Poll: *** The All New Windows AV Thread - Keep All AV Questions in Here ***

What AV do you use?

  • Total voters
    812
Elevon said:
No need just download Bitdefender Free version, you won't know it is there, very light on resources with great detection etc...
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I did that and didn't like it. I also tried the sophos home product and was fine until they want you to buy something.

I think paying £2.50 a year for the best virus scanner is within budget.
 
ScoTTyBEEE said:
I did that and didn't like it. I also tried the sophos home product and was fine until they want you to buy something.

I think paying £2.50 a year for the best virus scanner is within budget.
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End of the day it is all personal preference thing, Kaspersky/Bitdefender do seem to have the best detection rates with AV review sites etc..
 
Malwarebytes and its constant badgering to upgrade is annoying me.

I just use Defender, supported by Malwarebytes if needed. Would there be any harm in dumping Malwarebytes?
 
kration said:
Would there be any harm in dumping Malwarebytes?
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Malwarebytes has traditionally been a great scanner but I wouldn't have it running at startup. Leave it installed but disable all it's crappy monitoring rubbish and run in when YOU want to run it i.e. when you see suspicious things or you think you might have downloaded something dodgy.

The best first layer of defence is an up-to-date web browser with an anblocker closely followed by common sense.

If you're using Windows 10's Defender, make sure you enable detection of PUPs (potentially unwanted programs) in it's settings.
 
Zig13 said:
Malwarebytes has traditionally been a great scanner but I wouldn't have it running at startup. Leave it installed but disable all it's crappy monitoring rubbish and run in when YOU want to run it i.e. when you see suspicious things or you think you might have downloaded something dodgy.

The best first layer of defence is an up-to-date web browser with an anblocker closely followed by common sense.

If you're using Windows 10's Defender, make sure you enable detection of PUPs (potentially unwanted programs) in it's settings.
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Cheers, it's pretty obvious now you mention it - disable it at start up :)

I had a look at Win 10s settings but couldn't see anything re PUP's
 
Zig13 said:
Malwarebytes has traditionally been a great scanner but I wouldn't have it running at startup. Leave it installed but disable all it's crappy monitoring rubbish and run in when YOU want to run it i.e. when you see suspicious things or you think you might have downloaded something dodgy.

The best first layer of defence is an up-to-date web browser with an anblocker closely followed by common sense.

If you're using Windows 10's Defender, make sure you enable detection of PUPs (potentially unwanted programs) in it's settings.
Click to expand...

That is why I swear by uBlock and NoScript on Firefox.
 
kration said:
Cheers, it's pretty obvious now you mention it - disable it at start up :)

I had a look at Win 10s settings but couldn't see anything re PUP's
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same here but a simple google lead me to this and now enabled

https://www.ghacks.net/2018/08/20/h...ers-potentially-unwanted-programs-protection/

then after that go here https://www.amtso.org/feature-settings-check-potentially-unwanted-applications/ and download the test file mine successfully failed to download and a ms pop up said blocked due to unsafe pup and if you know its safe you can change to allow
 
Still on Windows 7 here and happy. My AVG internet security stopped responding maybe due to a duff update so I rebooted into safe mode and ran their uninstaller package and now wondering if to bother putting it back on as I have a trial version of Malwarebytes installed?

I've been using AVG for many years and just use my PC for browsing and gaming so don't go 'off piste' very often. Shall I let the Malwarebytes trial run out and then use Windows defender or stick AVG back on?
 
cyber69 said:
I've been using AVG for many years and just use my PC for browsing and gaming so don't go 'off piste' very often. Shall I let the Malwarebytes trial run out and then use Windows defender or stick AVG back on?
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AVG and Avast are virtually identical now and owned by the same company. The advantage of Avast is it allows you to customise the install and only install the useful bits (File Shield and Behaviour Shield). Make sure to you untick the option to install the Avast browser and then choose 'customise install'.

All Antivirus programs are much-of-a-much-ness nowadays when it comes to effectiveness so they try to sell/difrentiate themselves on loads of junky bonus features like cleanup tools, vulnerability scanners, driver updaters and software updaters. All such software is worse than useless. They claim to help speed up your computer yet run in the background/at startup using resources and slowing it down!

I don't really consider Malwarebytes as a protective solution. It is however a really good, thorough scanner in the case that you get/are already infected. See what I said to this person earlier in this thread about Malwarebytes.

As I understand it, BitDefender is one of the best free options but it requires registration. No personal experience though.
 
David Flett said:
Is there a proven best AV software that searches for everything or is it down to personal preference?
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There are more metrics than just how quickly new items of malware are added to an AV company's database. Resource usage is a big consideration too (especially for us PC Gamers) and also how well a program deals with new/unknown malware.
It's not so much personal preference as use-case and personal priorities.

As I said earlier, they're all much-of-a-much-ness when it comes to performance. The 'worst' program in a test of common threats will probably find 90% of the stuff the 'best' one did. If you want granularity, the PC Security Channel reviews AV software and compares them head-to-head. They run massive payloads of ransomware and the like and see how many a given program catches. Occasionally they do full rankings but they haven't done one since 2017.
 
Thanks for the info, like you say looking for something lightweight and low resource for gaming but good enough to keep an eye on what I’m doing as well as online quite a lot, bullguard is good I think as it comes with game booster,

Game Booster works on computers with four core processors. It automatically detects users’ gaming sessions and pulls other applications that are open onto one or two of the processing cores.
This ensures the other cores are dedicated to the game, removing random game spikes which slow down the game.

Just from the website so I don’t explain it wrong but just wandered how it actually stacked up as an AV etc as a few times my malwarebytes have popped up viruses in a check but not bullguard hence why I have both.
 
The PC Security Channel reviewed Bullguard back in 2014 claiming then it used Bitdefender's engine (which is their favorite AV more recently). The result "wasn't too bad".
We sell and promote Bullguard where I work and I have seen it find things that Macafee or Norton haven't but that's not saying much.

If you have the "PC security Suite" rather than just the Antivirus I'd recommend disabling the "System Optimisation" and "Vulnerability Scanner" as they're just junk. Thankfully they're nice and easy to turn off. They're meant to be paused during gaming anyway but IMHO they don't do anything useful so I'd bin them.

R.E The Game Booster, I imagine it has a minimal but extant effect. Give it a Google - I'm sure someone has done a thorough test.
 
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