Virus Protection

[harryc]

What's the latest deal on Virus Protection? My 2 year 'contract' with F-Secure runs out next month.

I previously had used Avast and fortunately had no problems.

Avast is free - F-Secure costs 40/year and up - depending on what you find in the jungle of 'offers.'

I want only to protect 2 desk computers.

Any thoughts on Avast and is it 'enough?'

[sky2]

Get rid of all of the antivirus softwares, you don't need any. Just make sure to keep your operating system up to date and that's it.

[harryc]

Thanks

The implication there is that Win10 has all that is needed.

Is that what you're saying?

[sky2]

Yes, Windows 10 has already a built-in antivirus called Windows Defender which is good for 99% cases. Most of the antivirus programs will protect you only from known viruses, the real threats are the zero day threats that these softwares are unable to catch. I think if you have a bit of common sense and do not download questionable content, you are good without any additional softwares.

Perhaps Beep_Boop can advise better as he works in security domain, if i'm not mistaken.

[harryc]

Win 10 seems to have weekly updates (that often take almost an hour to install) so I suppose they are updating Virus stuff at the same time.

[Beep_Boop]

Having an anti-virus running on your system is very important. However, having a 3rd-party anti-virus running isn't really needed.
As sky2 mentioned, Windows 10 comes with Windows Defender, which is very good for most cases. The tip about keeping your operating system up-to-date is also important.

I'd add also add that you need to keep your browser (Chrome, Firefox, etc) updated. The same applies to things like your PDF reader, your mail client (if you use one), Microsoft Office (which is usually updated with the OS).

Unless someone is targeting you in particular, which is unlikely, the above should be enough.

P.S. All of that assumes a sprinkle of common sense. So don't go to shady sites and download shady applications and run them.

[Piet]

And if you do not trust the Micro$oft anti virus program enough, you can always add a free virus scanner to your computer, Avast free is a reasonable good anti-virus program. (although more and more loaded with annoying pop ups for selling additional features like VPN or cleanup functions)
avast will also not slow down your computer too much.... (well anyway.. in my case: overclocked @3,2GHz Intel Xeon E5-2670 v1 ....oh yea two of them..cheap from ebay incl dual cpu motherboard ).

[harryc]

From what I see, Win Defender will shut itself off if it detects another anti-virus program.

I have FSecure still working - and Defender won't activate with FS.