How to live without an antivirus?

[jackuars]

When I'm too concerned about the performance of my system, I would like to have no antivirus installed on my system.

How do you live in this scenario without getting infected, like when you go online or connect to external drives?

What software's do you use to protect you [in real-time and on-demand], except for using common sense [obviously], but sometimes I would not heed to it but download torrents and stuff.

In short you need to have a clean system at the end of the day. Preferrably at the cost of nothing.

 

[Rengar]

You can have addguard for online threats.
Dont download crap torrents .
Also you can scan your pc every week with on demand scanners.

 

[jackuars]

Dont download crap torrents .

As mentioned in the first post, yes I would have to in certain cases. But common sense can help in most scenario's, while am talking of scenario's like 'just in case something happens/is infected'.

 

[Xsjx]

When I'm too concerned about the performance of my system, I would like to have no antivirus installed on my system.

How do you live in this scenario without getting infected, like when you go online or connect to external hard disk drives?

What software's do you use to protect you [in real-time and on-demand], except for using common sense [obviously], but sometimes I would not heed to it but download torrents and stuff.

In short you need to have a clean system at the end of the day.

Avira browser safety, SecureAplus/Voodooshield (Pro),And a addblocker you like

 

[Handsome Recluse]

AVs (and VoodooShield like stuff) are probably the only way for a home user to do all of detect, prevent and remove threats you deliberately ran with little micromanagement. Uploading to VT or sandbox requires a bit more micromanagement. The VT extensions are for downloads only. Neither protect you from autorun from non-web sources. The only thing that can replace that really is common sense. The non-deliberate vectors that antivirus protects from the network inbound firewalls and the web adblockers will protect you against. Maybe some form of USB protection. Of course backups allows you to recover from all of those.
Of course, if you don't click on stuff anyway anything is possible. You can choose them to be stronger or weaker. Updates are already taken care of and automatic anyway.

 

[Evjl's Rain]

I have suggestion to use zemana as realtime protection because it's so so light, similarly to webroot

because it doesn't have on-access activity scanning, same as webroot, so it won't affect your pc performance

almost all AVs monitor and scan every single click and access of your PC so this causes slowdown

try it before moving on

consider other suggestions

I also use voodooshield but sometimes I'm tired of clicking allow, allow allow

 

[Handsome Recluse]

I have suggestion to use zemana as realtime protection because it's so so light, similarly to webroot

because it doesn't have on-access activity scanning, same as webroot, so it won't affect your pc performance

almost all AVs monitor and scan every single click and access of your PC so this causes slowdown

try it before moving on

consider other suggestions

I also use voodooshield but sometimes I'm tired of clicking allow, allow allow

Interesting. Even though you said it's bad realtime... More interesting though. How do they do their realtime? And if any are similar.

 

[Janl1992l]

There is a "simple" way. Use a antiexe, whitelist software. Most of the time, when not everytime it is way more effective than a av.

 

[HarborFront]

What you need is to setup a signature-less system for protection. You can use totally freeware or use paid ware to serve the purpose

For freeware I would recommend

1) For Windows
- Set UAC to maximum and turn on SmartScreen.
- Permanently disable default Windows Firewall and Windows Defender
2) VoodooShield
3) SecureAPlus (without anti-virus)
4) Comodo Personal Firewall (comes with FW + SB + HIPS)
5) AppCheck Antiransomware
6) MBRFilter (to use with AppCheck in a PC that comes with a BIOS)
7) Xvirus Anti-Malware 7 (comes with File Guard + System Guard + Network Guard)
8) MalwareBytes Anti-Exploits (free)
9) For USB Protection – MCShield, USB Disk Security and G Data USB Keyboard Guard
10) Run a hardened browser, like Opera (with its VPN), inside Comodo’s sandbox

Other freeware

1) AdwCleaner
2) NoBot
3) Quick Heal BOT Removal Tool
4) Unchecky
5) SUMo
6) Simple DNSCrypt
7) On-demand scanners : Zemana AntiMalware (free) and MalwareBytes AntiMalware v2.x

For paid ware you can combo the followings

AppGuard
DeepArmor
ReHIPS
VoodooShield (paid)
HitmanPro Alert + HitmanPro
Zemana Antilogger
AppCheck Antiransomware Pro or Temasoft Ranstop
Paid VPN

 

[Xsjx]

What you need is to setup a signature-less system for protection. You can use totally freeware or use paid ware to serve the purpose

For freeware I would recommend

1) For Windows
- Set UAC to maximum and turn on SmartScreen.
- Permanently disable default Windows Firewall and Windows Defender
2) VoodooShield
3) SecureAPlus (without anti-virus)
4) Comodo Personal Firewall (comes with FW + SB + HIPS)
5) AppCheck Anti-Ransomware
6) MBRFilter (to use with AppCheck with a PC that comes with a BIOS)
7) Xvirus Anti-Malware 7 (comes with File Guard + System Guard + Network Guard)
8) MalwareBytes Anti-Exploits
9) For USB Protection – MCShield and USB Disk Security
10) Run a hardened browser inside Comodo’s sandbox

Other software

1) AdwCleaner
2) NoBot
3) Quick Heal BOT Removal Tool
4) Unchecky
5) SUMo
6) Simple DNSCrypt
7) On-demand scanners : Zemana AntiMalware (free) and MalwareBytes AntiMalware v2.x

For paid ware you can combo the followings

AppGuard
DeepArmor
ReHIPS
VoodooShield (paid)
HitmanPro Alert + HitmanPro
Zemana Antilogger
AppCheck Antiransom Pro or Temasoft Ranstop

Ehmmmm.... If this is what is called light i need to call every other av software ULTRA LIGHT..

 

[Evjl's Rain]

Interesting. Even though you said it's bad realtime... More interesting though. How do they do their realtime?

yes it's bad in realtime because of the lack of on-access scanning
it should be paired with other products like anti-exes and decicated antiransomware tools to be effective
in the end, the system will be extremely fast and well protected
zemana for it's good signatures and lightness
antiexe for the rest

the downside of an antiexe is that most lacks the ability to help us to decide if A or B are safe or not
voodooshield has this feature but it's not as light as NVT ERP

edit: if zemana has on-access scanning. it would be extremely good so we don't have to use it as second-opinion scanner anymore

 

[Handsome Recluse]

Ehmmmm.... If this is what is called light i need to call every other av software ULTRA LIGHT..

Woah there. These are just recommendations.

 

[Marko :)]

I was using my old laptop without any antivirus and I didn't got any viruses.

You should install Avira Browser Safety and Adguard in browser. Make sure that you enable phishing and malware protection in Adguard's settings. After that, change your DNS servers to Norton DNS. Put UAC on Always notify and turn on Windows Firewall. Lastly, I would install HitmanPro and make it scan PC on startup (even though you need to pay for deleting malware when trial expires). There is an option when installing HitmanPro for that. About USB part, don't plug in USB sticks if you don't have to.

Even if you're concerned about performance, I would recommend you to install Avast Antivirus. It's light on resources, doesn't use a lot of RAM and CPU and has really good protection. If you're gamer, you can add games to Avast Game mode, it will boost performance in games (it really works).

 

[cruelsister]

Jack- Being Internet smart is a good thing, but really may not help all the time. When I was abroad a number of years back the Peugeot site was hacked by someone who liberated their FTP credentials. So when a user clicked on to get info about a particular model they were served up with both the information sought as well as a trojan. Being smart was not helpful as a person would have no reasonable expectation of being infected. So look at the Internet as you would using an ATM with a RAM scraper installed- being smart may be meaningless.

And try CF for a week or so- you can be other than smart and it won't matter...

 

[Deleted Member 3a5v73x]

When I'm too concerned about the performance of my system, I would like to have no antivirus installed on my system.

How do you live in this scenario without getting infected, like when you go online or connect to external drives?

Assuming that Windows Defender is by default on and not turned off, for browser protection Sandboxie free, for usb protection MCShield. What else is needed really if you aren't a "happy clicker"? If i really want my system running with no additional 3th party AV, then i most probably buy HitmanPro.Alert, AppGuard, (VoodooShield too unreliable for me), or master my way to use Windows AppLocker or use AppSamvid.

 

[CMLew]

When I'm too concerned about the performance of my system, I would like to have no antivirus installed on my system.

How do you live in this scenario without getting infected, like when you go online or connect to external drives?

What software's do you use to protect you [in real-time and on-demand], except for using common sense [obviously], but sometimes I would not heed to it but download torrents and stuff.

In short you need to have a clean system at the end of the day. Preferrably at the cost of nothing.

Previously I used

Appguard + NVT ERP + WFC. No antivirus involved. All in lockdown mode. Run programs under SUA with restrictions.

If u want free, Voodooshield does its job best.
If you're using non-Chrome or non-EDGE browser, add in ShadeSandbox or Sandboxie.

 

[Winter Soldier]

How to live without an antivirus?
I agree with @davisd, considering the great majority of threats comes from the internet, I think it is sufficient to use your default browser under Sandboxie.
You can read email and do online activities in a virtualized session, saving files and documents that are of interest to you and also scanning them on VT.
If you use Windows 10 then WD is active as integral part of the system, and could protect without creating problems.

 

[cruelsister]

David- WD uses the Cloud to stay up to date on current malware. An issue lately is that malware have been preventing WD from connecting out by manipulating Windows Firewall settings. Essentially rules can be created by malware (normally via netsh) to block WD and at the same time allow malware network access. It's a problem that isn't discussed very much.

 

[Deleted member 178]

How do you live in this scenario without getting infected, like when you go online or connect to external drives?

What software's do you use to protect you [in real-time and on-demand], except for using common sense [obviously], but sometimes I would not heed to it but download torrents and stuff.

In short you need to have a clean system at the end of the day. Preferrably at the cost of nothing.

ummmmmmmmmmmmmm... Appguard. You are welcome, bye

 

[Atlas147]

Sandboxie, Shadow Defender and Voodoo Shield