Best antivirus for Windows 10?

Dj64Mk7

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Hi! I'm new to these forums.

What is the most unobtrusive antivirus that runs on Windows 10? My dad is insistent that Windows Defender does not do a good job keeping Windows secure. I am new to Windows (I have lots of experience with OS X and the Mac), so I'm not really used to having to run 3rd-party software like that, and I don't feel comfortable downloading a program from a website (because on my Mac I got everything from the App Store) and I worry about the security of that.

I'm sorry if I'm not being very clear with my questions. If you want me to go into more detail on anything, please ask.
 

_Emi_

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Windows Defender is enough for most people, how is it not doing a good job keeping windows secure? in fact, few new reports show Windows Defender has improved. as long as you don't download weird files, like day zero stuff, most antivirus will protect you the same.

but you can try Free:
Qihoo 360 total security is light because it used the cloud to protect you, but you can use antivir and bitdefender definitions. it has some false positives and such, but it's a really light and good.
Panda has free cloud antivirus.
Antivir
AVG
Avast
Comodo
even Bitdefender has a simple and okay free antivirus, you can't customize much their options but it's okay for some.

if you want to go and pay:
Eset antivirus or security suite is light and okay
Bitdefender
some people think Kaspersky is one of the best
Panda

and many more.
it's not hard to get a security suite package for Windows, there are many options available. windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows/antivirus-partners#AVtabs=win10
you can check the long list there if you want.

some offer many ways to keep the system safe but suppress all the notifications, it's called like a "gamer mode". so yes, you can test and try, it depends what you want and what you and your dad feels comfortable with.
the first you got to do it's to have common sense and then antivirus would not be needed as much as people think.

Windows is not that insecure and full of virus like Mac and Linux people try to tell you. in fact, it's really secure. and I have had not problem lately about it. Edge or IE and most browsers now have this option to check files when you download and tell you if something is secure or not.

but I guess you coming from OSX you think Windows is infested and every site is going to infect you, but no, that's not true. Windows is amazing OS and really secure, always making security patches for the best consumer interest and only if you watch really weird adult content sites or you keep downloading strange cracked software, or mailfromSandra.exe (or something)... well you are in trouble, but if you go to official sites, and don't open strange files, you are okay.
And yes Defender will protect you fine, and it's not annoying since it uses Windows 10 notification system.
 

Dj64Mk7

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Thanks for the detailed reply! I think that I will just go ahead and use Avast to make my Dad happy, but know in my mind that I don't know.
 

_Emi_

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Thanks for the detailed reply! I think that I will just go ahead and use Avast to make my Dad happy, but know in my mind that I don't know.

Avast is okay, it is known but I don't know if it's the fastest thing. I recently only used Eset nod32 and 360 total security, some people don't trust it much because it's chinese but it having bitdefender engine, makes it good enough I guess.

anyway if you want a more technical explanation that what can be a good AV for your dad, you can go to AV-Comparatives Comparatives & Reviews - AV-Comparatives

and see how well Avast goes against others.
 

Dj64Mk7

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Do you think Windows Defender is enough to keep me safe on my PC? Does Windows have anything similar to OS X's System Integrity Protection?
 

DeathMoJo

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I been using Panda for a few years and it uses very little system resources and caught a few unauthorized access attempts and files.
 

Arizona Willie

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I have been using Avast Premier for quite some time and it works great.

Like the man said, if you stay away from porn and hacker sites you should have no problem.

Just don't forget to set it to run a scan automatically every so often like on Sunday afternoons when you're likely watching a football game. Or at 2 am if you leave your computer on all night.

I would also recommend you give Acronis True Image a try for backing up your computer.
Same advice applies. Set it for automatically backing up your C drive to another drive periodically.
I have it set to do mine every night at 6 PM and every week on Sunday evening on a DIFFERENT drive.
I'm fortunate I have several SSD drives and it makes it fast and quiet.

PS I have no financial interest in either one of these companies --- damn it :(
 

Joe A

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You don't need a 3rd party antivirus, antivirus companies still play the fear card for naive consumers , Microsoft stayed away from building antivirus into Windows because of anti trust issues, now that that's no longer an issue..it's not needed don't waist your money..and your safer with the stronger security built into Windows. I had a Mac and I felt the need to run a 3rd party anti virus because apple doesn't do the type of security work on the Mac that Microsoft does on windows.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

_Emi_

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Do you think Windows Defender is enough to keep me safe on my PC? Does Windows have anything similar to OS X's System Integrity Protection?
I don't know much about OSX, I read about system integrity protection, but that doesn't sound like the greatest feature. it's taking your freedom as I read it, because even people with Sudo can't have full freedom.

One thing you have to remember it's that Windows security is not only about anti-virus/malware it also comes with Smart Screen on Edge/IE and Store apps, so if you download something and it's suspicious or reported as dangerous, it will give you the message that it couldn't download it.
Also there are some places on Windows where you can only modify them by going into adv permission and change the owner, the permissions... you know, they can't be modified but they need a big of extra work.
some application elements also go to VirtualStore on your local folder on your profile, and that means those apps didn't have admin rights and wanted to write elements to their folders.

In theory you shouldn't run anything but installs as admin mode, so if a strange program you download asks admin permissions, you should say no. that's the common sense I talked about on my first post. Defender is okay, it misses some important features other antivirus have, but sometimes the other extra features seem to bring high false positive alerts.
There was a report few days ago that showed Defender getting better on ranking, maybe that's made because of the cloud protection they seem to have added on windows 10.

You can easily get free and paid antivirus, but few ones seem to add to many things. you could also download sandboxie or BufferZone Pro or something like that, which add extra layer to run programs that are probably suspicious, but you still want to run them but you want to be sure they don't modify anything on windows.
You could even get Eset AV or security essential and find leaked keys around internet. there are many ways of adding extra protection, I don't use them.

you could also use Jotti or virustotal if you want to know results on other antivirus. maybe Malwarebytes and check files manually, it's rare to see people using the realtime feature on the pro, people usually use it to check files manually.

so as you see anything on windows shouldn't be less safe than OSX, of course there are more virus and malware on internet targeted to windows, but in recent years, it has been less of a problem.
Just never run anything truly suspicious and you will be okay, Defender might catch it anyway.
 

triageatdawn

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I used to have Comodo Internet Security but I accidentally messed up its uninstaller and couldn't install it again. Worked flawless, had some issues with its firewall once I upgraded to Windows 10 but it got fixed via updates... I've been on BitDefender Free Edition for 2 months now, had no issues with it so far. So I think I'm gonna either reset the OS and go back to Comodo or just purchase the Premium version of BitDefender, it's not expensive at all. Haven't tried out Windows Defender yet, some of my friends are using in combination with Malwarebytes.

If you're into tweaking and customizing stuff try out Comodo, in case you're looking for something light and simple I'd say go for Windows Defender or BitDefender.
 

grandmaster1618

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Hey no system is safe be it mac or windows pc. A number of security flaws have been found on macs too. I have had a mac and I installed ClamXAV. I switched to windows 2-3 years ago. Now use a surface pro 3 and a desktop PC. I have no antivirus installed on my surface. I have Malwarebytes antimalware software on my pc. If u ask me.. An updated PC with updated defender should be enough if u know what u r doing in the web. There's a store for all modern apps. Try to shift to modern apps.
And if u still need legacy apps.. Just do your research before installing .exe files. You will not be installing programs daily. So just visit a number of websites and check reviews. Always download from the programs own website never from torrents and mirror sites. I m not saying all torrents have malwares but to be safe u avoid. And if u have another spare PC u can use that as an experimental one to try out software before putting it on your main device.
My recommendation for u is to avoid as much exe files as you can. That includes antivirus programs as well.
 

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