Anti Virus Software?

[seangprice]

I've been using a MacBook and Apple based computers for some time now.. With 8.1 what built in if any anti virus software is there included or built in? If there isn't what are you guys using?

 

[photobriangray]

Windows Defender is included and it is very good; lightweight, frequent pattern updates in the background, based on Microsoft's corporate offerings.

 

[MBytes]

Windows 8 includes an anti-virus (Windows defender) which will give you more than decent protection, but most importantly doesn't impact system performance.
"Better" the anti-virus, the more aggressive it needs to be be, the more your computer will be brought down to a crawl.
It's a balance between performance and security.
One reason you find corporate environment computer being super slow to do anything, is not the computer specs itself, it is rather they use extremely aggressive anti-viruses that checks everything, suing multiple algorithms, on everything that the system does, because in the view of the company, maximum protection no mater what is better, than system performance. I am sure you encountered a company computer that was so slow to use, either directly or indirectly (you are a customer, and you are being told to wait, and it takes forever for their system to respond)

The best protection, is safe web surfing practices, and know what you are doing with the system.
Example: if you open an image on your computer, and Windows pop-ups saying "Hey!, This image wants system level access to modify system files? Do you want to allow it?", then you know something is wrong. Why would a picture need to change stuff at the system level. Don't allow it, and delete it. It is most likely a virus or malware.

Know what you download, and what you open, and you won't even need an anti-virus. If you go on shady sites to download things illegally, or porn, or what ever crap, you are asking for trouble. Lastly, e-mail attachment. Make sure you know what you open, and from whom. If it's questionable, then don't open it, and ask question form the sender. Like "Hey, you just sent me a strange e-mail, going: "Check this out!", and there was an attachment. Did you really send me this? What is it exactly?". This rules off automated e-mail being sent, where a virus is attached, because the person who sent you that e-mail, uses "abc123" as a password, and his or her account was compromised.

Lastly, keep your software and Windows updated. To many people don't. People that brings me systems to fix, and got viruses, They run on Windows XP still, not even Service Pack 1 installed, (it is at 3, and well now out of support), Flash plug-in version 7 or 8, and super old Java version. Not to mention the rest of the system using completely outdated software, despite free updates.

I don't recall the last time I had a virus on my systems. I think before 2004. That is well over 10 years virus free. And I can assure you I am not alone.

Common sense, read what is being asked, know what you are doing, know what you open, and safe web surfing practices, and you are fine.
And the worst part, is that you probably do all this already.

 

[seangprice]

Thanks for the info, pretty careful with my internet practices. I just remember the days when it seemed a third party program was needed to ensure security.

 

[MBytes]

Thanks for the info, pretty careful with my internet practices. I just remember the days when it seemed a third party program was needed to ensure security.

Nha. It was anti-virus companies trying to scare the consumer so they they buy their anti-virus. But it was true that back in the old days of 2000's to 2004, 05, computers were new to many people, and Windows didn't have any security software built-in (beside a very primitive firewall in XP SP2 (no longer the case since Vista and up, now its pretty good). So at this time, te3lling consumers to get some level of protection, especially to the inexperience and don't know about safe web surfing practices due of lack of knowledge and experience, leads to the requirement of a good anti-virus for them.

 

[xandros9]

Defender is basic and probably sufficient, but I personally use Avast when I want something a bit more heavy duty (boot-time scans among other fancy tools Defender doesn't offer. Haven't needed them in a long time though, thankfully.)

 

[ziggy3055#CB]

I got Trend Micro Internet Security for free when I bought my Surface from Best Buy. Seems pretty good, and it was free for a year, otherwise I probably wouldn't buy one since I'm pretty careful and don't click or open things that look suspicious. But if you're in the market, it's a pretty good anti-virus.

 

[BaritoneGuy]

Defender should be all you need. The pattern files are updated every day as it uses the same engine as their corporate version which is called Forefront. It is lightweight and free. For Win 7 and Vista you can also get it for free as Microsoft Security Essentials.

MS did this due to the fact that their number one source of calls for support was because of a virus. Providing free A/V was less expensive for them.

 

[pankaj981]

I'm using Avast free edition, it's pretty solid on all my machines
Sent from Tapatalk on my Nokia Lumia 925 running WP8.1

 

[seangprice]

With Defender is there anything I need to install/turn on or is it integrated into the OS? I see options in the control panel for the Firewall but not much info on Defender.

 

[pankaj981]

It's integrated but can be turned off/on. You can go to control panel, action center, under security you can see Windows Defender is protecting your OS. To access its settings, bring up the charms menu and search for Defender and it should show up

 

[onlysublime]

the only pay AV I would use is either Kaspersky or Bitdefender. I've used Kaspersky (awesome program) and played around with Bitdefender.

for free, Windows Defender. All the other free ones either don't work or are resource heavy. I've used AVG, Avast, etc. I used to be a big fan of AVG until a virus swept through our campus. My system came out "clear" with AVG (not even a warning) but turned out to be infected.

 

[berty6294]

Only good AV I've ever used was Webroot. Kaspersky comes in close second. Other than that, Windows Defender is worth the cost of free. I would not suggest paying any money for any AV other than Webroot or Kaspersky.

 

[StevoPhilo]

Only good AV I've ever used was Webroot. Kaspersky comes in close second. Other than that, Windows Defender is worth the cost of free. I would not suggest paying any money for any AV other than Webroot or Kaspersky.

This. Webroot has minimal to little impact with it's cloud based scanning. I love it compared to Kaspersky which is aggresive at finding things, but can bog a computer down at times.

At the end of the day, if you know what you're doing then you wouldn't need one.

 

[hopmedic]

As others have said. Personally, I like Kaspersky, but I quit using it when I started using Win8. Now it's just Defender for me.

Something not mentioned here yet, though: Above all, at any cost, do NOT use Norton (Symantec) or McAfee.

 

[coolqf]

As others have said. Personally, I like Kaspersky, but I quit using it when I started using Win8. Now it's just Defender for me.

Something not mentioned here yet, though: Above all, at any cost, do NOT use Norton (Symantec) or McAfee.

Completely true. At work we kept purhasing computers and they would run slow. I couldnt figure out what our IT was doıng to the brand new computers. Finally, we had to remove McAfee from one of the desktops and the computer would easily boot up 30 seconds faster. It is a web developer machine and many things would load at startup and apparently mcafee scans files extremely slowly.

 

[coolqf]

Here is a site that provides independent reviews on antivirus performance. This site is great because sometimes people give you feedback on an antivirus program from 3yr ago experience....

​Home: AV-TEST - The Independent IT-Security Institute

 

[hopmedic]

Completely true. At work we kept purhasing computers and they would run slow. I couldnt figure out what our IT was doıng to the brand new computers. Finally, we had to remove McAfee from one of the desktops and the computer would easily boot up 30 seconds faster. It is a web developer machine and many things would load at startup and apparently mcafee scans files extremely slowly.

Don't I know it... I work in a bank, so security is of the utmost importance. There's the pre-OS security (I think it's Symantec, but can't recall with 100% certainty), then at least two or three layers of security in the OS. It takes my PC well over five minutes to get to the desktop and have the spinny thing stop spinning so I can actually do something. Ridiculous.

 

[BaritoneGuy]

Here is a site that provides independent reviews on antivirus performance. This site is great because sometimes people give you feedback on an antivirus program from 3yr ago experience....

​Home: AV-TEST - The Independent IT-Security Institute

Any site that tries to sell you anything even if it is consulting services is not independent. That doesn't mean their results are invalid, just have a potential to be biased.