Can anyone recommend a good anti virus program?

[stuck_in_new_orleans]

My Kaspersky AV subscription has expired and I wasn't very happy with their service. It seems to not play well with either my PC or Windows 10. Any good program suggestions?

[Dalberg-Acton]

“LINUX Mint”

Ditto!

[emotionalcripple]

I have over 30 years experience. I have one year contracts with doctors, lawyers, churches, etc. and I get one fee annually. I can’t be running out to remove viruses. I won’t get paid. For Win7 use Microsoft Security Essential and Windows 10 use the built-in Windows Defender and that’s all. Remove all others. Not that Malwarebytes, Trend, Kaspersky are bad products, they aren’t. Just unnecessary and they hog system resources and make your computer slow. Also, get a 2 terabyte, external if you have a laptop, hard drive, buy Acronis True Image 2017 and make a daily backup of your entire hard drive. Problem solved. You’re bullet proof.

[Rona Badger]

Absolutely correct!!

[Rona Badger]

Absolutely correct!!

[FlagNCountry]

Have a look at McAfee

[MeneMeneTekelUpharsin]

I’ve used and recommended both Avast and Malwarebytes. Good results with both.

Same here, both paid versions for me. Years of good service. Don't go where you shouldn't be going on the internet is also excellent virus protection. What is good for your p____ is also good for your computer.

[Grampa Dave]

“It may not be trendy, but I’ve used Norton forever, and never had a serious problem.”

Echo that. I have a Win 10 laptop that we use for spreadsheets and a few things, we can’t do with Google docs.
I have used Norton for well over a decade without a problem.

For a few bucks, we get coverage for that machine, our Android phones and tablet. My wife didnt want it on her Android phone until she had an attempted hijacking on her phone. We installed the Norton anti virus, and it handled that issue. I wish that Amazon would allow it on their Fire tablet.

[freeonefrom]

I’ve used ClamWin for a couple of weeks and have not had any trouble. It’s a free and open sourced program.

[The Great RJ]

I have used Avast..free version..for years. However, I also use the free version of Malwarebytes to look for malware that might sneak by. Be sure you have secured your wi-fi, use secure passwords and have a firewall.

[Bob434]

[[Can anyone recommend a good anti virus program?]]

Yes- linux mint cinnamon edition

[Pollard]

Well now that YOU got the snarkiness out of the way......./s
Ubuntu.org
What’s an anti-virus program? Oh yeah, I remember those from my windows days. That and the constant required restarts for every stupid little update.
I run ubuntu on all four of our our laptops with a dual boot setup. Preferably Win7 Pro. The ubuntu(or other linux) installation will shove windows to one side to make room for itself to be installed in a new partition, install itself and then during startup, you choose whether to boot to windows or ubuntu. Using disk defragmenter on the windows side first is more proper/safer but not necessary. Usually fine without it. You can see and access all your windows files from within ubuntu and with the exception of some small obscure programs(my only reason for keeping windows), you can open and work with most any files. Images, office docs, all can be opened and edited with FREE linux software. LiberOffice is a direct replacement to windows Office, GIMP is a decent replacement for Photoshop. Ubuntu/linux is invisible to windows however. Small updates with no restart and only when the linux core get’s updated, do you need to restart but you’re not required to restart it immediately.

No viruses and the source code for all linux programs is open for the world to see so you know there’s no malicious code, adware etc.(vetted by an army of programmers actually) The software is kept in repositories that can be searched from within ubuntu. No scouring the web looking for some little utility and hoping it’s safe and it’s all free. Safe surfing. If you use Chrome, the original, Chromium, is available and all of google’s addons are compatible. I use firefox for a browser and thunderbird for an email client.
Brave browser also avail
Screenshot programs, several to choose from
Media players, plenty to choose from including VLC which is the best imho
dictionary, incl
calculator incl
text editor included — plus advanced versions for coders
calibre ebook reader/editor/library management(can convert between different ebook formats — awesome program)
Gramps — only option — genealogy aka family tree program
video editors
audio editors
FTP programs
Cherry Tree note taking prog
Inkscape for vector graphics aka svg files
Gourmet — recipe organizer
File roller — zip, tar archiver
Catfish — file search with indexing capability
gParted — hard drive partitioner with graphical user interface
LibreCAD

That’s just what I have as my task bar program shortcuts. Any other utility you could think of is available.

Back in my windows days, I used malwarebytes and superantispyware but I’ve never run them on win10. Both are free and also have very affordable paid versions for “live protection”. Both are highly recommended by programmer/techie types and both have support sites with people that will help you debug your system.

I only use LiberCAD for opening files that I create on TurboCAD which is about the only time I go to windows.

Linux flavors/variants are numerous and range from small versions that will run on old low power systems to full blown versions and of course terminal/text only versions like ubuntu server which serves up the majority of all websites.

[slouper]

Simple, get a Mac.

[alancarp]

That wasn't a typo - The AVG product is bad... while there's product endorsements above, I'm simply warning you to stay away from this particular product.

I'm personally running Windows Defender and that's it right now... honestly, I have been seeing that the bad actors have reduced efforts to do the junior high tricks of trying to trash your machine and moved on to trying to exploit ID information for cash. So ID protection is at least as important as AV protection.

[ConservativeMind]

Microsoft is only 96% effective on identification of recent malware:

https://chart.av-comparatives.org/chart1.php

Main site: https://www.av-comparatives.org/dynamic-tests/

[CGASMIA68]

I ran an out dated expired free Clam X on this mac last week and it found 2 infected files.
Curious what an up dated 2017 Bitdefender type AV will find

[Bob434]

Another excellent program to have IF you are going to stick with windows- is RollbackRX- it is like system restore, on steroids- it keeps a vast amount of ‘snapshots’ or as little as you like- and it starts at boot up incase you get a boot time virus and your computer won’t start- Viruses? Pffft- not a worry- just do a rollback- ransomwear? Pfffft- puppy play for rollbackRX

It costs about $60 - but you can get it onsale for like $40 or so from time to time- but even at $60 it’s well worth the price- just be aware though that it ‘hooks itself into’ your master boot record- but that was never an issue for me- I ran it for many years- and it saved my bacon many times-

If you like experimenting with windows programs, it comes in handy too because some programs can really mess you computer up- just do a rollback and unlike windows system restore, it restores absolutely everything, including desktop and registry- it restores everything- system restore can leave some htigns out when it restores-

Absolutely my most recommended program for anyone running windows- if you run an antivirus too- it will cover you pretty well- although i would ALWAYS do a rollback if anytime a suspicious file or virus warning popped up- just to be on the safe side, The virus protection was really just to stop any potential viruses or suspicious files from downloading- and the rollback was was to make absolutely sure that nothing made it’s way through by doing a rollback to a time before the file or virus warning happened-

I used norton’s itnernet security because it also included ‘safe search’ checkmarks and x’s to warn of suspicious sites when you do a search engine search- this helped tremendously to cut down on hitting infected sites- but it wasn’t fool proof- some green check marked sites still have malicious code on them that didn’t get flagged by safe search yet- but these were rare-

[fision]

I am running an insider edition of Windows 10 that runs a version of Defender that calls Malwarebytes to do the heavy lifting for full scans. It works great.

[Bob434]

[[My IT guys suggest a multi tiered defense]]

I recommend one as well- A good antivirus, AND rollbackRX- You’ll never have to worry about viruses or ransomwear again

Oh, and do a clean install of windows, tweak it to how youl ike it- add in the programs you use like photoshop, lightroom etc- then update windows- and right away use Macrium Reflect Free edition to create a complete backup- save it to an external hard-drive- and if anything goes wrong later- which it won’t with rollback installed, but if it does, you have a clean install of windows with all tweaks and programs already installed to restore to-

[Leep]

I switched to a notebook. Sure i can’t download a few things i would like but then again i don’t have a issue with viruses either.
No downloading = no viruses.

[Eric Pode of Croydon]

Don't go where you shouldn't be going on the internet

That's what my browser in a virtual machine is for :-)