Virus Protection Recommendations

[RecycledBeauty]

Hey Everyone,
So I'm looking for some advice on virus protection. Which virus protection software do you all use and which one would you recommend most? Years ago Norton & McAfee were like the end all be all of Virus Protection software everyone was using, is this still the case now or is there something else you all would recommend. Any input would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks Guys & Gals

[Snapjak]

I would suggest just using Windows Defender (the built in AV) and your brain.

Don't click random links, don't "trust" people blindly, if you're asked to log in somewhere go and type out the URL of wherever it's supposed to be and log in that way.

If you really want something, maybe Malwarebytes premium and/or ESET NOD32.



But by and large, if you're conscious of your activities on the 'net and don't just download everything under the sun you should be fine.

[unca.alby]

Originally posted by Snapjak:

... don't "trust" people blindly, ...

don't trust people over the Internet at all.

[RecycledBeauty]

Yeah I don't but my husband isn't as "internet savvy" as the rest of us. He just bought/built a new desktop. He's waiting to have it built/sent to him and I'd want to make sure he doesn't end up with something messed up on his machine within the first days/weeks he owes it.

[unca.alby]

Originally posted by SherriTheGr8:

Yeah I don't but my husband isn't as "internet savvy" as the rest of us.

You better train him up quick. The Internet Villains are Ruthless. They take no prisoners.

[RecycledBeauty]

Originally posted by unca.alby:

Originally posted by SherriTheGr8:

Yeah I don't but my husband isn't as "internet savvy" as the rest of us.

You better train him up quick. The Internet Villains are Ruthless. They take no prisoners.

Yeah I know. He's kind of behind the times now. He's just now starting to decide he wants to start doing some online/offline gaming and what not.

[Muppet among Puppets]

Real protection program wise you gain by using programs from reputated sources, game magazines sites
AND
using a host intrusion protection (answer question before starting a program).

An antivirus with detection only can fail.


There is no program that makes your weak choices smart ones.
Tell your friend to read about security in the internet.

The goal is to learn: "Everything could be dangerous, you do the things you KNOW reasonably are not dangerous".
In doubt ask first.


It is possible to have no antivirus and no virus. That means, they are not the guarantee of no infection. Both ways.

[Edifier]

Avast is pretty good and it's free.

All though ignore all of it's warning about computer being slow due to programs or files and that your IP is not hidden. They have some more warnings that are just marketing bs but you can happily ignore all of them.

Originally posted by Muppet among Puppets:

It is possible to have no antivirus and no virus. That means, they are not the guarantee of no infection. Both ways.

I haven't had viruses in a long time but Avast has blocked malicious ads that have been on various sites. I don't think Windows Defender has done that.

[Muppet among Puppets]

Originally posted by Edifier:

I haven't had viruses in a long time but Avast has blocked malicious ads that have been on various sites. I don't think Windows Defender has done that.

I dont see ads

[rc42]

I have used Kaspersky for many years and never had any problems. Does not slow your computer and also comes with many useful tools like a virtual Keyboard, safe browser for banking and password protection.

[cinedine]

Windows Defender is more than enough as long as you update regularly. Which you should do anyway.

Avira, Avast, ... all behave like malware themselves. Unwanted pop-ups, unable to remove properly, interferring with other programs.
Fun Fact: just yesterday I turned on one of my old laptops and was greated with an Avira warning that he Avira updater was quarantined because it exposed Trojan behaviour. I tried to clean Avira of it multiple times short of a full factory rest.

[Darklord]

I totally agree to the WD-only fraction. For home users, 3rd-party AV-solutions are almost obsolete since Windows 7. In 7 you had to install the AV-tool manually (MSE). In Windows 10 it's already implemented and a few years ago it was upgraded with EMET thus providing an advanced full real-time-protection. Also 2 years ago a PUP-detection and protection-mechanism was implemented, providing more protection.
Windows defender is enough protection. Brain 2.0 adds still more;) Other AV-tools can cause problems and maybe lower protection-level because they give a false impression of overall-protection that is impossible, making users going "wild" surfing and clicking everything.

[Start_Running]

I can say Avast is a pretty decent AV software.. But really the safest bet is to just be careful.

[Start_Running]

Originally posted by davidb11:

Avast is what I use, and it most certainly doesn't have an unable to remove properly issue.
It's "Popups." aren't even that annoying, and are rare. And honestly, extremely easy to get rid of, and can you blame the free version for the occasional popup about upgrading to te full version.
Which currently, they're offering me a 80% discount on it. But that's what happens when you've run the free version for a full decade. :P

I would recommend Avast.
Avira, well, I never used it, so I have no experience with it.
It just could be a giant mess.

I used to use AVG.
It probably has changed sicne 2010.

AVG Actually got absorbed into Avast if I remember correctly.

[Satoru]

Unless you have access to an enterprise level anti virus the consumer level products are all basically varying levels of bad

There’s functionally no reason to use anything other than Windows Defender. It has the least false positives rate and is the “least” bloatware version of a consumer anti virus

All other products are basically the same level of bad. Why pay for it when you can get the same level of bad for free

[Satoru]

IMHO an anti virus that gives false positives is worse than one that gives false negatives.

False positives tell an uninformed person “ignore the alerts they’re not true” then when a real problem occurs they ignore it. These kinds of AV instill bad habits of alert fatigue. It’s the same issue UAC had which is why they toned it down in later version of Windows. People ignored UAC warning because literally everything triggered it. So when malware did it was just “oh this again” and not “wait wtf is this”

Even at my IT job alert fatigue is a real problem. We have to work hard to minimize or categorize alerts, dependencies etc. someone who gets paged 15 times a day is gonna start ignoring their pager if all 15 alerts were bogus or not critical

This is why I dislike most AV other than Windows Defender. The false positives for nearly every other AV is bad for an uninformed user.

Obviously you understand what a false positive is so that’s ok for you. But in terms of a broader recommendation I’d rather recommend a product that is going to instill good alert habits

On a functional level I recommend AV based on

1) what would I give to my parents who are in another country
2) so they won’t call me 15 times a week for something
3) will call me when something actually is wrong