Best Antivirus

[Elite Piranha]

A topic to discuss your experiencies with antivirus software and what is your preferred option. In terms of free options for Windows, I wonder what would you consider to be the best.

[Pipann]

Perfectly honest? Windows' built in antivirus is just fine. I also keep a free version of Malwarebytes around just to have it doublecheck things every so often. Finally, I'm just careful with what I do online. Haven't been set back by a virus for a full decade and then some.

[Sevy]

Most of the time, if you follow your initiative and dont click on or open anything suspicious or shady you wont even need an antivirus. But to be doubly sure Windows own Defender does a brill job as does Malwarebytes and bitdefender. I use Norton just to enforce it. But again, you are safe as long as you are sensible.

[Aaron]

Yeah, what the others have said so far are very true. While there are really good ones out there like Malwarebytes and even Windows Defender itself which comes with Windows, most of the time, the best antivirus is your common sense if you know what I mean.

[PluMGMK]

Windows Defender would be my personal choice on any machine running Windows. After all, it basically comes built into the OS nowadays.

[Elite Piranha]

I have read that even though Windows Defender has improved a lot over the years, it still has some shortcomings that make it not as good as other free third-party options. A long time ago I used to have Avast, but recently I've been hearing bad things about it from other people, like the fact that it keeps asking for more money to unlock more features (according to them).

[Pipann]

A long time ago I used to have Avast, but recently I've been hearing bad things about it from other people, like the fact that it keeps asking for more money to unlock more features (according to them).

This is unrelated to actual antiviruses, but I've been in that boat with AVG Tuneup. It used to be a set of utilities from cleaning the PC to customizing how Windows functioned/looked, which I loved. Then one day they just decided to remove all of their customizing features and replace them with annoying ads, all while not changing the price at all. I've stopped paying them since then and instead I'm now on CCleaner for the cleanup and WinAero Tweaker for the customization. I really do miss the OG Tuneup Utilities though... It was such a neat little package with everything you could ask for.

Anyway, I haven't noticed any shortcomings with Defender, but nobody is stopping you from using it together with another antivirus that could cover up those shortcomings.

[PluMGMK]

Is it really a good idea to mix antiviruses? Can they not conflict with each other?

[Pipann]

Not from my experience, no. I've used Defender and Malwarebytes together without issue. It could be different for others, though. I haven't tried.

[Elite Piranha]

I think that when you install a second antivirus, Microsoft Defender gets disabled to avoid conflicts, however according to this article, in newer versions of Windows 10 you can keep your third-party antivirus on, and only use the antivirus from Windows Security to get a second opinion.

[Aaron]

I have read that even though Windows Defender has improved a lot over the years, it still has some shortcomings that make it not as good as other free third-party options. A long time ago I used to have Avast, but recently I've been hearing bad things about it from other people, like the fact that it keeps asking for more money to unlock more features (according to them).

I used to use Avast for quite a while myself, but after some time I stopped using it because I realised it wasn't as good as I thought it was at first. It is still good, don't get me wrong, but there are better options out there, best ones being Malwarebytes and Kaspersky. If anything though, from my experience, I can tell you that Malwarebytes is really good.

[Pipann]

I think that when you install a second antivirus, Microsoft Defender gets disabled to avoid conflicts, however according to this article, in newer versions of Windows 10 you can keep your third-party antivirus on, and only use the antivirus from Windows Security to get a second opinion.

Yeah, I remember something along the lines that Windows can tell if you have another antivirus. But Defender is my default I'm pretty sure. Though they have dumbed the settings down in 10 so much it's hard to tell what it's really doing anymore sometimes.

[Elite Piranha]

This is unrelated to actual antiviruses, but I've been in that boat with AVG Tuneup. It used to be a set of utilities from cleaning the PC to customizing how Windows functioned/looked, which I loved. Then one day they just decided to remove all of their customizing features and replace them with annoying ads, all while not changing the price at all. I've stopped paying them since then and instead I'm now on CCleaner for the cleanup and WinAero Tweaker for the customization. I really do miss the OG Tuneup Utilities though... It was such a neat little package with everything you could ask for.

I used to have CCleaner, but after reading some articles I became afraid of it deleting some files that it shouldn't during the cleanup, so I uninstalled it.

I used to use Avast for quite a while myself, but after some time I stopped using it because I realised it wasn't as good as I thought it was at first. It is still good, don't get me wrong, but there are better options out there, best ones being Malwarebytes and Kaspersky. If anything though, from my experience, I can tell you that Malwarebytes is really good.

I've tried Kaspersky, however I don't like that it forces you to create an account in their website (don't know if the same happens with other antivirus). I guess I can try using Malwarebytes or Bitdefender to see what options they have.

[Hunchman801]

For many years I've only used Windows' built-in antivirus and I haven't had any problems. But things used to be quite different back in the days, I recall.

[Pipann]

for a long time I thought I needed malwarebytes because it I thought it specifically targeted malware, not viruses, which led me to assume that antiviruses only looked for viruses. I know better now, but despite that I haven't stopped using both

[Steo]

I think I would just stick with Windows Defender and be careful. On Linux I don't even have one and I don't know if I should.

[PluMGMK]

Antivirus for Linux isn't really a thing, apart from ClamAV for email scanning. There are security tools like chkrootkit though.

[Aaron]

I've tried Kaspersky, however I don't like that it forces you to create an account in their website (don't know if the same happens with other antivirus). I guess I can try using Malwarebytes or Bitdefender to see what options they have.

Oh, that sucks to hear. I wouldn't know myself though of course but I've heard from multiple sources that it's a great antivirus program and that it's the second best next to Malwarebytes. There's also Sophos which I heard is good and it does look like it is, but one thing I know from actual experience is that Malwarebytes is great

[Steo]

Antivirus for Linux isn't really a thing, apart from ClamAV for email scanning. There are security tools like chkrootkit though.

Oh yeah this was the one I heard about, but then with such a small userbase in comparison to Windows, I guess it kind of makes sense that most people would be targeting Windows, hence the various options.

[dr_st]

Perfectly honest? Windows' built in antivirus is just fine. I also keep a free version of Malwarebytes around just to have it doublecheck things every so often.

Exactly what I do too. The free version of Malwarebytes does not have a runtime scanning agent, which is great, because it does not conflict with the built-in Defender and does not slow anything down. I choose to run it when I want, and usually it finds nothing but a few tracking cookies...