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

[Muppet among Puppets]

A nice and usefull security product i liked,
if you werent carefull you ended up with a toolbar and new browser after installation.

What that means,
be careful and look yourself

[cinedine]

Originalmente postado por Muppet among Puppets:

A nice and usefull security product i liked,
if you werent carefull you ended up with a toolbar and new browser after installation.

What that means,
be careful and look yourself

A yeah ... among this and the constant advertising pop-ups, "quarantining" of false positives that break your programs and root kit level irremovability ... I really don't understand why anyone want's that ♥♥♥♥.

And these toolbars and other (P)UPs (seriously, there is no "potentially") are far more annoying and anti-malware only detects it once its too late. Some of that stuff is so painful to remove that a factory reset is the easier solution.

If you feel like you need one, you already know you have problem that needs to be solved. Viruses and malware don't get unto your machine by magic.

[Arsonist]

I stick to windows defender these days. 3rd party anti virus vendors became overly sensitive to the point they were making multiple false positive detection on OS files on a fresh windows install and ended up causing some windows features to break due to legit system files getting purged. I've never seen them detect an actual virus either.

My advice is dont be a reckless user who impulsively installs random software they stumble across on the internet and you won't need anti-virus at all

[cinedine]

Originalmente postado por davidb11:

I can't think of any anti-virus that has any kind of Root kit level inability to remove.
Do you have any citations, cinedine?
I mean, most of them are pretty simple to remove.
Okay, maybe not simple, but hardly root kit level annoying

Avira?
That ♥♥♥♥ re-installed itself at least twice on an old machine.
Avast?
Has installed a new browser mutliple times without any confirmation.

If you need an extra tool and a freaking guide on how to install a program, it's not worth it to install it in the first place. It's not as simple as to click uninstall in Programs and Features. And if that ♥♥♥♥ keeps installing other ♥♥♥♥ it's even worse. And the later is root kit like behaviour.

[Arsonist]

Originalmente postado por davidb11:

I can't think of any anti-virus that has any kind of Root kit level inability to remove.
Do you have any citations, cinedine?
I mean, most of them are pretty simple to remove.
Okay, maybe not simple, but hardly root kit level annoying

If root kit, its easier to boot to windows install USB drive and nuke everything by repartitioning the hard drive or SSD then reinstall windows. No level of virus survives that

[Satoru]

Originalmente postado por davidb11:

I can't think of any anti-virus that has any kind of Root kit level inability to remove.
Do you have any citations, cinedine?
I mean, most of them are pretty simple to remove.
Okay, maybe not simple, but hardly root kit level annoying

Generally speaking, MS has prevented a lot of even corporatte level anti-virus to operate in Ring 0 which was a big problem when Vista/windows 10 came out at the time, and was cited as potenially anti-trust as MS was moving into areas where 3rd parties were operating and then blocking those vendors out but allowing MS products

https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna15036968

I also recall this was an issue when Windows 10 came out as well

I will say that many consumer level 'free' anti-virus product employ dark patterns before you can uninstall them. In that they actively make the uninstall process so obfuscating and painful that one mis-click causes the uninstall process to abort. Also many free anti-virus products use the same techniques during the installation to dump even more bloatware nonsense on your system. They are not 'free'

Also note that Avast used to be utterly notorious for this behavior. Theyre 'better' now but their product used to install/hook into every possible nook and cranny in your system that was legal.

Lavasoft basically had a proxy program that was so utterly and totally broken, that the steam networking stack crashed because it had the audacity to call a standard windows networking API that caused Lavasoft to basically have seizure and kill your network.

The Astrill VPN product did the same thing, standard windows API networking calls crashed the entire network stack

[Arsonist]

Some anti-virus companies are outright corrupt. Some even went as far as to install malware of their own to trap users into purchasing an upgrade

[Muppet among Puppets]

Originalmente postado por davidb11:

Avast does not do anything relating to installing a browser at all.
I'm not sure where you got that idea from.
I've been using Avast for literally a decade.

I have never seen any browser it even asks about putting on, let alone forcibly puts it on.

Avast had chrome while installation.
I can see it in front of me.

But what really got the bird, they collected your browser happenings.

[Satoru]

Originalmente postado por davidb11:

I don't know about any of the Avast stuff at all.
I have a hard time imagining it was ever that bad. Mostly because that's a level of bad that not even Google spying for the NSA reached. :P

This has again, been my experience for a decade.

That being said, I know enough about internet security, that I use Anti-virus as a secondary tool.

Like you're technically savvy so you do whatever you want. Its fine. You're savvy enough to understand the nuances and make appropriate decisions. So basically any anti-virus is fine as long as it suits your needs

My point is more that if someone is asking for a recommendation, I'm gonna have to assume they're not as technically savvy as you are. So I want to recommend something that is going to be better for them long term and requires less maintenance and less head space for them

Different audiences need different recommendations.

[cinedine]

Originalmente postado por davidb11:

Avast does not do anything relating to installing a browser at all.
I'm not sure where you got that idea from.
I've been using Avast for literally a decade.

I have never seen any browser it even asks about putting on, let alone forcibly puts it on.

From my experience.
Backed up by more anecdotal evidence: https://www.google.com/search?q=avast%20browser%20installing%20itself

Originalmente postado por Muppet among Puppets:

But what really got the bird, they collected your browser happenings.

I can one-up you on this:
https://borncity.com/win/2020/01/28/leak-revealed-avast-user-data-was-sold/

[cinedine]

Originalmente postado por davidb11:

My bad. I was unaware of all of this.
Sorry.

Most are.
What's even worse: most don't care.
What's the worst: mostly because they buy into the panicmongering an "technically not lie"s of this industry.

[cwel]

...

[dumpst3rm4n]

I'm using avast free antivirus.
It is the lightest ever and dont impact performance much.