Anti virus software.

[Old Rabbit]

Any suggestions on virus software?

I am using Windows 10 and Windows 7 on another computer.

Free or pay. So much of the time ads about virus software is hype, so any
suggestions would be appreciated.

[Movian]

Windows Defender.

It's built into windows 10  and I believe 7 (and if not it can be downloaded for it for free).

After years of using AVG, AVAST  etc etc  in reality they are not much better and cause many additional issues.

I would suggest however in addition to Windows Defender to add Ublock Origin  to chrome  and use safe browsing habbits (don't click banner adds saying "You have won as our one millionth visitor" that you see every time you go to a site etc etc).

Between those that will have you 95% covered versus AVG or AVAST  which may have you 97% covered, but impact your system performance, create issues connecting to software and services,  displaying false positives  etc etc.

The paid systems may take you from 97  to 98  but cause even further issues.

I once spent an entire day trying to diagnose a computer for a client, our software on their machine was not connecting to our software on their server and I couldn't figure out why.

In the end It turned out to be due to Nortan Internet security,  they had that installed previously and un installed it  however it had left parts of its "Firewall" installed in windows with no information or indication that it was there or still doing anything.

That is just one issue of many,   McAffee is just a resource hog and really will slow your machine down with "Bloatware"

So yeah, don't bother with after market AV  ,  just use the built into windows one,  install UBlock ORigin for chrome which will help against malicious banners and bad adverts and you will have all but a couple percent of your bases covered.

All information here is my own opinion  but I am a software developer by trade so take that for what it's worth

[Jade Sinapu]

Although not Anti-Virus software, I would also add to Movians suggestions and say, BACKUP.
Even if worst happens, just refresh from a backup.  It needs to be done in a way that is easy, reliable, fast, simple.

However, that begs the question, what is the easiest way to do a good backup for Windows 7,10?

I my self use Norton, but as Movian pointed out, it can cause issues.  I seem to remember it thinking a few of my programs were viruses, and that is because they are , well, sort of written like them  but are not viruses.  Also Norton quaranteened some files just because I was the 1 guy in the last year to use it, so Nortons cloud based brain thought it was no good (untrusted).  It was a program written by a ham radio operator, and by default, was little known about and was used infrequently.
After much troubleshooting, I got Norton to trust the file(s) so I could actually use it.

I think my father was using AVG, and MalwareBytes in addition to windows.  But that was a few years ago.

[Movian]

Came back because I realized I forgot one thing that Jade Sinapu  mentioned briefly.

Backups,  they are your friend.... most Viruses that are actually an issue will be day 0 viruses (new viruses that the anti virus software doesn't know how to handle any way).

The best example of this in recent memory was the ransomware that infected many business and even the British National Health Systems computers.

Where the software didn't get detected because it uses the same algorythms and processes as other trusted software so most of the anti virus programs didn't even pick it up.

IT went ahead and encrypted every file on the computers and then they wanted you to send bit coins to them to get the key to unlock the files.

pretty much the only way to deal with this is to wipe the machine and restore from backups.

Personal I use  Carbonite, I have an annual subscription  which allows me to not only restore backups but quite often restore from different versions of a file if it has changed a few times in the last 30 days.

However I work from home so it's important for me to keep all my source code and work files backed up and I get to backup my personal files such as images and music as well...

So I do recomend Carbonite for ease of use and value  but many solutions are out there!

[Jade Sinapu]

I forgot about Carbonite!

I use an external hard-drive.  Its low tech, and time consuming.
But I also have 2... why?

One I let get "old", and one I keep up to date.  Why?  In case my newest backup contained a virus that didnt hatch!
I am paranoid at times.

Thanks Movian for the reminder to all Furtopians regarding Carbonite and others.

So, back on topic. 
With backups a good thing, what other anti-virus softwares do people use?

[Kobuk]

I use Avast Free Antivirus. Haven't had much trouble from viruses yet. Avast seems to do a fairly decent job as long as I keep it updated every day. I can't afford to get the other versions of Avast and pay for them. I don't trust Windows Defender to handle virus and malware attacks. I always like to have extra protection with Avast or another antivirus software on my comp.

[Michen_S]

My laptop should be protected by Windows Defender. I would like to have it protected by paid Malwarebytes as well against rootkits and spyware (an additional measure besides Windows Defender), but my laptop is so old that it has problems whenever it starts up the program.

[Old Rabbit]

Thanks for all the suggestions. I mostly use windows 10, lately
microsoft is pushing third party virus  software. I have defender
on my desktop. I got a windows laptop a few months ago that didn't come
with defender for some reason. It was trying to get me to buy the virus
software that came with it. I will se if I can download defenderr for my
laptop. 

[Movian]

yeah if you windows doesn't have AV installed it will prompt you to download an AV

however if it's prompting you to download a SPECIFIC anti virus  that's software added by the laptop manufacturer not microsoft.

[Old Rabbit]

yeah if you windows doesn't have AV installed it will prompt you to download an AV

however if it's prompting you to download a SPECIFIC anti virus  that's software added by the laptop manufacturer not microsoft.

Yes I got the feeling it was a manufacturers plan.  Thanks.