Battle Best antivirus solution for Windows 11

amirr

Level 27
Verified
Top Poster
Well-known
Jan 26, 2020
1,628
I personally love BitDefender Total Security and installed in my system. It's easy to use but also advanced for experienced users. In my idea, it's better than ESET, as Eset was causing internet problem in my system recently.

Can confirm this happended on my system back when I used ESET.
I won't use Eset products anymore at all.
 
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ForgottenSeer 72227

I'll echo what others have said...to be very honest, there is no such thing as a perfect AV/suite. Every single solution has it's pro's and con's, some of which can vary from person to person, as everyone's computer/setup is different.

Personally I just use WD as it has overall very good protection, is simple and most importantly it just works. You can either tweak it for more protection manually, or use 3rd apps such as Configure Defender to make the changes easier. In saying that, the one area where WD can very from person to person is the overall performance impact on the system. Some find WD heavy, some find it light. In my experience I haven't had any issues with performance and don't even notice it at all...however, others have had issues. Hence why it is so important to actually try out each product for yourself. Every vendor has a trial period...I personally believe you should try out the ones you are interested in (give them a go for few weeks to get a true sense of how it works/performs on your system) and go from there. Do not solely choose a product which gets the most "votes/mentions."

I have also used Eset, Emsisoft and Bitdefender in the past with great results and without many issues. As you can see from the various responses you have gotten, there are various opinions on these products, which highlights what I have said above regarding differing personal experiences. While these A vs B thread can offer some insight, you still need to try them for yourself and use the one that you like the most. At the end of the day it is your system and your money, not ours...so you have to be one that is happy. In case you were wondering, I switched to using WD and the built in security features within Windows, over 3rd party products for more simplicity, not because I had a terrible experience.

As I already stated above, no product is perfect and in fact every single AV/suite will miss malware at one point, or another. It is why I don't recommend getting too caught up in the "which one protects the most" hype as they all fail at one point, or another. It is why that no matter which product you decide to use, it is still extremely important to use common sense and practice good computing hygiene. Simple things like not opening emails/attachments you don't know, clicking on ADs, ensuring you have proper back ups of your personal data, etc... is really your best defence IMHO. Someone mentioned that you cannot rely on common sense because legitimate sites and such can be compromised....while true to a degree, I still would argue that using common sense and practising good computing habits will still have a significant impact on improving your overall security, then completely ignoring it and relying solely on a piece of software to keep you safe.

Make a list of which products interest you and try them out....it really is the only why for you to choose what works best for you!
 
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goodjohnjr

Level 5
Verified
Jul 11, 2018
230
I don't like that it doesn't have good detection, it doesn't block my dangerous sites like crack, etc. like eset
You could use Window Security set to Recommended settings by DefenderUI, and Sophos Scan & Clean set to automatically scan at startup using Windows Task Scheduler (for free antimalware protection at the operating system level).

Adguard DNS default public servers (for free ad / tracker / malicious website protection at the DNS level in your router and / or operating system and / or web browser).

uBlock Origin or Adguard Browser Extension, Malwarebytes Browser Guard, and turn up your web browser's security / privacy settings et cetera (for free ad / tracker / malicious website / grayware website et cetera protection at the web browser level).
 

bayasdev

Level 19
Verified
Top Poster
Well-known
Sep 10, 2015
901
Just use Microsoft Defender (tweaked or not) and some common sense otherwise get ready to see how your system breaks in unexpected ways. Nowadays I'd only use a third party AV on a corporate issued machine if they preload one in the first place.
 

markstitovits

Level 2
Sep 13, 2022
54
Hi
i ask all,what antivirus solution use for w11 22h2 ?
i read in eset forum,eset smart security premium have many bugs
bitdefender i dont whant because it is very hard to uninstall !
kaspersky from hell,NO
i whait for sugestion and please reply only you test 22h2 (windows insiders) + your antivirus solution !
THANK YOU
I'm not trying to defend Bitdefender, but I don't think it's hard to uninstall. When you install it, it will appear in the settings as "Bitdefender" and "Bitdefender Agent". If you payed at least internet security for it, "Bitdefender VPN" will also be bundled. I agree that it's a bit overcomplicated(why not just have it in a single uninstaller), but you can easily uninstall them just by clicking on them. Again I'm just giving advice, not defending :).
 

goodjohnjr

Level 5
Verified
Jul 11, 2018
230
I'm not trying to defend Bitdefender, but I don't think it's hard to uninstall. When you install it, it will appear in the settings as "Bitdefender" and "Bitdefender Agent". If you payed at least internet security for it, "Bitdefender VPN" will also be bundled. I agree that it's a bit overcomplicated(why not just have it in a single uninstaller), but you can easily uninstall them just by clicking on them. Again I'm just giving advice, not defending :).
Bitdefender's uninstaller was so bad that it left so much behind that back in maybe 2020 I could not even install Bitdefender Free again because its installer thought that a Bitdefender program was still installed. Bitdefender support had to remotely connect to my computer, clean up their mess, and only then could I install Bitdefender Free.

Before that I had manually uninstalled everything, used their various uninstallers, used CCleaner, et cetera; and all of that had failed until I had to have Bitdefender fix it themselves

I am glad that they were able to fix it, since then I have not installed Bitdefender again, except sometimes the free Android version, and to sometimes try Bitdefender TrafficLight which I usually uninstall because it usually does not block much if anything compared to Malwarebytes Browser Guard & uBlock Origin et cetera.
 

simmerskool

Level 31
Verified
Top Poster
Well-known
Apr 16, 2017
2,094
Hi
i ask all,what antivirus solution use for w11 22h2 ?
i read in eset forum,eset smart security premium have many bugs
bitdefender i dont whant because it is very hard to uninstall !
kaspersky from hell,NO
i whait for sugestion and please reply only you test 22h2 (windows insiders) + your antivirus solution !
THANK YOU
I have ESET ESSP v16. No bugs I'm aware of other than it stops keepass secure desktop from running correctly, but that could be a "benefit" showing that ESET is working. I find ESET to be light. Big +.

I suggest MS Defender with DefenderUI, or ESET, and I'm liking F-Secure a lot lately.

Check out this article it about an new antivirus software.
link to their no1 is Systweak av. Anyone famillar with it? The "awards" it shows at bottom of its page, I have never heard of either??

I used to be an adventurer like you. Then I took an arrow in the knee.

Last month we had ESET breaking performance monitors and that took a lot of negative feedback before they fixed it because, per usual ESET stance, they initially refused to acknowledge the possibility of a problem on their end.

Now, since a couple of days ago, I've started to experience several HTTP Bad Request errors on random pages on multiple computers. Guess which application I had to uninstall to make it all go away? I don't know what's been going on, but these past six or so months ESET has dropped the ball regularly with their module updates.

So given the recent events, I would have to recommend to simply stick to Defender. It works well enough and I never noticed it randomly breaking stuff without an explanation. Or go with Kaspersky, because despite some specific issues I faced with my use case and their AV, it also never broke anything during all the time I've used it.
no offense, but what's a "performance monitor," and how were they broken??
 

cofer123

Level 2
Sep 7, 2021
95
no offense, but what's a "performance monitor," and how were they broken??
It's what Windows uses to monitor hardware usage, like CPU, GPU, I/O (disk, memory, interprocess communication, networking, etc), among many other counters that Windows relies on to monitor system behavior. Quite a few of these monitors became corrupted and unable to function after some regular module update by ESET.

The most noticeable issue was with the one that monitors GPU usage. Lots of people were affected and noticed that GPU usage vanished from Task Manager and some applications that relied on GPU acceleration failed to launch since these were unable to detect a GPU installed on the system.

Took a while and some convincing, but ESET issued a fix that stopped breaking the performance monitors around ~5 days after the first reports. Took them about 2 weeks to issue an update that reversed the damage, but users managed to come with a workaround that would restore the performance monitors in the meantime, although that required user intervention.
 

simmerskool

Level 31
Verified
Top Poster
Well-known
Apr 16, 2017
2,094
It's what Windows uses to monitor hardware usage, like CPU, GPU, I/O (disk, memory, interprocess communication, networking, etc), among many other counters that Windows relies on to monitor system behavior. Quite a few of these monitors became corrupted and unable to function after some regular module update by ESET.

The most noticeable issue was with the one that monitors GPU usage. Lots of people were affected and noticed that GPU usage vanished from Task Manager and some applications that relied on GPU acceleration failed to launch since these were unable to detect a GPU installed on the system.

Took a while and some convincing, but ESET issued a fix that stopped breaking the performance monitors around ~5 days after the first reports. Took them about 2 weeks to issue an update that reversed the damage, but users managed to come with a workaround that would restore the performance monitors in the meantime, although that required user intervention.
oh ok, sorry for being temp dumber than usual. I open monitors sometimes, normally I just run Dan's bottleneck full-time, and if something seems to be digging into my system, I open others. But gee, really, for me, ESET has been problem-free and light. as @Raiden said different machines, different av run better or worse, good starting point now is MS Defender.
 
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ForgottenSeer 97327

On Windows 22H2, which is currently on Release Preview and Beta build, even if you install a third party AV, the Microsoft Defender service keeps running. I tested with Bitdefender and ESET and same result on both. Though it doesn't seem to use CPU. Consumes very little ram, but it's always running. Tools like Defender Control can't stop it. It comes back. Also, it updates its signature a couple of minutes after system boot up because almost all third party AVs takes a few minutes to register into Windows Security after system boot up, and it seems for that couple of minutes Microsoft Defender acts as the main AV.
Nice find (y) When your AV does not have an ELAM driver, it could fall back to WD's build-in ELAM (just a guess)
 

Bumblebee Uncle

Level 3
Well-known
Mar 15, 2022
108
I have seen this type of test on YT and I liked it because it allows us to evaluate the real effectiveness of the BB component of an antivirus.
This is not how BB's are tested. They might be tested like this in isolation (in a sandbox for instance) during development. But, turning a component/module off to test an AV is an archaic strategy for AV's where all modules are layered and intertwined. For a layered AV, if one component doesn't detect something, then the next component/module picks up on it.

So, seeing a test on YT and using that as a reference is a bit flawed. My two cents on this.
 

NeonTrotsky

New Member
Dec 31, 2022
1
I'd go for Bitdefender. It is a bit ram intensive though (shouldn't be an issue if you have more than 8gb ram). Next choice is Kaspersky which is much lighter.
 

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