Security Suite 不包含专有防火墙模块。相反，它依赖于 Windows 防火墙。因此，它与 Windows 10 和通用 Windows 应用程序完美集成。唯一的小缺点是该套件会增加计算机的启动时间。(Avira Free Security Suite does not include a proprietary firewall module. Instead, it relies on the Windows Firewall. Because of that, it is well integrated with Windows 10 and universal Windows apps. The only minor negative is that this suite increases a bit the boot time of your computer.)
易于使用和配置
Avira Free Security Suite的用户界面相当奇特。实际上，您可以说该产品包含多个用户界面。您会看到一个名为Avira的窗口，它充当用于查看和启动可用工具的中央控制台。用户界面的这一部分让您知道您是否受到了良好的保护，它让您一瞥每个保护模块(protection module)的状态，它还允许您启动每个保护模块(protection module)提供的任务：运行防病毒快速扫描(Quick Scan)，连接(Connect)到VPN 服务器，或优化(Optimize)你的电脑。这个中控台使用明亮暖色，看起来不错。我们不喜欢它的是它是一个固定大小的窗口，而且它的大小相当小，所以你必须滚动它才能找到所有工具。
安装Avira Free Security Suite时，您将获得以下保护模块：防病毒、软件更新程序、密码管理器、Phantom VPN、系统加速、安全购物(Antivirus, Software Updater, Password Manager, Phantom VPN, System Speedup, Safe Shopping,)和浏览器安全(Browser Safety)。有趣的是，防病毒(Antivirus )模块不仅与防病毒引擎(antivirus engine)有关，而且是您需要启动的工具，如果您想访问防火墙设置、网络保护（在(web protection)安全套件(security suite)中不可用，但如果您购买专业(Pro)版，则打开）或报告。Avira Free Security Suite的组织方式不直观，而且可能令人困惑。
Avira Antivirus Free模块的此设置窗口与主用户界面(user interface)的设计路线不同，甚至看起来过时了。正如您在下面的屏幕截图中所见，Avira的防病毒设置窗口从亮色变为黑白，并提供对详细信息、选项和设置的访问。这一次，菜单项以难以阅读且难以在触摸屏上使用的小字体书写。
Avira Free Security Suite的一个积极方面是，只需将鼠标光标(mouse cursor)悬停在大多数高级设置上即可查看有关其功能的简要信息。这有助于您了解设置的作用，而无需打开帮助和文档文件(help and documentation files)。
谈到帮助和文档(help and documentation)，Avira包含离线帮助(Help)文件，非常棒。如果您想阅读Avira(Avira)的文档，则无需访问 Internet 。Avira Free Security Suite还可以轻松访问在线文档、常见问题，甚至是有关如何提高安全性的视频教程。但是，电子邮件和电话支持(email and phone support)仅适用于付费客户，不适用于Avira Free Security Suite用户。这是免费产品的常态。
关于报告，Avira Free Security Suite提供了一个名为“活动(Activity)”的部分，您可以在其中看到一些文本日志，但没有任何可视统计信息。不幸的是，文本日志只是您计算机上发生的事情的摘要，因此如果您想要详细信息，那您就不走运了。
从用户交互的角度(interaction point)来看，我们必须注意，当检测到恶意软件时，我们会看到警报，但也会看到其他类型的通知，包括广告。
Avira Free Security Suite 不是您所说的用户友好型安全产品。其中一些看起来不错，但有些部分似乎来自过去。不幸的是，Avira 的用户界面看起来像是一堆不同的东西放在一起，没有连贯性和流畅性。(Avira Free Security Suite is not what you would call a user-friendly security product. Some of it looks good, but some parts seem like they came from the past. Unfortunately, Avira's user interface looks like a bunch of different things thrown in together, without coherence and fluency.)
Security for everyone - Review Avira Free Security Suite
Avira is a German IT security company that is well known for its free antivirus software. It is so popular that, back in 2012, they had over 100 million customers аnd were rankеd to be the sixth largest antivirus vendor in the world. That was quite an achievement, and the compаny kept on maintaining itѕ popularity in the following years. Nowadаys, they аre not only offering a free antivirus, but also a free security suite that promises to include all the tools you need to protect your Windows computer efficiently. It is called Avira Free Security Suite, and we have reviewed it thoroughly for a couple of days. To see whether it is a good product, read this review:
What is Avira Free Security Suite good at?
Avira Free Security Suite is good security software for users who:
- Want good anti-malware protection
- Desire a free security suite but do not have the budget for commercial products
- Want a free VPN tool, and are willing to make do with limited traffic
Pros and cons
Here are the most important positives about Avira Free Security Suite:
- The antivirus engine is powerful and efficient, and can block malware easily
- The Browser Safety extension for Chrome and Firefox works well and can secure your web browsing experience
- The Phantom VPN tool helps secure your network connections, for free, without asking you to register an account, as long as you are OK with a monthly 500MB traffic limit, or 1GB if you do register an account with Avira
- This product is free of charge
There are also many negatives to consider:
- There are some advertisements displayed on your desktop when you use Avira
- Most of the additional tools that are bundled are not functional and are there only to convince you to buy the Pro version
-
Safe Shopping is a marketing tool that has nothing to do with your security. It can also represent a privacy issue for users
- You are protected from dangerous websites only if you use Chrome or Firefox
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Avira Free Security Suite does not have a firewall module, so you have to be OK with using Windows Firewall
- The user interface does not look great, and it is poorly organized
- The antivirus engine is slow at scanning your computer for viruses
Verdict
Avira Free Security Suite is an unbalanced security product. It does offer a good antivirus engine that is capable of protecting you against all kinds of malware threats, but that is the only significant positive about this security suite. There are many negatives, like the poorly organized user interface, the fact that it includes tools that do not work and try to convince you to buy the Pro version, or Safe Shopping which is there only to monetize your online shopping. If you want a free antivirus product from Avira, we recommend using Avira Free Antivirus, and not Avira Free Security Suite. It is a more straightforward choice, with less bloatware included.
The download and installation experience
To use Avira Free Security Suite on your computer, you must first download it. What you get is a small 5.12 MB executable file called avira_en_fass0_[some_random_characters]_ws.exe which you must run to download and install all the security modules. One positive we noticed about Avira Free Security Suite is that it does not ask you for any personal information. The installation process is simple and easy to go through: accept the license terms and wait for the wizard to download and install everything. In total, the security suite needs to download 364.5MB of data from the internet, which is a fairly big download, especially if you are using a metered connection.
During the installation, you can see what protection modules and additional tools you are getting, and you can also click on "Learn more" to see some details about the main features.
When the installation is done, Avira Free Security Suite loads its user interface, which looks simple at first.
There is no need to reboot your computer, as Avira's antivirus starts protecting you immediately after you finish installing it. Also, the security suite already uses the latest virus definitions available, so you get the best protection available at the moment.
Downloading and installing Avira Free Security Suite is easy and straightforward. All it takes is a few clicks, and the security suite is installed on your Windows computer. We also like the fact that Avira does not force you to provide any personal information to install their product.
Integration with Windows, web browsers and universal Windows platform apps
Avira Free Security Suite disables Windows Defender during its installation. It is a good thing because having two antivirus applications running simultaneously can lead to unexpected conflicts and performance issues. However, we did not see the Windows Firewall is disabled by Avira and, at first, we were wary of this. Multiple firewall solutions running at the same time can also be risky for your computer. When we looked closer, we found that Avira Free Security Suite does not include a proprietary firewall and, instead, relies on the Windows Firewall.
Then we checked whether Avira Free Security Suite is well integrated with Windows 10 regarding networking features. As this security product relies on Windows Firewall, it is self-evident that it works great with Windows 10: we could create and join Homegroups, we could access network shares and stream media files over the network, and we had no problems in downloading, installing or using universal Windows apps. Another direct consequence of Avira Free Security Suite using the Windows Firewall is the fact that you are always going to have the appropriate firewall settings applied for both Public and Private networks.
We also checked how Avira Free Security Suite protects users while browsing websites. The bad news is that this security product does not protect you against online dangers. This security feature is available only in the Pro version of the suite, which costs money.
However, Avira Free Security Suite also offers a browser extension called Browser Safety, designed to protect you when surfing the web, but only if you use Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox.
We also used Task Manager to monitor how much RAM is needed by Avira Free Security Suite to run its processes. The security suite uses about 147 MB of RAM, which is not a significant value for modern computers. Then, we also checked how much it affects the boot time of our test computer. To do that, we used BootRacer, and we measured that Avira Free Security Suite added 2 seconds to our test system's boot. That is 9.87% more time added to the original boot time. To check whether the internet or local network speeds are affected by Avira Free Security Suite, we also ran a few tests with Speedtest.net and with LAN Speed Test. The transfer rates were the same before and after installing the security suite, which means that it has no adverse effect on internet or local network data transfers. It is an excellent result!
Avira Free Security Suite does not include a proprietary firewall module. Instead, it relies on the Windows Firewall. Because of that, it is well integrated with Windows 10 and universal Windows apps. The only minor negative is that this suite increases a bit the boot time of your computer.
Ease of use & configuration
Avira Free Security Suite is rather peculiar when it comes to its user interface. In fact, you could say that this product includes more than one user interface. You get a window called Avira, which acts as a central console for viewing and launching the tools available. This part of the user interface lets you know if you are well protected, it gives you a glimpse of the status of each protection module and it also allows you to start the tasks offered by each protection module: run an antivirus Quick Scan, Connect to a VPN server, or Optimize your PC. This central console uses bright and warm colors which look good. What we do not like about it is the fact that it is a window with a fixed size, and that its size is rather small, so you have to scroll through it to find all the tools.
When you install Avira Free Security Suite, you get the following protection modules: Antivirus, Software Updater, Password Manager, Phantom VPN, System Speedup, Safe Shopping, and Browser Safety. The interesting thing is that the Antivirus module is not just about the antivirus engine, but also the tool that you need to launch if you want to access things like the firewall settings, the web protection (which is not available in the security suite but which turns on if you buy the Pro version), or the reports. Avira Free Security Suite is not organized intuitively, and it can be confusing.
This settings window of the Avira Antivirus Free module does not follow the same design lines as the main user interface, and it even looks dated. As you can see in the screenshot below, Avira's antivirus settings window changes from bright colors to black and white and offers access to details, options, and settings. This time, the menus items are written in small fonts that are hard to read and are also hard to use on a touchscreen.
A positive aspect of Avira Free Security Suite is the fact that it is enough to hover the mouse cursor on most of the advanced settings to see brief information about what they do. This helps you understand what the settings do, without having to open the help and documentation files.
Talking about help and documentation, Avira includes offline Help files, which is great. You do not need internet access if you want to read Avira's documentation. Avira Free Security Suite also offers easy access to online documentation, frequently asked questions, and even video tutorials about how to improve your security. However, email and phone support are available only to paying customers, not to users of Avira Free Security Suite. This is the norm for free products.
Regarding reports, Avira Free Security Suite offers a section called Activity where you can see some text logs, but no visual statistics whatsoever. The text logs are, unfortunately, just summaries of what happened on your computer, so if you want details, you are out of luck.
From a user interaction point of view, we must note that we saw alerts when malware was detected, but also other types of notifications, including advertisements.
Avira Free Security Suite is not what you would call a user-friendly security product. Some of it looks good, but some parts seem like they came from the past. Unfortunately, Avira's user interface looks like a bunch of different things thrown in together, without coherence and fluency.
