What Free Antivirus are we Using in 2019?

Zarathustra[H]

Zarathustra[H]

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In tthe last 10 years or so I originally used AVG Free, but as they became more obnoxious with more nagware, I moved to Avira Free and now it is pretty bad too.

Are there any free antivirus packages that offer good protection, and aren't obnoxious about it?

What are you guys using?

I've seen some recommendations for Kaspersky, but I don't trust them at all after the news of the link to Russian intelligence. Some seem to like Bitsefender as well.

Any ideas?
 
GoldenTiger said:
Windows 10 has a good built in one. Use that with malware bytes.
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Windows Defender?

The story goes that Windows Defender was pretty awesome when it first launched, but that it went to shit after a few years and can barely detect anything anymore.

Or has that changed?
 
Defender sucks unless you aren't really a power user.

The free options always start out ok, but then they start trying to add stuff and it all just gets bloated like you said.

I finally decided to just bite the bullet and bought a 3-PC sub from ESET for NOD32 since it is about the best AV out there.
 
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DrLobotomy said:
Defender sucks unless you aren't really a power user.

The free options always start out ok, but then they start trying to add stuff and it all just gets bloated like you said.

I finally decided to just bite the bullet and bought a 3-PC sub from ESET for NOD32 since it is about the best AV out there.
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Hmm.

Yeah, my moms laptop wound up having problems, so I am doing a clean windows install, and trying to figure out what real-time set and forget AV program to throw on there to minimize the chance of infection.

How much did that NOD32 subscription cost?

I don't want to spend money, and she doesn't want to spend money, but I am starting to think I'm better off just getting something that works well, so I don't have to work on it again soon.
 
It was 39.99 for a year I believe. I purchased it directly from their site so there might be some better prices elsewhere but I like buying from the manufacturer whenever possible.
 
Zarathustra[H] said:
Hmm.

Yeah, my moms laptop wound up having problems, so I am doing a clean windows install, and trying to figure out what real-time set and forget AV program to throw on there to minimize the chance of infection.

How much did that NOD32 subscription cost?

I don't want to spend money, and she doesn't want to spend money, but I am starting to think I'm better off just getting something that works well, so I don't have to work on it again soon.
Click to expand...

I'm sorry that I didn't see this sooner, but BitDefender Free. I've tried the usual ones mentioned here and abandoned them all for the reasons mentioned. BitDefender is the current champ IMO; it is lightweight, completely unobtrusive, and scored well on the AV comparison tests. We will see how long that lasts but it's been my go-to for the past couple of years now.
 
GoldenTiger said:
The ones that go thru ublock by using exploits. Don't forget security holes in your software.
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In the incredibly unlikely event that happens, it's back to a weekly backup with no harm done because there's nothing of real importance that's stored on just one machine.

So maybe I should rename it GCH for "Good Computing Habits."
 
BrotherMichigan said:
In the incredibly unlikely event that happens, it's back to a weekly backup with no harm done because there's nothing of real importance that's stored on just one machine.

So maybe I should rename it GCH for "Good Computing Habits."
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And you would have no way of knowing without an av software in the first place. GCH included anti-virus as part of a layer of protection.
 
Oh, I still run Windows Defender. I'm not going to go out of my way to turn that off. I rely on my GCH to handle anything that might even get to that level.
 
Windows Defender, Malwarebytes, ad blocker of your choice work fine for most users.

I read a few years ago Windows Defender looks bad in detection comparisons because Microsoft shares their info with other AV companies since they have an inherent interest in keeping Windows secure. An AV company would have to be awful to miss something Microsoft has alerted them about already. Thus unless other companies start collaborating better, they will always be the baseline.

I won't say Defender is the best by any stretch but I do find it adequate for 99% of users. It has the major benefits of rarely breaking anything, being unintrusive, and updates being built into the, "Windows cram updates down your throat even if you tried to stop them" scheme. In the current environment it seems adware \ malware are much more prominent than actual viruses. Particularly for users that mostly surf the web. A premium malwarebytes subscription would be cheaper and more usefull than most basic AV packages.
 
Switch to a standard user account for day to day and that's 90% of the battle won right there.
 
daglesj said:
Switch to a standard user account for day to day and that's 90% of the battle won right there.
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Yeah, I've always done this for my own machines, and when I set upachines for others, but when my parents buy their own machines at the store and immediately start using them without my input, I can't help.

From my reading it seems like Defender is much better than the Microsoft Security Essentials of yore.

I may just leave it at that and a regular user account for daily use and try to train them to not enter the admin password unless they know why they are doing it.

I also carved out a small partition and installed Linux Mint on it. If the windows partition goes to shit, at least the can use that until I can fix it.

Most of what they do is browse the internet anyway, so I may even be able to convince them to use Linux as a daily. That should really cut down on problems.
 
Zarathustra[H] said:
Yeah, I've always done this for my own machines, and when I set upachines for others, but when my parents buy their own machines at the store and immediately start using them without my input, I can't help.

From my reading it seems like Defender is much better than the Microsoft Security Essentials of yore.

I may just leave it at that and a regular user account for daily use and try to train them to not enter the admin password unless they know why they are doing it.

I also carved out a small partition and installed Linux Mint on it. If the windows partition goes to shit, at least the can use that until I can fix it.

Most of what they do is browse the internet anyway, so I may even be able to convince them to use Linux as a daily. That should really cut down on problems.
Click to expand...

Even at the job I just left today (thank you jesus) Defender is all that was used. It's just a better way to do it now.
 
I would also recommend Unchecky for family and friends PCs. Stops all that adware junk getting added through not noticing check boxes for "Emoji Collection 2019" etc.
 
Zarathustra[H] said:
I've seen some recommendations for Kaspersky, but I don't trust them at all after the news of the link to Russian intelligence.
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Did want to say that this is unproven- and it's also one order from an FSB officer away from being true.

Anti-virus software by default is a rootkit.
 
I don't use any anti virus at all, but i guess you can always check what's free on windows or try norton i used it to avoid crashing my site betwala
 
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