http://www.anti-malware-test.com/?q=taxonomy/term/13

Packers support test

This test determines which antivirus programs provide their users with

the most effective protection from virus modifications created by virus

writers who use various compression utilities (packers).Like cab Zip so on,

http://www.channelregister.co.uk/2008/06/09/trend_vb_test_criticism/

Trend Micro plans to withdraw its software from the Virus Bulletin 100

(VB100) tests after criticising them a poor way of deciding how well

security products defend against contemporary internet threats.

Security vendors cry foul over exploit tests
'Like testing ABS brakes by pushing a car over a cliff'

Is AV product testing corrupt?

Vista attacked by 13-year-old virus

I use Norton 360, I don't care for the registry cleaner in it, but other than that it's not bad. Though I don't download any giveaways anymore, not on this new computer which I got in July.

I have mainly used Norton products on this computer. I use to hate Norton because I used it in my earlier days when I first got a computer and had some problems with it and I said I would never use them again, but I did. It seems like a lot of antivirus companies are going down. It looks like Kaspersky went down too a lot from what detection rate they used to have along with Mcafee.

@Archangel: The content of the wrapper. AV software can scan the wrapper activation code itself, but not the encrypted installer.

Tidbit (unverified): Firefox's virus scanning actually seems like a copy operation; antivirus software usually scan files when they are being copied.

So are you saying that you can't scan the contents of the wrapper or are you saying that you can't scan an exe regardless of its name? You are correct on malware but trojans and virus can even if they are archived. That is if your definitions are current.

I use NOD myself now but when I used avast it caught a couple after they were downloaded by FireFox's built in downloader (which forces a scan).

I can't remember any virus included in anything here. The worse was a toolbar but if the installer just watched during the installation they could have unchecked it.

@Lee: Though, still, my point is that you can't know what is in the wrapper until you run it. For people who don't want to touch infected stuff to begin with, they can't just scan the wrapper and say "It's clean."

@BuBBy: So it is just an ad? Meh. I prefered the "100% Spyware and Adware free" logo.

My opinion is for AntiVirus and AntiMalware needs - "Advanced System Care" can make all the claims they want. That recommendation reads to me as nothing other than an advertisement. (eg. "When about town, we choose to wear Bozo Hats")

When choosing Antivirus software start by looking at products that are compared against their competition by an independent testing group.

http://www.av-comparatives.org/seiten/comparatives.html

Personally I prefer NOD32 http://www.eset.com/ - but each product has points for and against. The GOTD team have said that the giveaways are scanned before being released - and I have seen nothing beyond a false positive. To date their record is clean.

If you are truly paranoid - just don't be the first to download and install (It has saved me more than once with Microsoft Service Packs - bugs instead of virus, but the concept is the same).

Any opinions?

The files in the wrapper are extracted to somewhere on in your computer.

So my AV scans the files in the wrapper and outside of the wrapper.

If an AV app doesn't have definitions for virus/trojan/malware/spyware etc data
then it does not know it exists.

Here's something that was added to Giveaway pages a few days ago, and on the main site today: "Giveaway of the day is adware/spyware-free. If you want to check that yourself and keep your system healthy, we recommend Advanced SystemCare package.
Pro and Free versions are available."

My first response to this was "bull." For those who don't know how the activation process goes, the wrapper (Setup.exe by itself or Activate.exe) extracted from the zip file have the activation registry key or setup program in it, encrypted. This makes it so that it is impossible for an antivirus software to detect viruses within the wrapper unless it knows what the decryption algorithm is and where to get the encryption key. So in effect, telling people to scan giveaways is pointless. Recommending a specific software to scan it is even worse. A giveaway can be scanned automatically during the extraction process, but some antivirus softwares can't stop a program properly if it finds malware, so in the event that a giveaway has a virus in it, someone isn't going to be safe.

Any opinions?