Recommend me an anti-virus

Richy

So I have a new Windows 10 laptop, and I want to protect it. I want an antivirus & firewall that is effective, but also discrete and not a ressource-hog. The options I see right now:

1. Windows Defender. It's built-in with Windows, so pretty efficient and optimized, and already there. But historically the security Microsoft built into older versions of Windows was pretty basic, more of an after-thought. I don't know if that's still true in Windows 10.

2. McAffee. It's the one my university recommends. I've heard nothing but bad things about it.

3. AVG. It's free and popular. It's the one on my mom's computer; lately it's been popping up massive ad windows pretending she's at risk to sell her paying versions of the program.

4. Other antivirus software are available online, but I have no idea which is the best one, nor which websites offer objective and up-to-date reviews to inform my choice.

L Ron Howard

I would highly recommend not sticking with any of the three you mentioned there, as they're all junk.

I use Bit Defender and would recommend it.

How I came to Bit Defender was to spend a couple of hours Googling reviews on different antivirii. I don't have a link now, but there is a website which posts the rates of detecting virii, with Windows Defender being statistically the worst, letting something like 90%+ through. AVG only doing slightly better. They infect a computer with lots of shit and see what the detection rate is, and Windows Defender is regularly worthless. As in, you may as well not even bother, your computer is already infected, reformat and reinstall Windows because it can find virii as well as a blind guy in a snowstorm can find a fly.

And when reviewed, Bit Defender is often ranked in the top, and it's not like Kaspersky where it's compromised by hackers.

There is another one which regularly gets ranked as the top called Defender, but it's esoteric and obtuse, and for the life of me I could never figure out its stupid interface. So between having a good enough interface, good ability to find the spyruses, and with a good experience during the trial, I went with Bit Defender.

Lastly, most products have a free trial period. You should download and try them yourself, to see.

Mugsley

Are you willing to pay for the product? If so then Bitdefender is a solid choice.

Free: Windows Defender (believe it or not); or I have been using Avira since moving away from AVG.

Cambiata

Thirding bitdefender. It's a good product. Stay away from McAfee at all costs. (I say this as an IT professional whose last three jobs, including my current, offered McAfee for free. STAY AWAY).

zepherin

I have always loved Avast!

It's quite complete and is less clunky than other antivirus products. Also it is free (as in beer).

Mugsley

Luckily, Avast! has vastly upgraded/overhauled its resource footprint and UI over the past few years. Back when I used it in ....hm.....2009? It was a Goddamn Nightmare.

bowen

I'll recommend bitdefender for paid

MSE/Windows Defender for free

zepherin

Mugsley wrote: »

Luckily, Avast! has vastly upgraded/overhauled its resource footprint and UI over the past few years. Back when I used it in ....hm.....2009? It was a Goddamn Nightmare.

I used it from 2012 to present because Norton and Mcafee are terrible.
But I like it because you can scan for Viruses and do other things.

davidsdurions

I just use Windows Defender and, like, I’m not downloading unverified torrents or anything like what I did in my youthful years. Virus free and cost effective.

That_Guy

Windows Defender is the best for Windows 10 if you are reasonably savvy and already run an ad blocker. If you need a little more hand holding, I can't recommend Emsisoft any more. It's super lightweight and comes with both a virus scanning engine and the malwarebytes engine build into one program. It's German so it's gotta be good, right?

https://www.emsisoft.com/en/

Shadowfire

I'd agree with That_Guy in saying that Defender with a good ad blocker (uBlock Origin is my favorite right now) is the best way to go. However, I've found some benefit to having MalwareBytes. It's always been pretty powerful for my needs, and it pairs well with any other AV program.

ruby_robin

AVG conflicted once with Origin on my PC, lol. I wasn't using AVG ever since, which is kinda sad, since it worked pretty good except for this particular situation.
Now I'm using Windows defender.

Myiagros

BitDefender also has a free version which I've been using for a while, no issues with it so far. I used to recommend Sophos Home but started to find recently that no matter what I was doing it would be using up 25% of CPU.

Inquisitor77

Antivirus software seems to go through cycles. Every single provider listed here, with perhaps a few exceptions, have been touted as fantastic, lightweight security apps, only to turn into ineffective, bloated monstrosities at some point. When AVG and Avast! came out onto the market they were amazing, especially since they were free and better than paid alternatives. Then a few years later AVG became nearly unusable and would hog system resources, and Avast! shortly followed suit with a UI that made absolutely no sense.

zepherin

Inquisitor77 wrote: »

Antivirus software seems to go through cycles. Every single provider listed here, with perhaps a few exceptions, have been touted as fantastic, lightweight security apps, only to turn into ineffective, bloated monstrosities at some point. When AVG and Avast! came out onto the market they were amazing, especially since they were free and better than paid alternatives. Then a few years later AVG became nearly unusable and would hog system resources, and Avast! shortly followed suit with a UI that made absolutely no sense.

It seams like Browsers do the same thing too.

Like Opera was the shit fuck netscape Opera is the jam, then it became shit, so Firefox was my go to until it sucked and I went with chrome, then chrome started shitting the bed on me, and I went through a Linux phase and was all about Galeon until it forked and I managed to wipe my partition. Now I'm back to firefox.

Xaviar

Bitdefender has been working well.

Webroot has some issues, but is the smallest footprint on the "A/Vs I don't cringe when I see" list, which is real nice.

As someone who works in consumer electronic repair and interacts with just about all of them on a regular basis, of the ones listed here so far I 100% would not recommend:
McAfee
AVG
Sophos
Avast

in probably that order of hatred.

Also just for the record, stay away from Norton.

Xaviar

That_Guy wrote: »

Windows Defender is the best for Windows 10 if you are reasonably savvy and already run an ad blocker. If you need a little more hand holding, I can't recommend Emsisoft any more. It's super lightweight and comes with both a virus scanning engine and the malwarebytes engine build into one program. It's German so it's gotta be good, right?

https://www.emsisoft.com/en/

Emsisoft is our current "Official Recommendation" though business reasons also play into that.
But they hold up well in the comparatives, and they are relatively resource-light.

MichaelLC

Is this the place to complain about software as a service? Because let me tell you...

How's the Bitdefender for Android? Worth paying the extra $5/yr? Does it stop those damn pop-over audio ads?

Xaviar

I've been out of the android/ios antivirus loop for a couple years, but unless things have significantly changed, they are basically just paid reassurance machines (Look at all the green checkmarks!) that also include a sub-par browser that checks URLs against each companies respective "sketchy" list

Inquisitor77

The Android app actually has a very interesting feature which takes a photo of someone who tries to access your phone and messes up. That photo is tied to your Bitdefender account, not the phone itself. There are also remote access shut-off and location tracking features, which are more and more common for mobile-based security devices. Their functionality is tied more to the fact that your device can physically be stolen than trying to stop someone from hacking into it remotely or installing malware, although I'm sure there's some basic scanning stuff going on. If you have a multi-device account there's no harm in using the Bitdefender Android app.

If you're on an Android phone the easiest way to protect yourself (and stop ads) is to get Blokada, add all the appropriate filter lists, and set up its DNS server to something like Quad9/OpenDNS. You can also use Firefox and install uBlock Origin for another layer of browsing security. As long as you aren't downloading random apps then you should be fine. Really, that's the only way for someone to "hack" into your Android phone - by you explicitly approving something to be downloaded and installed.

MichaelLC

Cool, thanks. Interesting that it's around physical security; makes sense.

Dont want to hijack this thread, just saw BD had an Android app/service too.

baudattitude

My recommendation for anyone looking at AV is to see about buying a single license (or however many you need) of the corporate/enterprise version of AV from whichever vendor you eventually decide on, rather than the consumer version. Corporate IT does not like it when their end users get pop-ups trying to sell them crap, so corporate AV is generally much less annoying.

Also, run a good adblocker, keep your computer patched, make sure you have autorun turned off on all devices and don't click on links in any email you haven't requested. Modern malware is always tested against AV programs before it is released, so you have a several hours-long window where even the best AV might just look at it, decide it passes the sniff test, and let it execute.

And keep your computer patched.

Donovan Puppyfucker

I've been using Windows Defender since 2012, and it's performed flawlessly. I also use AdBlock Plus, and I have Malwarebytes installed but only bother updating and running it every couple of months, because it never turns anything up.

Heartlash

Xaviar wrote: »

Bitdefender has been working well.

Webroot has some issues, but is the smallest footprint on the "A/Vs I don't cringe when I see" list, which is real nice.

As someone who works in consumer electronic repair and interacts with just about all of them on a regular basis, of the ones listed here so far I 100% would not recommend:
McAfee
AVG
Sophos
Avast

in probably that order of hatred.

Also just for the record, stay away from Norton.

Out of curiosity, what is your current beef with Avast? I have been using the free/lite version since back when it was really reputable (like 10 years ago). I have noticed it has become rather annoying with marketing/offers, but is it actually garbage now?

Xaviar

Heartlash wrote: »

Xaviar wrote: »

Bitdefender has been working well.

Webroot has some issues, but is the smallest footprint on the "A/Vs I don't cringe when I see" list, which is real nice.

As someone who works in consumer electronic repair and interacts with just about all of them on a regular basis, of the ones listed here so far I 100% would not recommend:
McAfee
AVG
Sophos
Avast

in probably that order of hatred.

Also just for the record, stay away from Norton.

Out of curiosity, what is your current beef with Avast? I have been using the free/lite version since back when it was really reputable (like 10 years ago). I have noticed it has become rather annoying with marketing/offers, but is it actually garbage now?

Antivirus-wise they are keeping up with the joneses on detection rates. But their business practices have swung hard to the "You are the product" side. They are also resource-heavy for what they do.

Inquisitor77

Honestly, you can get fantastic deals on really great software like Bitdefender and ESET nowadays. If you really need endpoint security then you might as well spend the money and actually pay for the services being provided. Otherwise all you're doing is incentivizing the company to treat you as the product, as Xaviar said.

The #1 Rule of Commerce: If it's free, you are the product being sold.

For example, Dealarious regularly has Bitdefender on sale at great prices. Right now it's $25 for a 1-year, 5-device account: https://www.dealarious.com/coupon/bitdefender-total-security-multi-device/

Anon the Felon

Seconding eset, used them for years with great success.

VoodooV

Been using Avast for a long time, my only real complaint was that their free version had become increasingly spammy with ads trying to get you to buy their paid version, but lately they've been inobtrusive. I think when I finally pull the trigger and build a new PC...someday...that I'll switch to a paid version to take advantage of the premium services. BitDefender or ESET or whatever the current top dog is at the time. I've used ESET's free online scanner at work for a long time and it always catches things that Defender doesn't.