Advice Request What antivirus is everyone currently recommending?

[RoboMan]

I like the trio of Windows Defender, Malwarebytes Pro, and Cyberlock. They play nicely together and everything gets scanned three times instead of just once.
Acadia

Doesn't Defender get disabled upon MBAM Pro installation?

 

[Antimalware18]

I have decided to stay away from Gen Digital products, (see other post as to why)....

After testing for the last year using a clean install, I have opted for the following vendors: Eset, F-Secure, and Emsisoft

While I support your message of not supporting Gen Digital products, isnt putting F-Secure on your list inadvertantly supporting gen digital as they use Avira's engine now and Avira is owned by gen digital ultimately or am I wrong?

 

[Digmor Crusher]

Doesn't Defender get disabled upon MBAM Pro installation?

Depends, there's a setting you can turn off so that it does not get disabled.

 

[annaegorov]

I like the trio of Windows Defender, Malwarebytes Pro, and Cyberlock. They play nicely together and everything gets scanned three times instead of just once.
Acadia

Uhh Not sure I understand.

You can install MWBAMW, and if it runs on start-up, it takes the place of Defender right?

If you install MWBAMW and set it to NOT run, then Defender ends up being your AV solution, and MWBAMW is just a secondary manual scanner, right?

In other words you can't have Defender, and MWBAMW running at the same time, both as active scanners.

Or am I misunderstanding

 

[simmerskool]

Uhh Not sure I understand.

You can install MWBAMW, and if it runs on start-up, it takes the place of Defender right?

If you install MWBAMW and set it to NOT run, then Defender ends up being your AV solution, and MWBAMW is just a secondary manual scanner, right?

In other words you can't have Defender, and MWBAMW running at the same time, both as active scanners.

Or am I misunderstanding

there's an ON/OFF switch in mbam about registering it with the Windows Security Center. If you register mbam it becomes your primary AV and turns off parts of MS Defender. if you don't register mbam then MSD remains primary, but mbam will also run in real-time (that's my understanding)

 

[monkeylove]

I got Kaspersky Standard for only around 11 USD (three devices/one year) from an online store (used Urban VPN free and set it to the country of the online store to activate the AV).

You can probably try that or look for cheap deals for other AVs (Avast, AVG, or Bitdefender), or for free versions, settle for Avast, AVG, Bitdefender (set anti-ransomware remediation elsewhere), or Avira (settle for web protection using browser extensions).

 

[Digmor Crusher]

Uhh Not sure I understand.

You can install MWBAMW, and if it runs on start-up, it takes the place of Defender right?

If you install MWBAMW and set it to NOT run, then Defender ends up being your AV solution, and MWBAMW is just a secondary manual scanner, right?

In other words you can't have Defender, and MWBAMW running at the same time, both as active scanners.

Or am I misunderstanding

You can run both with real time protection if you turn off the setting to register Malwarebytes in the Windows security center.

 

[Acadia]

All the replies about MD and Malwarebytes are correct. When configured correctly, this is one of the rare combos where you can have two real-time AV running at the same time. The creator of Malwarebytes did a great job with that. Been running that combo for years, no problems.
Acadia

 

[annaegorov]

there's an ON/OFF switch in mbam about registering it with the Windows Security Center. If you register mbam it becomes your primary AV and turns off parts of MS Defender. if you don't register mbam then MSD remains primary, but mbam will also run in real-time (that's my understanding)

Really, well that is amazing, and possibly a great solution for millions of people, if only MSD didn't slow down my PC along with file transfers... TY

 

[Acadia]

Here is the setting in MB Pro to disable that allows it to coexist with MD.

 

[Jonny Quest]

While I support your message of not supporting Gen Digital products, isnt putting F-Secure on your list inadvertantly supporting gen digital as they use Avira's engine now and Avira is owned by gen digital ultimately or am I wrong?

F-Secure is using Avira's SDK, but for now they are still independent with their own UI, Settings, their proprietary Password Vault and browser extension with its browser protection, along with using Pango VPN servers. I get the gist of what you're saying, but for now it's "just" the Avira SDK.

So until that time comes when/if F-Secure announces it's been bought out by Gen Digital, I'll still consider it being its own, separate entity.

Cheers

 

[Zero Knowledge]

F-Secure is a dead company IMHO. So is Avira if you ask me. Avast/AVG/Norton are still being actively developed and are much better options.

 

[Jonny Quest]

F-Secure is a dead company IMHO. So is Avira if you ask me. Avast/AVG/Norton are still being actively developed and are much better options.

I agree, and I'm not here trying to convince anyone otherwise. But, with my very limited online browsing and installing my default 8 -9 apps on my laptops which is pretty much it, and not downloading the internet and a myriad of apps every day, I feel good about the protection I'm getting. Let alone doing the occasional 2nd opinion scans.

I do like the layout and settings, which are all I need. For me, it still does a very nice job with it's browser protection, I have a sense of comfort in using the banking protection (I only open the one tab) and the low system impact.

Besides, even though the VPN isn't of a Mullvad or Proton caliber, it does the job for public Wi-Fi @ only $10.00 for 3 devices for one year, and it works great for me. Proton free was never connecting to the closest server but somewhere in Europe even after reconnects and laptop restarts.

So until that time comes, I'll gladly keep using it