Advice Request The Best Ad-Free and Free Antivirus for Windows 10?

[Ink]

Microsoft Defender Antivirus
+ No Ads
+ No upgrade banners
+ No Subscription messages
+ No Sponsored or Bundled software
+ No "hacks" required

Enjoy.

 

[DaffyDaDuck]

Hey, spawn!

That is what I am currently using till I find another alternative. I know some people bash AVG (other post) and I had no issues till now which made me MAD. LOL! - There is a upcoming update that may fix some issues going on according the support so lets see.

FYI, NVIDIA off-site here with 75+ employees just use windows defender with (VPN) and no issues at all. And I read so many articles stating windows defender (2020) is all you really need and just be careful on what you are opening.

 

[CyberTech]

FYI, NVIDIA off-site here with 75+ employees just use windows defender with (VPN) and no issues at all.

Really? source?

 

[Lenny_Fox]

Microsoft Defender Antivirus
+ No Ads
+ No upgrade banners
+ No Subscription messages
+ No Sponsored or Bundled software
+ No "hacks" required

Enjoy.

AGREE, with one addition

Although it is not a a hack, just an easy user interface for powershellscipts/group policy tweaking with good / safe default settings, I would like to add: AndyFul/ConfigureDefender

 

[redsworn]

+ No Ads

I disagree. This post clearly is an ad for WD!

On a more serious note, I haven't had to install any 3rd party AV on my family and friends computer since last year. Now WD is miles away from its initial inception. It's good enough for average users. I usually just add uBO (don't be surprised most of them are either don't know or too lazy to install a friggin adblocker) and OSA on top of that.
And the most important part is I keep drilling the mantra "Don't be a click happy sheep!" into their thick head. Haven't heard them having problem with malware infections ever since.

 

[monkeylove]

From what I remember, Kaspersky, Bitdefender, Avast, and Panda had options to disable ads. I choose the first because of that plus it's the fastest.

 

[RejZoR]

Anything is faster than Windows Defender. But that's hugely unpopular "opinion" around here because praise the lord Windows Defender.

Also its whining about mandatory quick scans is sometimes more annoying than any popup in avast! that you can dismiss with one click and you won't see it for weeks again. But you absolutely have to do the damn quick scan in WD otherwise it'll keep on bugging you about it. Why is there real-time module if it's so persistent with scheduled on-demand scanning? Also WD has no web scanning apart from SmartScreen just bluntly checking URL's if they are malicious and it also has zero behavior blocking. If anyone has ever seen it actually showcase it and even detect anything with it, make sure to document it because it'll be in the archive of "super rare sightings".

 

[Andy Ful]

Anything is faster than Windows Defender. But that's hugely unpopular "opinion" around here because praise the lord Windows Defender.

You are starting the unnecessary fight (again) by generalizing your bad experience with WD and saying untrue statements about people's opinions. Did not you learn anything from the other thread?

...
Also WD has no web scanning apart from SmartScreen just bluntly checking URL's if they are malicious and it also has zero behavior blocking. If anyone has ever seen it actually showcase it and even detect anything with it, make sure to document it because it'll be in the archive of "super rare sightings".

Some of your statements ("SmartScreen just bluntly checking URLs", "zero behavior blocking") are not true and can be understood by some members as bashing WD (or Windows built-in protection). Please learn more about WD instead of repeating misguiding information. Furthermore, this thread is not about which AV is the worst, but about which AV is the best.

 

[TairikuOkami]

But that's hugely unpopular "opinion" around here because praise the lord Windows Defender.

Every forum has its unwritten rules, in this one, do not dare to bash WD. In tenforums, do not dare to say anything bad against Windows 10 in general.
Either get along with it or get lost. It is pretty simple, one of the reasons I left Wilders, but I have learnt to get along with it and I try to avoid topics like that.

 

[Andy Ful]

Every forum has its unwritten rules, in this one, do not dare to bash WD. In tenforums, do not dare to say anything bad against Windows 10 in general.
Either get along with it or get lost. It is pretty simple, one of the reasons I left Wilders, but I have learnt to get along with it and I try to avoid topics like that.

I would like to extend the rules a little.
"Do not dare to bash any AV", especially by generalizing your own experience and denying the experience of other people.
Insisting that my truth is better than your truth, on the base of my truth only, should be forbidden.

 

[RejZoR]

Every forum has its unwritten rules, in this one, do not dare to bash WD. In tenforums, do not dare to say anything bad against Windows 10 in general.
Either get along with it or get lost. It is pretty simple, one of the reasons I left Wilders, but I have learnt to get along with it and I try to avoid topics like that.

If you look at Wilders, because of "no comparisons" policy, "other antiviruses" section is essentially dead. I mean, who's even surprised when you're not allowed to talk about antiviruses in an antivirus section... XD

 

[SeriousHoax]

it also has zero behavior blocking. If anyone has ever seen it actually showcase it and even detect anything with it, make sure to document it because it'll be in the archive of "super rare sightings".

It doesn't have a traditional behavior blocker but it does have behavioral signatures which can catch threats post execution based on behavior.
I tested WD last year for a brief period of time here in the hub and it caught some Java/Adwind malwares based on post execution behavior.

Here are some links of such signatures:
Behavior:Win32/SuspHijackAttempt.A threat description - Microsoft Security Intelligence

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/wdsi/threats/malware-encyclopedia-description?Name=Behavior:Win32/Emotet_NRI.A&ThreatID=2147743588

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/wdsi/threats/malware-encyclopedia-description?Name=Behavior:Win32/AmsiPsObfus&ThreatID=2147760698

Here Microsoft publish every signature they add to their local database. If you check history of "Security intelligence update version" which I do often you'll see them adding these behavioral signatures quite regularly:

Antimalware updates change log - Microsoft Security Intelligence

 

[blackice]

I would like to extend the rules a little.
"Do not dare to bash any AV", especially by generalizing your own experience and denying the experience of other people.
Insisting that my truth is better than your truth, on the base of my truth only, should be forbidden.

Agreed! All anecdotal evidence may say is that a specific AV can be problematic for one person or small sample size, or good for one person or small sample size. It can be helpful, but is not the whole picture. If we keep this perspective discussions may be useful.

 

[ForgottenSeer 72227]

Anything is faster than Windows Defender. But that's hugely unpopular "opinion" around here because praise the lord Windows Defender.

I dont think anyone here on this forum is down on their hands and knees praising WD. The disconnect here isn't that you cannot say bad things about WD, it's that you are trying to argue with other telling them that their experience is wrong, they are making it up and that only your opinion is the correct one. In fact there are others here that have similar opinions to yours. The difference is, they don't go around thread to thread about WD esentially stating that everyone experiencing no issues with WD is wrong.

Feel free to express your opinion on the matter, but if anything learn to respect other people's opinions. This isn't a you know what contest. There are plenty of options to choose from when it comes to AVs. Everyone just needs to use what works for them. WD is only but one option, its not the only option. If it doesn't work for you regardless of reason, use something else.

No need to constantly beat a dead horse over it.

Every forum has its unwritten rules, in this one, do not dare to bash WD. In tenforums, do not dare to say anything bad against Windows 10 in general.
Either get along with it or get lost. It is pretty simple, one of the reasons I left Wilders, but I have learnt to get along with it and I try to avoid topics like that.

Its all about respect IMHO. Everyone will have differing opinions on this, or that, but at the end of the day its suppose to be about respecting one another. Problem is, people on both sides of any debate are more focused in proving themselves correct, rather than having a proper discussion. It becomes this I'm right and your wrong debate.

There may be unwritten rules on any forum, but I don't think there's one here about WD. There are plenty of people here who use it without issues and there's others here who have had issues. The same can be said for any product. The problem here isn't that there's an unwritten rule, its just we have some who just want to ignore the experiences of others and expect everyone to assume that their experience is the correct one.

As I've said above, just use what ever works for you, that's all that matters. No need to constantly argue over this, over and over. Its just software, get over it. There are much bigger things in life to worry about than this.

 

[ErzCrz]

I've tried lots of free AVs, the least intrusive outside of WD was always Comodo because you had the option to turn off those notifications and make choices during installation. In the end, with lack up consistent updates and seeking a different default deny solution, I moved to WD after discovering Hard_Configurator. Just depends on really what your willing to put up with but M$ has investment in having a secure OS, otherwise, people would just switch to something else like Linux. Tools like ConfigureDefender, Firewall Hardening and Hard_Configurator make locking down the OS so much easier and it's what works for me.

 

[plat]

Antivirus is like a bathing suit: one size does NOT fit all.

 

[Cortex]

I don't have any recent experience of free AV's - But For others rather than used paid AV's, they will probably get WD & I'll be happy about it.

 

[show-Zi]

Enjoy.

I will add it after agreeing
+ Fastest and most reliable adaptation to Windows upgrade

There may be unwritten rules on any forum, but I don't think there's one here about WD. There are plenty of people here who use it without issues and there's others here who have had issues. The same can be said for any product. The problem here isn't that there's an unwritten rule, its just we have some who just want to ignore the experiences of others and expect everyone to assume that their experience is the correct one.

I think this word is also a valid opinion for the reputation of the latest build of Windows.

"If the people have no AV, let them use WD."

 

[robbyrob]

FYI, NVIDIA off-site here with 75+ employees just use windows defender with (VPN) and no issues at all. And I read so many articles stating windows defender (2020) is all you really need and just be careful on what you are opening.

Amazon uses Defender as well. Actually, they will not let you use any other antivirus.

 

[monkeylove]

I did simple tests using NovaBench free and noted that performance goes up and down. In my case, it's relatively fast for Avast (no popup ads AFAIK) and Kaspersky (some popups) but slow for Bitdefender (popup ads can be disabled) and Defender.