What are some good antivirus/antimalware programs to use instead of Norton?

[2FA]

17 minutes ago, Enderman said:

It is part of windows 10, just go into your settings and make sure it is enabled.

 

13 minutes ago, Ryan_Vickers said:

and iirc by default, it's always on unless you install something else

To clarify some confusion that most don't realize exists, an active AV is when it monitors for possible threats that aren't known by its definitions but are exhibiting suspicious behavior. A passive AV is one that only relies solely upon its definitions. Hence why some AV will give a false positive on certain legit programs because they are acting in a way that isn't normal or proper.

[vanished]

4 minutes ago, Bleedingyamato said:

But won't the paid version have added features that the free version doesn't?

perhaps, but look them up and decide if they are necessary for you

[Bleedingyamato]

Just now, Ryan_Vickers said:

perhaps, but look them up and decide if they are necessary for you

But that's what I have you for.  ?  (Kidding.  I'm not THAT lazy.  lol)

[Bleedingyamato]

3 minutes ago, DeadEyePsycho said:

 

To clarify some confusion that most don't realize exists, an active AV is when it monitors for possible threats that aren't known by its definitions but are exhibiting suspicious behavior. A passive AV is one that only relies solely upon its definitions. Hence why some AV will give a false positive on certain legit programs because they are acting in a way that isn't normal or proper.

Ah.  So are AVG and Bitdefender active antivirus?

 

I assume Norton is active too?

[2FA]

11 minutes ago, Bleedingyamato said:

Ah.  So are AVG and Bitdefender active antivirus?

 

I assume Norton is active too?

I don't know but I would assume so.

[r00tH4cK3r]

My top to Anti-viruses would have to be ESET and Kaspersky, with ESET being rated slightly higher. I like them both because they are excellent anti-virus programs that don't use much system resources while running and have good detection. ESET is more expensive though.

 

Just don't use Mcafee. Their actual virus detection is pretty good but their program is very resource hungry, and for me, I like a fast PC. Even if I have the RAM to spare, which I do, I still don't like resource hungry programs running on my system. Some aren't as anal about it as me though.....

 

AVG is also pretty good....not the best or worst, but I don't use it often. It is mainly a temp one until I get something better. 

[STRMfrmXMN]

56 minutes ago, Bleedingyamato said:

What's AdwCleaner?  I've never heard of it.

 

 

What's an adblocker?    Are there some you'd suggest that are considered the best?

Adwcleaner is an adware cleaner, as the name suggests. Gets rid of random crap. Go ahead and download it from bleepingcomputer and try it out.

 

An adblocker is an advertisement blocker, as the name suggests. I use microBlock Origin.

[Enderman]

1 hour ago, Bleedingyamato said:

Is it ok to use with other antivirus installed?  Or does it get auto disabled by Windows if other antivirus is present?

If you want to use another antivirus it should automatically disable windows defender, so you don't need to worry about it.

[WkdPaul]

53 minutes ago, Bleedingyamato said:

Can you be more specific about your hatred of Norton?  It would help to know more about what specifically you don't like about it.

 

I'm still living at home while in grad school so I'm not in control of our modem or wifi router so idk if either has any sort of firewall I could rely on.

 

So because my parents are computer security stupid I have to take responsibility for my computer safety.  

 

Do you know if AVG and Bitdefender have a firewall?    And if they do how theirs compare to Norton's.

I always use the free version and those free versions never have one, also I don't know if the premium versions come with a firewall.

 

As for my troubles with Norton, the consumer one would take more RAM than I would like and would slow down the PC that didn't have an SSD (the background scans would load the HDD in access time, not raw speed, so accessing anything while a background scan was happening would take way too long).

 

The enterprise version we used a few years ago was ... too annoying? It was problematic on some machines (wouldn't update correctly, etc.) and would be hard to fix. And then there were the multiple problems that followed in 2012 (source code stolen, Verisign breaches, exploits discovered, the New York Times attacks, etc...)  Norton has had troubles before that, but I was partly unaware of them, but with all that happening in the same year (2012) and having to worry about all that because that's what we were using at work, I clearly remember deciding I wouldn't touch another Norton software ... I lost all trust in that company, and they still have the same problems regarding their products security (you can also search for "Norton project zero", that's another story with their security suite having tons exploits ... And that's from June 2016 !!!)

[Bleedingyamato]

37 minutes ago, STRMfrmXMN said:

Adwcleaner is an adware cleaner, as the name suggests. Gets rid of random crap. Go ahead and download it from bleepingcomputer and try it out.

 

An adblocker is an advertisement blocker, as the name suggests. I use microBlock Origin.

Bleepingconluter?  What's that?

[Bleedingyamato]

1 hour ago, DeadEyePsycho said:

I don't know but I would assume so.

Ok.  

[Bleedingyamato]

40 minutes ago, r00tH4cK3r said:

My top to Anti-viruses would have to be ESET and Kaspersky, with ESET being rated slightly higher. I like them both because they are excellent anti-virus programs that don't use much system resources while running and have good detection. ESET is more expensive though.

 

Just don't use Mcafee. Their actual virus detection is pretty good but their program is very resource hungry, and for me, I like a fast PC. Even if I have the RAM to spare, which I do, I still don't like resource hungry programs running on my system. Some aren't as anal about it as me though.....

 

AVG is also pretty good....not the best or worst, but I don't use it often. It is mainly a temp one until I get something better. 

I don't think I've ever used Mcafee but I've heard terrible things about it if I remember right.

[STRMfrmXMN]

7 minutes ago, Bleedingyamato said:

Bleepingconluter?  What's that?

There is Google you know

[Bleedingyamato]

21 minutes ago, wkdpaul said:

I always use the free version and those free versions never have one, also I don't know if the premium versions come with a firewall.

 

As for my troubles with Norton, the consumer one would take more RAM than I would like and would slow down the PC that didn't have an SSD (the background scans would load the HDD in access time, not raw speed, so accessing anything while a background scan was happening would take way too long).

 

The enterprise version we used a few years ago was ... too annoying? It was problematic on some machines (wouldn't update correctly, etc.) and would be hard to fix. And then there were the multiple problems that followed in 2012 (source code stolen, Verisign breaches, exploits discovered, the New York Times attacks, etc...)  Norton has had troubles before that, but I was partly unaware of them, but with all that happening in the same year (2012) and having to worry about all that because that's what we were using at work, I clearly remember deciding I wouldn't touch another Norton software ... I lost all trust in that company, and they still have the same problems regarding their products security (you can also search for "Norton project zero", that's another story with their security suite having tons exploits ... And that's from June 2016 !!!)

Free is good but I figure that paid version of stuff is likely to be better from additional features or simply to support the company if their stuff isn't crap.

 

I figure there's more incentive for companies to make the paid version better enough to be worth paying for.  Otherwise no one would.

 

Thihk about it: if too many prople always used the free version what happen to the company?  It'd go out of business and there'd be no program anymore to protect you.  Also presumably some of the money these companies make goes into improving their program and keeping it above the water level so to speak.

[Bleedingyamato]

2 minutes ago, STRMfrmXMN said:

There is Google you know

True.  But you're better than google.  ?

 

 

 

(Is flattery working on you?)

[STRMfrmXMN]

9 minutes ago, Bleedingyamato said:

True.  But you're better than google.  ?

 

 

 

(Is flattery working on you?)

Eh, I don't know uh... science well enough to help you with that. Google is better for that sort of thing.

 

Bleepingcomputer is a repository for all sorts of software and stuff.

[Bleedingyamato]

52 minutes ago, STRMfrmXMN said:

Eh, I don't know uh... science well enough to help you with that. Google is better for that sort of thing.

 

Bleepingcomputer is a repository for all sorts of software and stuff.

Ok so there's 1 thing you don't know yet.  ?

 

So like download.com but less icky?

[kirashi]

4 hours ago, Bleedingyamato said:

Sorry but I'd prefer to avoid Kaspersky.  I don't want to trust my computer security to a Russian program.  Call me paranoid but just like with buying on eBay if I'm not 100% willing to trust something I'll avoid it.

 

Chances are a lot of the software or Operating System code you use on a daily basis is written and implemented by people all over the world - some even from Russia! While I understand your concerns, I can't help but wonder how many lines of code Windows has in it, written by foreign employees. Come to think of it, banking systems and ATM's usually aren't written by people in North America - in fact, the majority of ATM hardware is manufactured overseas.

 

Personally, I recommend ESET NODE32 or Kaspersky, paired with MBAM Premium for the best kind of protection, if you're occasionally prone to click on suspicious looking links or you're not a computer technician. I only use MBAM Premium and Windows Pretender Defender, and have been fine for over 3 years.

[TetraSky]

8 hours ago, Bleedingyamato said:

I'm very tempted to use AVG since Amazon's prices for even a 2 year subscription for 3 pcs (2 years I've never seen that long before!) is very cheap.

 

I'm worried though since according to that program comparison site AVG seems to slow things down on your computer more than Norton or Bitdefender.  

 

Also so at least one review I found on Amazon claims it was impossible to remove and was thus acting similar to a virus from the effect it was having on their computer.  It was just the one person but it makes me concerned a little.

 

Is email attachment scanning usually automatic as part of active protection or is that something users have to manually think to scan?

It's certainly not impossible to remove, whoever said that in his review either don't know what he's doing or did something entirely wrong. People have said the same thing about Norton over the years, as a Norton user, you think that's really true? If you're truly worried, you can just use the AVG Remover tool found on that page.

 

The thing about performances comparison these days, is that it's barely applicable unless you're still running a dual core with Windows on a 5200 rpm HDD(laptop). Are you?

 

As for email attachment, like most anti virus, it's part of the active protection but for specific softwares, like Outlook, it doesn't seems to work at all with Thunderbird. BUT the moment you try to "download" the attachment, it will be scanned by AVG before you are even allowed to open it. (Most other anti viruses also do this, same thing with stuff you download on the internet)

 

Well, like I said in my previous post, you can literally try it for a year, for free using the key for before. (and after the "trial period" it will just be converted to the free version of AVG, so you won't lose your entire protection right away)

[Bleedingyamato]

12 hours ago, kirashi said:

Chances are a lot of the software or Operating System code you use on a daily basis is written and implemented by people all over the world - some even from Russia! While I understand your concerns, I can't help but wonder how many lines of code Windows has in it, written by foreign employees. Come to think of it, banking systems and ATM's usually aren't written by people in North America - in fact, the majority of ATM hardware is manufactured overseas.

 

Personally, I recommend ESET NODE32 or Kaspersky, paired with MBAM Premium for the best kind of protection, if you're occasionally prone to click on suspicious looking links or you're not a computer technician. I only use MBAM Premium and Windows Pretender Defender, and have been fine for over 3 years.

What's ESET NODE32?

 

Or MBAM Premiun?

 

I haven't heard of those before now.

 

Its not like I randomly click on every link I see but there have been a few times where I thought I was clicking on something safe or I think at least once or twice where I wasn't doing anything but I got warning from Norton saying it blocked an intrusion attempt (or maybe I clicked a link I don't remember) so I figure it's best to be protected by more than just my own judgement.

[kirashi]

3 minutes ago, Bleedingyamato said:

What's ESET NODE32?

 

Or MBAM Premiun?

 

I haven't heard of those before now.

 

Its not like I randomly click on every link I see but there have been a few times where I thought I was clicking on something safe or I think at least once or twice where I wasn't doing anything but I got warning from Norton saying it blocked an intrusion attempt (or maybe I clicked a link I don't remember) so I figure it's best to be protected by more than just my own judgement.

ESET NODE32 - although I see that their SMART SECURITY product now covers AntiVirus as well as Firewall and other stuff.

MBAM Premium - MalwareBytes AntiMalware Premium (a quick google search would have revealed this, but I digress)

 

[Bleedingyamato]

9 hours ago, TetraSky said:

It's certainly not impossible to remove, whoever said that in his review either don't know what he's doing or did something entirely wrong. People have said the same thing about Norton over the years, as a Norton user, you think that's really true? If you're truly worried, you can just use the AVG Remover tool found on that page.

 

The thing about performances comparison these days, is that it's barely applicable unless you're still running a dual core with Windows on a 5200 rpm HDD(laptop). Are you?

 

As for email attachment, like most anti virus, it's part of the active protection but for specific softwares, like Outlook, it doesn't seems to work at all with Thunderbird. BUT the moment you try to "download" the attachment, it will be scanned by AVG before you are even allowed to open it. (Most other anti viruses also do this, same thing with stuff you download on the internet)

 

Well, like I said in my previous post, you can literally try it for a year, for free using the key for before. (and after the "trial period" it will just be converted to the free version of AVG, so you won't lose your entire protection right away)

Yeah now that I think about it idk why I'd be worried about that.  I always use Norton's removal tool when I want to uninstall Norton.  (I usually uninstall the previous year's version before installing the new version.)

 

I'm still tempted by the low pricing for AVG on Amazon but I'm leaning towards using Bitdefender. 

 

The problem is Amazon doesn't seem to have the 2017 version of Bitdefender currently so I might use AVG as a temporary solution until the new version of Bitdefender is available.

 

[Bleedingyamato]

11 minutes ago, kirashi said:

ESET NODE32 - although I see that their SMART SECURITY product now covers AntiVirus as well as Firewall and other stuff.

MBAM Premium - MalwareBytes AntiMalware Premium (a quick google search would have revealed this, but I digress)

 

Thank you.

 

I didn't realize that the second thing you mentioned was Malwarebytes.  That I have heard of.  

[Bleedingyamato]

21 hours ago, M.Yurizaki said:

I use Windows Defender + Malwarebytes Antimalware. The latter mostly because it has an IP blocker to prevent your computer from connecting to suspect IPs (basically the same thing as having a premade HOSTS file)

 

The only sticking point is I have a perpetual license for Malwarebytes' software. They started doing a yearly subscription thing.

What does a "premade HOSTS file" do?

 

 

Does it save any money to set up a yearly subscription to Malwarebytes vs buying a copy from a store or Amazon?

 

 

[TetraSky]

10 minutes ago, Bleedingyamato said:

Yeah now that I think about it idk why I'd be worried about that.  I always use Norton's removal tool when I want to uninstall Norton.  (I usually uninstall the previous year's version before installing the new version.)

 

I'm still tempted by the low pricing for AVG on Amazon but I'm leaning towards using Bitdefender. 

 

The problem is Amazon doesn't seem to have the 2017 version of Bitdefender currently so I might use AVG as a temporary solution until the new version of Bitdefender is available.

 

I personally wouldn't go for Bitdefender, for some reason it never worked for me, the whole thing would just crash whenever I tried to open it, rendering my AV protection NULL, that happened 2 years in a row with both 2015 and 2016 version. (I try a few different anti virus every year after my protection ends with my current AV).

So I suggest trying a Trial version first, to give you an idea of whether or not it actually works for you before putting down some money on it.