Battle Which antivirus software do you recommend?

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Cats-4_Owners-2

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Although I have had very good experiences with (2) of the Internet Security Suites mentioned in MascHera's survey list (Each happen to begin with the letter "E";)) I, in fact, chose "Other".o_O As already suggested by wiser minds than my own, trying out the choices you've narrowed down to may be an excellent way to insure your long term satisfaction for at least the next year plus thirty days free which is the customary trial period for each respective provider of paid security solutions. If you were trying on clothes or, perhaps more fittingly, making a decision on a vehicle to carry you down the road safely, taking numerous test drives in determining which you feel most comfortable with shall certainly be worth your efforts.
We all look forward to learning the outcome of which you'll eventually choose, and your reasons why. Until then, good hunting; and may you come away with your new personal favorite!:)
 
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King Alpha

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Choosing an AV is a matter of personal preference, your needs, your technical ability and experience, features offered, user friendliness, ease of updating , ease of installation/removal, availability of quality/prompt technical support from the vendor and price. I hope you'll find your preferred AV very soon. :)
 

CMLew

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If I were to choose among those you listed, I'll go for Emsisoft (EIS).
It's a no brainer. Install and run. No configuration required.
Cost wise; I believe should be the most affordable one compared to the rest listed @ $24.97 from their main webpage and it goes down as years goes by due to loyalty discount (up to 60%).

With that being said, Internet Security alone is not enough if you're high risk user.
You need other tools to complement them.
 

jamescv7

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Sometimes do not rely too much on independent testing organizations since same product names will just be on the top unless with strong justification on methodology.

For starters.

  • Avira Free, Avast Free or AVG; both provide good balance of protection where each of them contains their backup components if signature base/cloud reputation failed to prevent infections. *
  • Honestly companion products like Crystal Security or SecureAplus is a way to go because of the features that will enhance the security setup. Although not all novice users will know this product very well hence some enthusiastic users must convince to use on their systems.
For experience users or with sufficient budget.
  • ESET Antivirus/IS is a good alternative compare on other well stream product, since the overall performance has been prove enough through fast response detection. The capabilities are measured enough that chances of bypass will be minimal, hence HIPS will be your final stop.
  • Kaspersky Antivirus/IS still maintains the good reputation at all and users has the opportunity to grab the license since protection still does not create any downfall. However bear enough the possible performance issues.
  • Norton, Dr.Web or Emsisoft are on the acceptable choice since the streamline concepts bring huge impression to the users, enough for minimal preparation for the configuration on system.

* Avira does not have any HIPS/BB but rather cloud functionality alongside of signatures

Note: The products that are not mention, does not mean it is bad, however we have different views and perspectives so again use any products wisely.
 
O

Omnipotent

They're all very good, it's hard to decide which one to choose from. It's either going to be Kaspersky or ESET.

Kaspersky: All round best protection. Dominates the security market. A bit heavy on your PC.

ESET: Always one step ahead of malware creators, they add signatures to their database the fastest. A lot of crypters on popular marketplaces are nearly always detected by ESET. Has very good zero-day protection. Very light-weight too.
 

CMLew

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Gee I feel so lonely. Am I the only one using Windows Defender? Always updated, no nags, pretty good detection. I run it with Voodooshield Pro and ZAL. So far this combo is running great together.

As long as you are comfortable with it and you know what you are doing, it's a very good and strong security there. Like I previously state, the simpler/less complicated the security combo, the better you work on your comp (KISS Principle).

Of course, no harm investing a security software to better protect yourself. But if you have no idea how it works and don't know how to make it works then I don't see the point of buying it.
 

Evjl's Rain

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I voted for Kaspersky.

But it's strange how no one has voted Bitdefender, despite of very good results it obtained in AV-Comparatives (Real-World Protection Test) :

Real-World Protection Test - AV-Comparatives

What is the reason to leave it behind? :)

Thanks in advance!
bitdefender has a chronic problem with internet download manager and some other programs that after download stops, network still downloads at the same rate, so I uninstalled BD. it was a long time ago
2nd problem is it comsumes a lot of ram and resources which can be monitored using process explorer (task manager doesn't show all ram usage)
3rd problem (old version) it disinfects infected files and makes them unusable by changing the extension to something I forgot
a lot of problems which I dont remember that I never use BD again. Dont know about the current version but it's a NO from me
 
H

hjlbx

okay, so "abused" is what we don't want to happen.
Does a traditional AV with a good HIPS protect against this?

Not always; exploit of browser can bypass HIPS, anti-executable - just one example.

It is best security to disable all unneeded vulnerable processes shipped with Windows.

However, that being said, the risk of a browser exploit is very low.
 

shmu26

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Not sure if that is a bug in Windows or intended design. Makes no sense to me.

That's why it is best to use a software restriction policy soft. anti-executable or HIPS to disable vulnerable processes.
with hindsight, I realize that I probably could have just marked those exe files as "untrusted" in Kaspersky TAM.

any other vulnerable files that you would recommend marking as "untrusted", besides windows script host, which I already disabled through registry?
 

FrankS

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Kaspersky or Emsisoft. Both got a nice signature based detection and a good behavior analysis - in relation to the signature based detection Emsisoft is better. Both Antivirus-Vendors got a good Support, too. But I wouldn't recommend an Internet Security. Antivirus is more than enough.
 

shmu26

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Kaspersky or Emsisoft. Both got a nice signature based detection and a good behavior analysis - in relation to the signature based detection Emsisoft is better. Both Antivirus-Vendors got a good Support, too. But I wouldn't recommend an Internet Security. Antivirus is more than enough.
Kaspersky anti-virus version does not have application control, which is an added layer of HIPS protection. You only get it with KIS or KTS
 

FrankS

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Kaspersky anti-virus version does not have application control, which is an added layer of HIPS protection. You only get it with KIS or KTS
Yes indeed. You're right. But I don't recommend Internet or Total/Maximum Security Suites because of possible vulnerabilities.
An Anti-Virus program got enough vulnerabilities I guess - Tavis Ormandy and Joxean Koret have already proved it.
Internet / Total / Maximum Security Suites have much more components, which could include more vulnerabilities.
More components = more program code = more possible vulnerabilities.
So how good you're really protected if you dragging around several vulnerabilities among the running processes with you?
I would always recommend an anti-virus program running together with a behavior anlaysing program like EMET, MBAE or HMP.Alert.
 

Rajat

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Oct 20, 2015
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If you are an Advanced User & like to play with different settings than Kaspersky can offer you things as per your Needs. It has application control feature which it uses as Zero Day Component. You can actually tweak the Kind of Zero Day Protection you want & that's the best part about it. It has also significantly improved on its Signatures. Since 1 month i have been testing KIS against Virussign samples & in almost every test it managed to score 90-90+.
 

shicomu

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Aug 22, 2016
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For me the compare is quite simple :

Eset Smart Security 9 ; Does what it should do , not to resource hungry , good pricing
Emsisoft Internet Security 11 ; Seems a bit sluggish to me , can recommend it as a on-demand product
Kaspersky Internet Security 17 ; Still quite resource hungry , needs tweaking in settings for optimal protection , not that cheap..
Bitdefender Internt Security 16 ; Way too many slipups when it comes to pups , too sluggish
 
D

Deleted member 2913

For me the compare is quite simple :

Eset Smart Security 9 ; Does what it should do , not to resource hungry , good pricing
Emsisoft Internet Security 11 ; Seems a bit sluggish to me , can recommend it as a on-demand product
Kaspersky Internet Security 17 ; Still quite resource hungry , needs tweaking in settings for optimal protection , not that cheap..
Bitdefender Internt Security 16 ; Way too many slipups when it comes to pups , too sluggish
Why do you think Eset does what it should do But Kaspersky needs tweaking in settings for optimal protection?

Eset defaults are signs + cloud only...cloud, hips & fw of eset in defaults are kinda passive protection But Kaspersky has couple effective protection modules.
 
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