Advanced Plus Security Moonhorse 2026 windows config

[Moonhorse]

22.2.2025

Gave zonealarm a try, but its still making my gaming pc run sluggish > clean install > installed kaspersky plus since i have 1.5 years of license left

Current setup:
- Kaspersky premium on default settings
- Adguard ( enabled url tracking filter, ublock origin badware risks, online malicious url list(?) + encrypted hello client enabled)
- Google chrome ( since it works with the android version of kaspersky best, + new ai protection is probably decent )

Might try sophos home premium in future as its cheap 15€/year but wont beat kaspersky at all, but lets see how long im keeping kaspersky running , plan is forever

 

[Moonhorse]

After 4 months i ditched kaspersky, was curious about sophos and when i logged in to sophos dashboard i noticed i had license of sophos home free.
I asked whats the case since i saw i had sophos home free, even they discontinued sophos free. But it seems if u had sophos home free license before they discontinued it you keeped it.

Here is chat with the bot:

Current dashboard of sophos home free & pictures of sophos home free

 

[Moonhorse]

So i ditched kaspersky.

Current setup is:
Sophos home free as antivirus
Adguard as adblocker
Firefox as browser, bitwarden as extension.

 

[brambedkar59]

...lets see how long im keeping kaspersky running , plan is forever

So i ditched kaspersky.

 

[harlan4096]

Let's see how long will take to back to Kaspersky

 

[oldschool]

it seems if u had sophos home free license before they discontinued it you keeped it.

Wow! Who knew? I used Sophos when I first joined the forum. I think @Shadowra needs to test it again to see how it performs. It used to have great web filtering, and even the knucklehead at TPCSC praised it back in the day.

 

[Moonhorse]

Let's see how long will take to back to Kaspersky

Kaspersky just is too good to be true, wanted to get back to MalwareTips mood and change antivirus more often

Wow! Who knew? I used Sophos when I first joined the forum. I think @Shadowra needs to test it again to see how it performs. It used to have great web filtering, and even the knucklehead at TPCSC praised it back in the day.

Yeah, i thought they discontinued the '' home free '' from all users but if you used it when it was active you keeped the license. I can remember that it was decent antivirus back then even without premium and probably is still. Since its more lighter than zonealarm nextgen wich i have license aswell and uses same sophos engine too ( surprise as it sophos itself) it was my choice to try something new again.

Web filter is great and the parental filter ( block adult sites, p2p sites etc is great tool aswell )

Also if you want premium there are discounts of 50% every time you want to buy license, sometimes even more. But i guess for cautious surfer the free is enough.

I also installed sophos intercept x on my family mobile devices wich is great too. With kaspersky you had to use google chrome for some features to work on android, but with sophos you can rock much more browsers like firefox.

 

[lokamoka820]

Sophos home free as antivirus

Is this completely free, or they just like to add "free" word to the product?

 

[Pat MacKnife]

Back in 2021 it was a free version , then suddenly they changed their minds and it was going to change to Sophos home premium (i have a license too, but haven't used it for several years)
So people who joined at sophos and made an account with sophos home free they still can download and use it.

 

[Parkinsond]

Back in 2021 it was a free version , then suddenly they changed their minds and it was going to change to Sophos home premium (i have a license too, but haven't used it for several years)
So people who joined at sophos and made an account with sophos home free they still can download and use it.

Does Sophos update such abandoned version (I mean the program itself, not just virus definitions)?

 

[Pat MacKnife]

It should update program version with the same version like home premium.... just premium have a few more layers of protection.
Just like Bitdefender free has less layers than the paid.

 

[Parkinsond]

It should update program version with the same version like home premium.... just premium have a few more layers of protection.
Just like Bitdefender free has less layers than the paid.

I can see; but it will cost to maintain the free version, as it is not exactly the premium one, while it is deprecated!

 

[Moonhorse]

Is this completely free, or they just like to add "free" word to the product?

It is free if you had account before november 11th 2021, otherwise you have no access to ''free'' anymore

Does Sophos update such abandoned version (I mean the program itself, not just virus definitions)?

Its not abandoned , its just same old dashboard as its been for years now. Theres some antiviruses that are install and forget not much to configurate and sophos is kind of one of them.

I checked the version number and it says 2023, but i saw message on reddit by sophos staff and they are planning to update version number to match current year or change it completely

and lastly about the costs keeping up 'free' version of sophos, they have kept it up already for 3 years so i dont think its randomly disappearing, but im using it as free for now and probably if im happy with it i probably pay for premium aswell. I installed it 2 days ago and so far all good.

Free version probably relys on signatures alot , but it has machine learning too, i dont know what there is built under antivirus protection thought

Sure it is bit ram hungry, but im running gaming rig, 32gb of ddr5 and i really dont see any difference compared to kaspersky or windows defender, i tried zonealarm but it kind of ran like crap on my rig ( lag spikes and slow overall usage)

Dont have process explorer installed so heres just task manager picture:

 

[lokamoka820]

It is free if you had account before november 11th 2021, otherwise you have no access to ''free'' anymore

Thank you, this explains why it is free for some and trial for others.

 

[brambedkar59]

It is free if you had account before november 11th 2021, otherwise you have no access to ''free'' anymore

I had an account, but website shows it doesn't exist anymore. Maybe they deleted it because of inactivity. I remember using home version once and it almost locked up my entire system, explorer was barely useable. Never tried it again after that.

 

[Parkinsond]

almost locked up my entire system, explorer was barely useable

The same incident with AVG or Avast; cannot recall which of them.

 

[Zartarra]

The Home version get still updates. The latest version is from april: https://support.home.sophos.com/hc/...t-and-HMPA-release-2023-2-3-13-0-April-1-2025.

Release note of the Intercept X version (mobile and desktop versions) can be found on the following page: Sophos release notes.

 

[Moonhorse]

I had an account, but website shows it doesn't exist anymore. Maybe they deleted it because of inactivity. I remember using home version once and it almost locked up my entire system, explorer was barely useable. Never tried it again after that.

For me sophos always has worked well, i just stopped using it because it was discontinued but i was checking my bitwarden accounts lately and found out i had sophos login saved, and tried logging in and surprisely it worked and turned out free version is alive for some people.

I dont usually have problems running any antivirus, except if they conflict in some way and make some tool ( adguard as example ) to not work, wich is case with the avg, norton, avast ( or was problem year ago atleast)

I kind of wanted to use zonealarm nextgen but it makes my computer run very bad, even i have end game rig ( for antivirus atleast)
But since sophos uses sophos signatures ( same as zonealarm nextgen) and has good reputation overall im going with this setup for now, surely it might change someday

 

[Moonhorse]

1.7.2025
- Bought sophos home premium 3 years for 50 usd

- Replaced firefox with google chrome for now, since the sophos website says this:

I sent ticket to sophos support about browser, does it affect anyhow into protection and for now im sticking google chrome. Atleast i tested phishing sites on both firefox and chrome and got same blocking message of phishing site so i dont think there is difference

 

[Moonhorse]

Update 21.7.2025

+ Added Osprey extension to firefox ( + added it to all mobile devices aswell)

Btw, sophos got updated and new version gone from 2023>2024

Its one of the antiviruses i see updating signatures very often