Best security and antivirus softwares? Comparisons made!

hdmi · Dec 10, 2023

neves said:
doing a system scam

ThrashZone · Dec 10, 2023

Hi,
Defender is just obnoxious ware
I tried to run performance test 8 or 9 I forget and it stopped it because of locked memory features so yeah it's not possible to remove the crapware but you can disable the features and get another AV and mbam has been that for years without pretender oops I mean defender doing much.lol

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CSharpDev · Dec 10, 2023

Wynona said:
I would like to see free security apps separated from paid security apps.

Also, I only use Windows Security (formerly Windows Defender) and have had no security problems in several years.

What do you use for FireWall tho? Do you use the built-in Windows Firewall, or do you use something like PFSense or Comodo Premium?

oldschool · Dec 10, 2023

kelper said:
Defender has more impact on performance than any AV recently tested by AV Comparitives.

This is true principally when copying large numbers of files or when processing large numbers of malware as with some tester's "machine gun" approach.

ThrashZone said:
Defender is just obnoxious ware

It's on par with all major AVs in all well-regarded tests minus some features of some paid suites but also with none of the bloatware. Of course, performance of any AV is highly dependent on machine specifics and type of use.

neves in correct about Defender's performance especially now with the rollout of the new MS Defender Core Service (Antimalware Core Service), the memory footprint is generally miniscule. On my machine RAM is usually in the teens.

When this will happen:
Preview: Nov ‘23 to Beta channel (Prerelease).
Standard: We will begin rolling out mid-January 2024 and expect to complete by early February 2024.

How this will affect your organization:
To enhance your endpoint security experience, we are shipping the Microsoft Defender Core service which will help with stability and performance of Microsoft Defender Antivirus.

New Microsoft Defender Antivirus services on Windows Devices - M365 Admin

Microsoft Defender Antivirus on Windows 10 and Windows 11 will be shipping with two new services: Microsoft Defender Core service. Microsoft Data Loss Prevention Service When this will happen: Preview: Nov ‘23 to Beta channel (Prerelease). Standard: We will begin rolling out mid-January 2024 and...

m365admin.handsontek.net

SlicEnDicE · Dec 10, 2023

kelper said:
@SlicEnDicE

Defender has more impact on performance than any AV recently tested by AV Comparitives.

Performance Test April 2023

Performance Test April 2023 for Microsoft Windows 10 security products released, 16 products' impact on system performance was tested.

www.av-comparatives.org

So please don't just gainsay.

Keep in mind that Defender does quite a lot deeper scan on files and memory than most AVs, not just looking for simple virus thumbprints...It blocks everything "unwanted" for me, in some cases even stuff I want to keep. Which is a good thing. I've tried all of the AVs, so I know how they perform. Sure they could optimize it a lot. If they would use a gazillion gigabytes of RAM, it would definitely be probably about 5x faster, which any software would be when thrown enough RAM at it. Defender uses very, I repeat, VERY little RAM compared to the competition.

markw51 · Dec 10, 2023

cereberus said:
This cannot be true as that is an open ended question.
We all know the Ultimate Answer is 42, so the Ultimate Question must be a closed-ended question e.g. What do you get if you multiply six by nine?

six times seven you mean

kelper · Dec 10, 2023

SlicEnDicE said:
Keep in mind that Defender does quite a lot deeper scan on files and memory than most AVs, not just looking for simple virus thumbprints...It blocks everything "unwanted" for me, in some cases even stuff I want to keep. Which is a good thing. I've tried all of the AVs, so I know how they perform. Sure they could optimize it a lot. If they would use a gazillion gigabytes of RAM, it would definitely be probably about 5x faster, which any software would be when thrown enough RAM at it. Defender uses very, I repeat, VERY little RAM compared to the competition.

I sincerely doubt you have tried "all AVs" but I could be wrong. My favoured AV does not waste time scanning files which are non executable. It sits in the background waiting for suspicios actions. If a program misbehaves my AV will start journaling - it records all changes made by a rogue actor and can reverse them.

Are you saying that Defender is slower because it scans more files?

I would have to agree.

Defender also creates a hash for every file - what is the point???

Wynona · Dec 10, 2023

CSharpDev said:
What do you use for FireWall tho? Do you use the built-in Windows Firewall, or do you use something like PFSense or Comodo Premium?

The built-in Windows Firewall.

badrobot · Dec 10, 2023

I just use a VPN and Windows security. If I ever get infected, I won't try to fix it. I will just wiped out my drive and restore from clean backup image. Easier and faster.

kelper · Dec 10, 2023

Don't get too cocky! What might happen if you get a virus infection that stays out of sight, harvesting your data for weeks, even months?

ThrashZone · Dec 10, 2023

badrobot said:
I just use a VPN and Windows security. If I ever get infected, I won't try to fix it. I will just wiped out my drive and restore from clean backup image. Easier and faster.

Hi,
Not sure a vpn does much besides hide who and where you're really at to others besides themselves that is lol
Handy for side stepping silly local state or regulations "I use one for this occasionally" otherwise they just puts someone in the middle of handling your internet and speed.

oldschool · Dec 10, 2023

SlicEnDicE said:
Keep in mind that Defender does quite a lot deeper scan on files and memory than most AVs

kelper said:
Are you saying that Defender is slower because it scans more files? I would have to agree

Defender's problem with performance, e.g lots of file copying, etc. is that it doesn't cache previously scanned files like popular AVs. That's the one big area they could improve on and simply haven't. Most casual Windows users won't have any issues with Defender. OTOH power users mostly dislike it.

CSharpDev · Dec 10, 2023

oldschool said:
Defender's problem with performance, e.g lots of file copying, etc. is that it doesn't cache previously scanned files like popular AVs. That's the one big area they could improve on and simply haven't. Most casual Windows users won't have any issues with Defender. OTOH power users mostly dislike it.

Good job that premium AVs like Kaspersky automatically disables Defender

badrobot · Dec 10, 2023

ThrashZone said:
Hi,
Not sure a vpn does much besides hide who and where you're really at to others besides themselves that is lol
Handy for side stepping silly local state or regulations "I use one for this occasionally" otherwise they just puts someone in the middle of handling your internet and speed.

A VPN wasn't necessarily created for "hiding". It is a tool that allows you to access the internet with more safety and security. It encrypts your sensitive data before it even leaves your device and enters the web.

probe7 · Dec 10, 2023

Besides, Kaspersky is made in

.... I'll stick with Defender, made in

SlicEnDicE · Dec 11, 2023

oldschool said:
OTOH power users mostly dislike it.

While I'm a power user, I have no problem with Defender. It's convenient and not worth my time to fight other AV software. If I happen to copy some GB or TB of data, I don't care if it takes a bit longer. If I copy my own data, I can safely disable AV temporarily during the copy process anyways.

For compiling code, I always disable AV for the projects folder (root of all projects) where all the code and compiled bits and pieces are created. I also disable scanning of the compiler and linker process itself. AVs tend to interfere with the process and when you think you had a bug in your code, it was just the AV doing some undesired activities on the temporary files. Also compiling is several magnitudes faster when AV is disabled. This is true for any AV, not just Defender.

neves · Dec 11, 2023

kelper said:
@SlicEnDicE

Defender has more impact on performance than any AV recently tested by AV Comparitives.

Performance Test April 2023

Performance Test April 2023 for Microsoft Windows 10 security products released, 16 products' impact on system performance was tested.

www.av-comparatives.org

So please don't just gainsay.

That test is from from April this year. Latest update for WD Platform was released in December (it's not just Definitions/Security Intelligence Updates - which are released on a daily basis - the WD Platform is updated as well on a monthly basis).

There's more recent tests from Av-test.org: Test antivirus software for Windows 11 - October 2023 - with the following performance stats:

Windows Defender

Malware Bytes

Bit Defender

Avira

Avast

As can be seen above - at least with October Version - Windows Defender has a higher performance impact "on installing popular apps" . Tho, once the app is installed (deemed safe) - has a 4% impact on Launching the software (which is lower than most) - 17% on launching a popular website (which again - has around the same impact or lower compared to other popular apps).

That being said, unless you're an avid software tester - who keeps installing & reinstalling dozens of apps on a daily basis (or archiving & extracting) - lower performance shouldn't be an issue. Based on above stats - it's actually doing better than most - from a practical point of view (the performance impact it has on a daily use).

hdmi · Dec 11, 2023

kelper said:
Don't get too cocky! What might happen if you get a virus infection that stays out of sight, harvesting your data for weeks, even months?

That's why I don't rely on Windows Security nor on any third party AV/internet security suite to protect my critical data. Like I earlier said, I also use Sandboxie-Plus along with knowledge and experience regarding the provenance and regarding what filetypes can or cannot contain executable/script code that runs when opening the files in question. The part of my data that truly is critical is all work related, it doesn't even come into contact with Windows anyway in the first place. Ever. My work system is completely separate from the laptop you see in my specs. The policy does not allow to disclose any technical details about the work system so, that's why I haven't added it in my specs. (The fact that Windows is not suitable for the job due to security reasons should be trivial so, the policy does allow to mention that the work system isn't running Windows of course... lol)

SlicEnDicE · Dec 11, 2023

Guys, before ranting about AV and which one is the best, you should stop running your Windows user profile with admin privileges. I know most of you, of not all, do and that is one of the biggest security concerns.

You don't run Linux as ROOT either...do you?

kelper · Dec 11, 2023

SlicEnDicE said:
Guys, before ranting about AV and which one is the best, you should stop running your Windows user profile with admin privileges. I know most of you, of not all, do and that is one of the biggest security concerns.

You don't run Linux as ROOT either...do you?

You should run a poll to see how many sign in with a user account. I have one Admin and one User account and normally sign in with the user account.