Oracle 74 Posted December 18, 2018 Share Posted December 18, 2018 Picked up a new machine. Have no more slots on my Norton and want to secure this one. What are some excellent & FREE antivirus software that I could use? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mgworek 121 Posted December 18, 2018 Share Posted December 18, 2018 Sophos has a free home version. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nyplayer 90 Posted December 18, 2018 Share Posted December 18, 2018 (edited) If running windows .. Defender.... no need for anything else. Edited December 18, 2018 by nyplayer 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oracle 74 Posted December 18, 2018 Author Share Posted December 18, 2018 If running windows .. Defender.... no need for anything else. Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BAlGaInTl 279 Posted December 19, 2018 Share Posted December 19, 2018 If running windows .. Defender.... no need for anything else. This. I've found that more and more, "free" anti-virus can introduce more issues than they are worth. Commercial ones aren't much better, or even worse. So... Windows Defender for me... Chromebooks for my family if I can convince them. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CharleyVarrick 277 Posted December 24, 2018 Share Posted December 24, 2018 Sophos has a free home version. I was using AVG,and then Avast for close to 10 years without any incident, the problem was their built-in nagware to upgrade to pro versions, which grew to become heavy handed. I switch to Sophos a little over a year ago, its good, has a light footprint, and it keeps pretty quiet. Those points are critical to me, maybe not so much for others. A unique feature is you can manage your home network with a web interface. I consider Windows Defender to be a last line of defence; should your actual AV go south, Defender kicks in so you're not left with zero protection. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest asrequested Posted December 24, 2018 Share Posted December 24, 2018 Sprinkle a little Sophos on your Christmas....see what I did there? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Allan Cameron 40 Posted January 9, 2019 Share Posted January 9, 2019 (edited) Yep, Windows Defender is all you need. Some will argue that but the truth is that WD will do a better job then anything else. The days of needing to pay for or installing free Antivirus software are over. Something that should have been included in windows 10 years ago. Anyone installing anything else is just overkill and wasting there time and PC's performance. Edited January 9, 2019 by Allan Cameron 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest asrequested Posted January 9, 2019 Share Posted January 9, 2019 Yep, Windows Defender is all you need. Some will argue that but the truth is that WD will do a better job then anything else. The days of needing to pay for or installing free Antivirus software are over. Something that should have been included in windows 10 years ago. Anyone installing anything else is just overkill and wasting there time and PC's performance. What about people running windows 7 or 8? There are a lot of them. You're generalizing. I wouldn't trust Microsoft to be leading edge protection. That's not their forte. It's foolhardy to only rely on that. Sophos has better tools and has successfully caught ransomware that I had, where defender failed. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
notla49285 46 Posted January 9, 2019 Share Posted January 9, 2019 (edited) What about people running windows 7 or 8? There are a lot of them. You're generalizing. I wouldn't trust Microsoft to be leading edge protection. That's not their forte. It's foolhardy to only rely on that. Sophos has better tools and has successfully caught ransomware that I had, where defender failed. This. I am still running 7 as we have 10 at work and I don't trust it at all. There's a load of background shit like Cortana sending who knows what data back to Microsoft (and also, the searching is shit anyway). Yes, it can be disabled but updates usually re-enable it. And yes, there's ShutUp10 but why should I have to run something like this because Windows is a pain in the arse? The mere existence of ShutUp10 shows what an arsehole this OS is. And then there's the updates, which can't be disabled regardless of what version you have, they usually break something (Windows Mobile services being the most common for us) and can randomly restart the machine when Windows decides it's not in use. Microsoft pouring resources into "AI" which can detect when the user isn't using the computer even to the point of trying to guess when they're making a cup of tea (yes, Microsoft actually said this). How about just letting the user reboot their own machine which they've PAID FOR. No thanks. I'm sticking with 7 for as long as possible. Edited January 9, 2019 by notla49285 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spaceboy 2501 Posted January 9, 2019 Share Posted January 9, 2019 Yep, Windows Defender is all you need. Some will argue that but the truth is that WD will do a better job then anything else. The days of needing to pay for or installing free Antivirus software are over. Something that should have been included in windows 10 years ago. Anyone installing anything else is just overkill and wasting there time and PC's performance.agree 100% 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Armageus 67 Posted January 9, 2019 Share Posted January 9, 2019 (edited) Yep, Windows Defender is all you need. Some will argue that but the truth is that WD will do a better job then anything else. The days of needing to pay for or installing free Antivirus software are over. Something that should have been included in windows 10 years ago. Anyone installing anything else is just overkill and wasting there time and PC's performance. Disagree - completely depends on your use case. Whilst Defender is fine for someone reasonably "tech savvy" (and consequently doesn't click on dodgy links, and download random things), it does not cover all eventualities (e.g. Phishing scams and malware as opposed to more traditional viruses). In my household (Myself, wife, 2 Teenagers and 1 younger child), Windows defender didn't protect against everything (whether "fake" articles my wife would click through on facebook, or teenagers looking for "free robux/vbucks" etc). After trialing a few different options, I settled on ESET Internet Security and since installing that have had no issues - it's effect on performance is unnoticeable, and it "just works". Edited January 9, 2019 by Armageus Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CBers 6782 Posted January 9, 2019 Share Posted January 9, 2019 Yep, Windows Defender is all you need. Some will argue that but the truth is that WD will do a better job then anything else. The days of needing to pay for or installing free Antivirus software are over. Something that should have been included in windows 10 years ago. Anyone installing anything else is just overkill and wasting there time and PC's performance. Also agree, although I do have MalwareBytes installed on my Windows 10 PCs as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Allan Cameron 40 Posted January 9, 2019 Share Posted January 9, 2019 Anyone running Windows 7 should think seriously about updating to Windows 10. Mainstream support has ended back in 2015 and next year support will fully end and will no longer be receiving any security updates or anything else necessary to be safe. Windows 10 will give you much better security with the latest updates. Anyone in doubt is welcome to Google this information as it is widely available. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
notla49285 46 Posted January 9, 2019 Share Posted January 9, 2019 Anyone running Windows 7 should think seriously about updating to Windows 10. Mainstream support has ended back in 2015 and next year support will fully end and will no longer be receiving any security updates or anything else necessary to be safe. Windows 10 will give you much better security with the latest updates. Anyone in doubt is welcome to Google this information as it is widely available. I have thought seriously about it, and Windows 10 is still a pain in the arse with its updates and nanny-state tactics of changing services and settings as it sees fit. I'll be running 7 until security update support runs out and then I'll reconsider, maybe even moving to a different OS altogether. Let's not forget when Microsoft released an update which randomly deleted EVERYTHING in the user's Documents folder https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_10-update/windows-10-1809-update-deleted-all-files-from/ff608374-2686-4a08-a4c2-caa4caa6d4e1. That's not the kind of shit I want managing my media server. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Allan Cameron 40 Posted January 9, 2019 Share Posted January 9, 2019 Much of Windows 10 issues are isolated incidents or effect very small numbers. I have been running Windows 10 pretty much since day one and have had zero Windows related issues. I do everything on windows 10 including running the server, video rendering, editing and gaming. Keep a backup of everything that is important to you and give Windows 10 a try when you are ready. Most likely you will have the same experience I do and most others and enjoy Windows 10 without any OS issues. If you don't like it or have issues you can always go back to Windows 7. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CBers 6782 Posted January 9, 2019 Share Posted January 9, 2019 I stayed off of Windows 10 for a year or so, but once I upgraded, I wish I had done it sooner. I never install Windows 7 any more, as 10 is far superior. A few issues yes, but all-in-all, a much better OS than 7. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chyron 238 Posted January 9, 2019 Share Posted January 9, 2019 Also agree, although I do have MalwareBytes installed on my Windows 10 PCs as well. Yep. Get Malwarebytes. Handles more malware than just viruses. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
notla49285 46 Posted January 9, 2019 Share Posted January 9, 2019 It is much better looking and offers better security out-of-the-box I agree, but issues such as the deleted files are critical, and why the hell did a company the size of Microsoft release this?? Do they not have a testing department?? I appreciate that it may be a small number of cases, but it's still a number, and if you're one of the numbers, it could be catastrophic. If you look through the comments of the Microsoft post above there is also a user who reported the Microsoft Backup service had silently stopped backing up months previously so they lost the files permanently. This is what I mean by background services randomly being changed or stopped, we first encountered the Windows Mobile services issue a few months ago and before we figured out what was causing the problem we were unable to provide any mobile support for several weeks. I see random issues that can't be/won't be explained or attributed to a common pattern and get real jittery about installing it on a machine that's permanently running and responsible for quite a lot. If it was an application, maybe I could tolerate it and work around it, but the OS? Should be the most stable software that the machine is running imo, and Windows 10 just isn't. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
One2Go 98 Posted January 9, 2019 Share Posted January 9, 2019 Many of us are running Windows Media Center (WMC) and that one only exists officially in Win 7. Therefore Win 7 will run on my HTPC with added 3rd party security protection plus Acronis True Image until either I am looking at the grass from the wrong side or have no more use for a Home Theater. Until then Win 10 for me can be stuck where the sun don't shine. I don't need it because most of my day to day activity is done these days from Android tablets and smartphones. My media servers run UnRaid and my QNAP NASs run Linux. No need for an expensive Surface Pro with Win 10. Sorry MS but you blew this a long time ago when you decide to just abandon the mega lead you had in the mobile market. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest asrequested Posted January 9, 2019 Share Posted January 9, 2019 All of my machines have Windows 10 and defender has already failed to protect me. So I can't rely solely on Defender. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
notla49285 46 Posted January 9, 2019 Share Posted January 9, 2019 All of my machines have Windows 10 and defender has already failed to protect me. So I can't rely solely on Defender. What happened? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest asrequested Posted January 9, 2019 Share Posted January 9, 2019 What happened? Nothing dramatic. I had some ransomware sitting on one of my machines. Defender scanned the machine and found nothing. Then Sophos scanned, found it and removed it. I likely downloaded it from somewhere. Fortunately it hadn't phoned home, yet. Other measures that I have may have prevented that. So it got taken care of before it did any damage. Thankfully. But the point is that Defender didn't step up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gene0915 37 Posted January 9, 2019 Share Posted January 9, 2019 Picked up a new machine. Have no more slots on my Norton and want to secure this one. What are some excellent & FREE antivirus software that I could use? Linux. (Sorry, couldn't resist.) If you HAVE to use Windows, read up on Cylance Home edition. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BAlGaInTl 279 Posted January 10, 2019 Share Posted January 10, 2019 Linux. (Sorry, couldn't resist.) If you HAVE to use Windows, read up on Cylance Home edition. I use Windows... but my server is Linux. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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