[dayglored]

> Any recommendations for a better anti-virus or firewall? I'm on Windows 7, if that matters.

Yeah, it matters. Windows 7 no longer gets security (or any other) updates from Microsoft. Using Win7 to surf the internet, especially anything important (e.g. banking) or dodgy (pr0n, gambling) is EXTREMELY DANGEROUS.

My personal assessment is that Norton, McAfee, and others of that ilk aren't worth the powder to blow them to bits. They hog resources like mad, and overall they don't do any better than Windows Defender (built-in).

I have a Win7 virtual machine (VM) that I use to run some old legacy programs, but I never surf the internet with it. Never. I have an up-to-date Win10 VM for that. And mostly I use MacOS or Linux anyway.

The built-in Windows Defender is probably as good as you can get for Win7. I do recommend adding MalwareBytes (free version) for occasional scanning. It's real good and doesn't hog resources. You can get the paid version (not too expensive) and it will do checking in the background, also pretty light on resources.

Good luck, practice safe surfing, always wear a write-protect tab. :-)

[MrZippy2k]

30+ year IT Security Professional here and I agree 100% with what dayglored said.

[Perseverando]

My personal assessment is that Norton, McAfee, and others of that ilk aren't worth the powder to blow them to bits. They hog resources like mad, and overall they don't do any better than Windows Defender (built-in).

Been using Norton for years, but always looking for newer and "better." I am very dependent on Norton password manager. Any recommendations for a SECURE password manager?

[dennisw]

I do the exact same!
I use the built-in AV in Windows 11 PLUS>>>>>
MalwareBytes (free version)