I know, I know. You don’t really need an anti-virus, just common sense and windows built-in security. Or just switch to Linux. But I mess around too much with random things and sail a little here and there and I needed a a plan anyway for my parents- so I thought it’s best to be safe. Plus, I’ve always had one, for some reason.
I developed a slow hatred for Avast over the years. I remember getting on board when it was touted as the best free anti-virus around (and back then, my younger self really needed one). I eventually got the paid plans for years for the family. But then the pop-up ads, the shoving of their VPN down my throat (telling me my IP address was ‘exposed’, whilst I was already using one) and god-awful insistent UI. Not to mention that my system seems to have dropped 30 seconds off its start-up time (as per Glary Utilities) after I uninstalled that rubbish. Don’t know if it’s just a co-incidence, but I’m glad to not have to use that trash again.
I hope I don’t have to come back to this forum in a few months bemoaning bitdefender as well. One day, hopefully, I’ll just switch to Linux instead of pussyfooting around with it on spare devices and pet projects.
Have you tried Kaspersky? It has a very low overhead and good at what it does. Considering the recent ban on their products in US does not affect users from other countries, I wonder why it does not get enough recognition.
No need, do your unsecured thingies in a VM, now that the windows sandbox is built in it’s easy spin one up real quick, or if you need data persistence look into other solutions.
Or much better if you sail very often, consider a separate PC for those sorts of things and keep your personal stuff off of it.
Folks still use that ?!! It went from being an antivirus to a virus ages back.
If you really really need any AV outside of what Windows already provides, Eset would be my choice. It’s paid so you also get a warm cozy feeling that its adding some value.
I’ve only recently started getting into containers and the like, though I’ve run everything ‘bare-metal’ so far. Will look into proxmox and the like soon and do this migration.
That was also in the running, but I flipped a coin and picked bitdefender. The anti-Russian stuff played a role, although I’m sure Bitdefender isn’t any better if one delved into it.
I didn’t really realise how bad it was until much later when I was reading around privacy and Avast came up as a big no-no. Will look into eset, thanks!
+1 for ESET - Amazon has a 2 year - 2 device sale in between - keep a lookout. It is great value for money if you can snag it for cheap. If budget is a concern opt for the Antivirus option. If not grab the Internet Security variant with the built in firewall.
I use ESET on most of my machines. It is lightweight and adds very little overhead to the machine. Take a 30 free trial of any variant before you take the plunge of buying a paid license.
Ah, I picked up a Bitdefender family plan for around 2.7K. Might have to see these other options mentioned here, since they say they’ll change 9K (!) next year.
Long-time Bitdefender user here - can vouch for it. ESET is also great.
More than an Antivirus, Avast is more of a virus now. I too used the free version in my college days (because, broke), and Windows’ built in security was ass back then.
It doesn’t help that Avast was acquired by Norton, another good-turned awful product.
Politics aside, Kaspersky used its own certificates to intercept traffic on the device and routes all its traffic through Russian ISPs which are duty-bound to share data with the Russian government. Depends on how much you are okay with that.
Personally, switched to Windows Security (Defender) a decade ago and really good with that since I never download directly on my device from unknown websites.
Quickheal is more of a tick the checkbox on having a paid AV rather than an actual product.
Their signatures are behind other commercial products, while their behavior pattern is mainly to detect ransomware, which apparently it does not do well either.
Real-time scanning is not available in free version ?
Avast known to be causing issues from the beginning of time.
Only antivirus to trust now is the Windows built-in one for me, others might be doing data telemetry or whatnot.