Review Do people still use Antivirus in 2025? Or just Windows security?

M

mi3ka

Beginner
Soooo.. Do people still use antivirus in 2025?

Whatever it may be, (avast, norton, mcafee, AVG, bitdefender, pctools, symantec, kaspersky).

I have not used one for about last 12 years and never had any concerns/issues. I just rely on Windows Security & defender.
Occasionally a physical firewall.

Do you actually need one?
 
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Unless you know what you're doing, you don't do any crappy backdoor software at all.

MS defender is more enough.
Bleachbit for junk cleaning.
Mem reduct to free useless memory

John McAfee: The antivirus industry is a $10 billion industry, and it's a complete scam... I've been saying this for years, and nobody listens.
 
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When windows itself a bloatware, why install more bloat to the system, making it slow?.
Fresh install of windows? try CTTs Powershell debloater+BCUninstaller if any apps that were not unistalled during scripts.
 
Same here, I used AVG prior to Win10 but not since.

BTW, agreed that these AVs and even Defender are not too effective, especially against "zero-day" vulnerabilities or careless user-behaviour - malware simply wins by attacking some weakest link in the chain somewhere.
 
Dear Mods - I think this would be worth merging here:

E

Thread 'Goodbye Avast, and good riddance; Hello, Bitdefender.'

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...
 
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clean up temporary files in a few months or so and use an adblocker to prevent being redirected to an unknown website windows defender does the rest of the part
 
vishalrao said:
BTW, agreed that these AVs and even Defender are not too effective, especially against "zero-day" vulnerabilities or careless user-behaviour - malware simply wins by attacking some weakest link in the chain somewhere.
Click to expand...

Unless using a proper XDR or the likes, none of them will be effective.

I used to earlier get zero days in mail (mainly marked to finance team) prior to moving to M365 - day 1 on virustotal and its all green, but 24 hours later all red.
 
nofate202 said:
= I do visit shady websites.
Click to expand...
1.png
 
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I only use wind defender on my genuine windows. I visit all those website you can imagine except for games (Steam, gog and epicgames). Just use your brain to not to click and download ads/promo/sketchy thing. I never had problem for like past 5-6 years.
 
I use Linux mainly. On windows I find win defender and other security features to be decent.

I have windows installed on a secondary ssd that is full of pirated software (adobe) and games, that I don't use for anything else. Even though I get these pirated stuff from relatively trustworthy sources, I treat the windows install as disposable.

I'm not afraid of malware that might infect firmware/boot sector and persist on windows reinstall or worm its way to other OSs, they are quite unlikely. In my setup, what I'm afraid (though this might also be unlikely) of is ransomware type attacks that might lock/encrypt my other drives. What if I get infected by a malware, that just goes boom and **** up every drive it can find. It's simply not convenient to disable other drives each time I boot up windows.
 
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