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What antivirus for SP3?

jnjroach

Administrator
Staff member
It depends if you practice safe computing... I use defender on personal machines and System Center Endpoint Protection professionally.

If you do a search of the site you'll see more options and those to avoid. The biggest thing to look for does the choice support Connected Standby...

Personally avoid Norton and McAfee Home versions, AVG and Avast seem to behave OK...
 
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CC268

Member
Yes I would say I am a safe computer...if I can get away with just Windows Defender then I will do that. If you have any suggestions of what to add or use though let me know.

Thanks for your help
 
I have been using bitdefender and this AV is the best I used
I have tried AVG, Avast, kasperky, PC cillian, Macfee, Avira
Read the reviews and bit defender is always in the top three.
People talk about windows defender be good enough ( if you don't go to dodgy websites) but can get virus from usb sticks ( sharing ) , e-mails and also through Skype
Better to be safe than sorry I say
 
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CC268

Member
Hmm...and it doesn't slow down your Surface? I like Windows Defender because it is very light on resources.
 

HvT

Member
Professionally I have to use McAfee. This one is really CPU intensive and effects battery life. Setup: scan on read and write, all suspicious file types.
McAfee is moreover a low performer in terms of protection. Nod32 is a high performer here - according to professional magazines and reviews that do not just rate the GUI.

Privately I use nod32 from ESET. It's really set and forget. High protection, no measurable impact on battery. Not really noticable extra load.
 

Lobo

Member
Kaspersky supports Connected Standby. Running a trial right now and haven't had a noticeable performance impact, but full scans shred battery power like nothing else. No idea if it's different with Norton, since I uninstalled it after finding out there's nada in the CS department. :p
 

InspectHerGadget

Active Member
I do computer work and sell hundreds of copies of Norton each year. It is generally problem free and is easy to install and uninstall. They also have good facilities such as Norton Chat for sorting issues.

I see a LOT of computers getting damaged through malware and viruses every week. I look upon it as a probability thing. If you use your computer a lot you will reduce your odds of getting compromised by using a good paid security. These guys invest millions every month trying to stay on top of the avalanche of malicious software out there.

By all means rely on the built-in Windows Defender in Windows 8.1 but IMHO, you are almost certainly putting yourself at more risk.

In terms of performance degradation and issues related to the security itself. Well, yes, it is a consideration but for the most part these products work well and as always there is a trade-off between performance and security but on faster systems the performance degradation should be very slight.
 

Geneo

Member
I had the same question as my sp3 was being shipped. Only 2 kept standing out after going through tons of antivirus review sites: Bitdefender and Kaspersky. Like several others here, I ended up choosing Bitdefender (Antivirus Plus 2015) and have never regretted it. I have it set on Autopilot and I don't have to do nuthin.
http://anti-virus-software-review.toptenreviews.com/

I would not rely on Windows Defender, 'safe' computing or not. Many sites, including the AV testing site itself (http://www.av-test.org/en/) say it's the worst of them all- and has been for years.

Never forget that you get what you pay for.
But if you must go with a free one, probably Avira, AVG, or Avast! are all pretty good (my GF uses Avast! and hasn't had any problems... a Good Thing.)
 

Lobo

Member
Actually Norton really isn't as bad anymore and the performance hit is hardly noticeable. I run it on several desktop PCs and all's well.

The reason I switched to Kaspersky is because of the Connected Standby issue.

CS seems to be supported in the Norton beta, but I'm not gonna rely on beta software for security.
 
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