Battle Windows Defender vs Bitdefender Free vs Kaspersky Free (2019)

[brod56]

I already have an opinion on this matter, but would like to hear yours too. It's always a popular comparison, and it would be great to take a look at it as of early 2019 in my opinion.

Most important points of comparison:
1. Perfomance impact - ram usage, internet speeds, disk speeds
2. Cloud protection and/or behavior blocker - reliability, speed
3. Offline signatures - static file detection, website filtering, false positives
4. Customization - useful settings
5. Privacy - telemetry, use of personal data

 

[inuyasha]

WD with tweaks if you don't want any additional software. Kaspersky Free or Cloud Security if you don't mind

 

[PauloXBR]

Hello everyone!
Kaspersky free for me is the best option among those presented! I've never done well with Bitdefender.
Windows Defender in my opinion has improved a lot since it was called Microsoft Security Essentials! But I agree that it should come from "factory" with more severe adjustments in the security question. Today I use F-Secure and despite presenting many false positives does not bother me, and for my system and installed softwares runs very light.

 

[StrikeFIN]

I really liked KFA 2018 version (when it was possible to turn off all not needed shields and such), 2019 free version settings were ruined

I don't have any experience about KSCF (Kaspersky Security Cloud Free), but I doubt it's better than KFA.

Kaspersky let me down, biggest reason why did I moved to Bitdefender Free side, and been using it since summer 2018.

I wonder, if someone would make video about BD Free vs Kaspersky Security Cloud Free?

 

[Arequire]

I don't have any experience about KSCF (Kaspersky Security Cloud Free), but I doubt it's better than KFA.

KSCF is KFA but with the ability to change the settings and manage multiple installations via My Kaspersky.

 

[StrikeFIN]

This just worries me, from ghacks review (security cloud free)

Kaspersky Security Cloud Free requires registration and enables remote management of connected devices automatically. Users who dislike the functionality may select Free Antivirus instead which comes without it.

Yet another forced feature? As I understood from review text, it cannot be turned off?

I'm very paranoid about remote management features in general, on PC, phones and such, I always turn them off by any cost.

 

[StrikeFIN]

Alright, KSCF used around 10-11 hours, I'm disappointed. Very likely going install BD Free back later today.

Atleast settings options were better on KSCF than on KFA 2019 version, possible to turn off those not needed shields.

I installed EU version with some extra options related to privacy and sharing information for marketing purposes and such.

Bundled with Security Connection, same as KFA those times used it, easy to unistall if you use different VPN or don't want use it.

It uses less RAM in normal use, compared to BD Free, BUT CPU usage seem to be little higher than BD Free had, and even after reboots, KSCF made fan working too hard everytime it were used :/ BD Free never made it sound this hard working way. And yeah my fans are alright, only difference is KSCF installed 10-11 hours ago, so I know.

I was little confused on certain options which mentioned some security features of Microsoft (Windows)

 

[stefanos]

Well yeah for me its working great, i choose this (AVG) because its good to play games, and it gives less ads than avast...
My computer starts (boot-time) is much faster than with BD , so for me its better.

Block with the firewall the avgui same at Avast the avastui and you don t see again ads

 

[stefanos]

after tweaking with andy's tool, I felt WD even heavier than default due to extra processing in the cloud and locally
just upgraded 3 old PCs to SSDs and cleanly installed Windows 10 1803. WD slowed down everything like a turtle. I had to disable WD during installation of essential softwares and saw immediate gain in speed. Then, I installed kaspersky free with some performance tweaks, the PCs ran a lot a lot smoother
I consider kaspersky internet security and KTS with application control = heavy, though
KAV (Paid), KFA and KSCF are much lighter because they don't have application control

WD doesn't slow down much if users only browse the web, play some games and open MS office but it will definitely slow down if users run heavy tasks which are disk-intensive (copy, install new apps, export files, process data, develop heavy apps,...)

for me, the best AV which are balance between speed and protection (after all tweaks, not default) is Avast but many people don't like it due to bugs and privacy problems

in this list, I definitely choose kaspersky free because WD, BD free for me are not good enough. Tested all of them in the hub and had the results

The last 3 months i don t see bugs from Avast. With your tweaks is very light

 

[DDE_Server]

kaspersky for sure

 

[212eta]

+1 for Kaspersky.

 

[Evjl's Rain]

Alright, KSCF used around 10-11 hours, I'm disappointed. Very likely going install BD Free back later today.

Atleast settings options were better on KSCF than on KFA 2019 version, possible to turn off those not needed shields.

I installed EU version with some extra options related to privacy and sharing information for marketing purposes and such.

Bundled with Security Connection, same as KFA those times used it, easy to unistall if you use different VPN or don't want use it.

It uses less RAM in normal use, compared to BD Free, BUT CPU usage seem to be little higher than BD Free had, and even after reboots, KSCF made fan working too hard everytime it were used :/ BD Free never made it sound this hard working way. And yeah my fans are alright, only difference is KSCF installed 10-11 hours ago, so I know.

I was little confused on certain options which mentioned some security features of Microsoft (Windows)

please follow my tweaks here. You will see significant improvement
https://malwaretips.com/threads/kas...december-2018-report.88397/page-3#post-787210

also give it some time to settle. In a few days, it will collect caches. After that, it will be faster

 

[Vasudev]

Anyone know where to download offline setup file for Kaspersky 2019 free edition? I want to install it on my sister's laptop.

 

[Vasudev]

please follow my tweaks here. You will see significant improvement
https://malwaretips.com/threads/kas...december-2018-report.88397/page-3#post-787210

also give it some time to settle. In a few days, it will collect caches. After that, it will be faster

Does it apply to Kaspersky free? If so, I'll try it. Thanks for the tips.

 

[harlan4096]

Currently it's almost impossible to find an offline installer of K2019... You may try to ask to KL Support.

Some of those tweaks are applicable also to KFA...

 

[Vasudev]

Currently it's almost impossible to find an offline installer of K2019... You may try to ask to KL Support.

Some of those tweaks are applicable also to KFA...

Thanks.

 

[Evjl's Rain]

Does it apply to Kaspersky free? If so, I'll try it. Thanks for the tips.

it's my settings for kaspersky free
for KSCF, I didn't attach the screenshot for it. If it's KSCF, I disable some unused componenets like IM antivirus and mail antivirus, use Scan "on execution" in File antivirus
the rest, I set up like what harlan posted. I try to avoid performance loss or incompatibilities as much as possible

 

[Vasudev]

it's my settings for kaspersky free
for KSCF, I didn't attach the screenshot for it. If it's KSCF, I disable some unused componenets like IM antivirus and mail antivirus, use Scan "on execution" in File antivirus
the rest, I set up like what harlan posted. I try to avoid performance loss or incompatibilities as much as possible

With your KFA Free 2019 settings, my PC is like Linux. Gaming mode really helps otherwise KFA does have a little slowdown.

 

[StrikeFIN]

Yeah back to my reliable BD Free

About RAM, it were not that big difference after all testing, around 100MB on reboot idle, during update of course differences, in both way.

Reboot of KSCF set: 1.3GB
BD Free set: 1.4GB

Update: KSCF 1.4GB (CPU goes high, fans went crazy)
BD Free 1.6GB (CPU went quite high too, but fans were silent as usual, I just didn't understood how KSCF put my fans so much stress)

Without Any AV, 0.9GB

 

[FrankS]

I would prefer Kaspersky. It got less false positives, is easy to use and fast. WD got too much fp's and you can use the bd engine + definitions for free at Emsisoft Emergency Kit as second opinion Scanner.

 

[mlnevese]

With any Kaspersky product it's always a good idea to do a full scan after installing and updating. After it completes the scan it will be quite lighter due to the way the engine works.