Thoughts on paying for anti-virus software?

Some swear by it?

A dude once told me never to use it.

Another technician said, just avoid the free versions.

Is windows defender sufficient, or is a paid anti-virus like McAfee or Norton worthwhile?

Thoughts?

elperello

I have used McAfee for years and never had an issue.

However a person I know who has a great knowledge of computers swears by the free version of AVG.

I guess you'll get a lot of conflicting opinions.

con747

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058312898/thoughts-on-paying-for-anti-virus-software

Have a read of this https://www.pcmag.com/picks/the-best-free-antivirus-protection I used most of them in the past with no issues and only paid for one recently because the offer was ridiculously cheap for 2 years with Bitdefender.

irishgeo

A free antivirus and ublock origin. Most of the antivirus and spyware is coming from ads these days.

Homer

Thought this was something to do with Bill Gates/Covid chip implants 💁🏻‍♂️

con747

Malwarebytes free antivirus is another to look at.

MEGA BRO WOLF 5000

Waste of money.

Be sensible online. Use ublock origin. Be grand.

haixia

Windows comes with Defender which is plenty for your average user. From there, it's as easy as not clicking/downloading shady links and/or software.

If anything, ad blocker or VPN would be more beneficial than extra 3rd party antivirus.

ItHurtsWhenIP

The free anti-virus like Avast and AVG are worse than spyware, as they track everything you do online.

The stuff peddled by retailers like McAfee and Norton are utter bloatware that will only slow down your machine.

I used to have a poor impression of Windows Defender (now called Microsoft Defender), but in recent years it has improved massively and is absolutely perfect for the most home installations ... and of course it is free.

I tend to advise business users to invest in something like ESET, F-Secure or Sophos - just so they can tick a box to say they have a paid anti-virus application in use should they need it for Cyber Insurance. Those applications are pretty good, don't slow down the machine much and have other features like browser protection for online banking.

uBlock Origin is a great ad-blocker for your browser. I also roll in Privacy Badger, Ghostery and NoScript on mine, with a PiHole doing the rest of tracker blocking on my network.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121090352#Comment_121090352

I have adblock and popup-blockers.

What other blockers do you mention as being standard?

Script blockers? Don't they crash some websites?

jj880

I find the free version of Kaspersky Antivirus very good. Ccleaner free version is good to have also. Bitmeter 2 gives a handy visual of network activity.

No need to pay for antivirus imo.

ItHurtsWhenIP

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121090658#Comment_121090658

Privacy Badger:

https://privacybadger.org/

Ghostery:

https://www.ghostery.com/

NoScript:

https://noscript.net/

Sometimes these will cause websites to not work. If you want, you can add exceptions for those sites that you trust, so they do work correctly.