a brief introduction:
https://www.kicksecure.com/wiki/Malware_and_Firmware_Trojans#The_Utility_of_Antivirus_Tools

 

I recommend Windows Defender (use DefenderUI to get best expierence) in Combination with Voodoo Shield (which blocks everything including batch commands and so on until you allow it) and something like KeyScrambler to prevent Keyloggers and something like KeyPassXC to safe your Passwords (never safe them in your Browser) and at the end GlassWire to see and check what connections are going on. And the Best is this Solution uses way less Ressources than Kaspersky and so on.

For the People who believe there are less viruses, trojans and attacks nowadays look here.

https://livethreatmap.radware.com/

https://cybermap.kaspersky.com/

Only Botnets Map

https://www.spamhaus.com/threat-map/

 

Last edited: Apr 7, 2023

Same! Did another fresh install today, was thinking of getting AV finally, but neh. Even WDefender is disabled.

 

Like most have said I feel that AV was a necessity back in the day, but the windows versions these days arent is easily accessiblesible through back door open ports. Hell even windows firewall pissed me off, it deleted all my keygens and I had to go find all the files all over again lol.

 

Symantec Endpoint Protection 14.3.latest. Free no hassle updates and is (most importantly) controllable, unlike mickeysoft defender.

I don't run anything on the production machines - no firewall, no malware, no anti-vir, because they are not in any way/shape/form connected to internet. Only net connections to my prod machines is to my private backend LAN. However I do run (non mickeysoft) third party a/v and firewall+netlimiter on my internet facing machines. All builds of win10 I run are ghostspectre with all the component spyware, telemetry and crap services taken out by default.

FYI - if you're thinking that the new windows OS's are impenetrable or that intel based processor boxen are invulnerable to any sort of hack attacks you seriously need to go do some intensive research. That thinking is about as backward as it sounds. Machines with intel based processors have been vulnerable to attack via IME since 2007. Controlling ports for IME must be blocked at your incoming router/firewall. The newer windows versions are swiss cheese with regard to port attack vulnerabilities as opposed to win XP not to mention the built in telemetry and spyware in win7-11. Windows versions got worse with increasing years regarding bloat, built in spy/malware, and vulnerabilities, not better.

 

Last edited: Aug 10, 2025

I agree with your post except on this. WinXP was very insecure when it came to internet. Among other things because it was still uncharted territory.
I remember MS had to limit (to 4 I think?) the max number of connections in order to limit the propagation of worm-type viruses.

 

Yes but on XP, you implement a proper firewall (third party), A/V (third party) and you're set. There's no bloatware, no spy/malware built into it needing to be silenced, hardly any crap services that have to be deleted, and almost no telemetry to shutdown. To be honest I am still using the same third party A/V and firewall from the XP days on current systems and never had a single issue.

 

Last edited: Dec 17, 2024

Dont use crappy AV choose a good firewall instead.

 

Yea defender my bad lol. It's disabled now for sure

 

SpyHunter is not very known, but it is the only one who totally cleaned up my computer when it got infected by almost a hundred of backdoors, and other nasty things.
Kasperu found some, but SpyHunter cleaned all the backdoors.

 

I've been using Windows Defender and some common sense for years now and have never had any problems. I also run Malwarebytes Windows Firewall Control. It all serves me well. Common sense is the most important here. If you want to go dabbing around on fishy sites with cracks from unknown groups, then you're going to run into problems. I'm very wary of emails from unknown origins with links in them, especially "special offers".

 

I haven't used an AV in years, only tiny wall. no problems.

 

Every once a while someone smarter than the average I.T bear comes along and invents something that nothing detects until it is too late.
Sure you can do Heuristics, but even that has its limitations. There is no best really, Kapersky if I had to pick only one, but still, anything new isn't detected until they have the virus/malware signature other than a chance of a suspicious warning. Sure, sandboxie, Malware bytes...do the job - That said how many run their DAW inside a sandbox?

 

I dont use those scam programs its the AV companys themself who write and spread over 90% of all virus and malwares.
Think about it for a second
Who benefit if people are afraid their PC will be infected??

 

Same here i found out what a scam those program is as my girlffriends pc she used to have tons of spam mail mostly porn every day and her PC got several warnings about her PC being attacked and was infected and that she must run the AV program to stay safe and clean.
So i aksed a friend about that problem and he said who do you think benefit if you think your PC is infected?
And then he said of course the companys who make AV programs.
And after her subscribtion ended i uninstalled her AV (Well it was an internet protection suite) and it took many many man hours to find everything that bloody program hide on the hardrive and in the registry
So after i was fininshed just to be safe i installed another AV and did a deep scan and it didnt find anything.
So could uninstall that program aswell and only install a good firewall.
she didnt get any spam mail after that and of course she wasnt attacked or had any virus or malware and of course it was also faster as those shitty programs take up alot of resources.
This happend 2007 and both me and my girlfriend hasn't have an AV installed since then.

 

Most doctors work this way.

 

Some background info on why I've recommended Webroot (business version) for a number of years.

Background: I have a network of volunteer tech admins who help (mostly clueless ;) ) nonprofit folk around the world. We needed a great, low overhead antimalware solution. I asked my top commercial security expert to help me evaluate Webroot (biz version)... at the time, I was thinking it couldn't be very good: too tiny, too fast.

My friend compared it to a US$100k/year solution (yeah, he had a banking customer w/ too much money LOL). That solution included a custom sandbox server on the LAN, etc etc. We were surprised: webroot came out looking pretty good!

It's now been almost a decade. We've got over 1500 people using it all over the planet on PC's and Macs, including many in the developing world who couldn't practice safe computing if they tried. To date, zero security issues. YES a number of administrative hassles, particularly getting it to properly install on various MacOS versions. But the core technology has been very solid.

The key to webroot is that it functions differently from just about every other solution. I'll explain how below, but the result of the difference is that it's pretty ideal for use in realtime production environments. We've got folks using it on live radio broadcast servers and more. It's also ideal for use in rural/remote places with poor Internet bandwidth.

• Small download, and no big updates required. (currently 11-12MB)
• Essentially zero overhead for most software
• Handles day-zero attacks, ransomware, etc with aplomb
• (Crucial for our use case) online admin interface is separate from the normal user experience. We can make it almost invisible to most users.

Downside? There's a requirement that could kill it for some use cases: you do have to be online when installing, to validate the license key. After that, being offline for quite a while is not an issue.

One other downside: because it functions differently, the vast majority of product reviewers have no idea how to properly test webroot. For example, if you expect it to instantly recognize malware, you will give it a poor rating. Yet because of how it functions, and crazy as this sounds... failing to immediately recognize malware doesn't matter.

I would stop here but this is a pretty technical forum, so below is TMI on how it works. :-D

Here's the key:

• Most AV software must quickly decide: is this (software, action, whatever) Good or Bad?
• Webroot has a three-state decision: is this (software, action, whatever) Good, Bad, or Unknown?

There's a significant set of known good/bad markers built into the local copy of the software. And if/when you go online, it can ask the mother ship about any other software. But if offline, or if something new is seen:

• The software is allowed to run in a comprehensive sandbox, with a reversible audit trail kept of all activity.
• Any 'bad' action marks it bad. (Encrypting or auto-deleting gobs of files, capturing your clipboard contents, etc etc.)
• Go online, and if any of the other millions of users, or central staff, have identified the software, your copy will be properly marked.

Those of us who rarely install new software will hardly notice any hit to performance, ever.

The software has another rather realistic policy: there's no reason to get bent out of shape if a bad bit of software is sitting on my storage drive. Software that is not running can't cause trouble. In Windows, a once-weekly disk scan is more than enough to keep such things cleaned out. (It's more complicated w/ MacOS. I'll ignore that for now.) (Of course one can force a scan if/when needed.)

What do I not like about the software? The administrative interface needs help:

• The admin UI was reworked a few years ago to function properly on mobile browsers etc. Sadly, a quite a bit of incredibly useful functionality was dropped. (It was easy to sort a table of info on any column; easy to choose from a huge variety of per-endpoint data; etc.) Now to accomplish the same thing I must download the endpoint details in a CSV file and use Excel/etc to view and filter for any advanced insights.
• In my case, with over a dozen admins monitoring 1500+ users in dozens of locations, I sorely miss the one thing that was great about our previous (McAfee-based) solution: ability to get a report on my admins... who has logged in and how recently, etc. Without that it is kinda hard to manage a volunteer team!

 

Your points are valid. Symantec Endpoint Protection 14.3 is reliable and controllable. Isolating production machines from the internet and using third-party antivirus on internet-facing machines is smart. Intel IME vulnerabilities require blocking ports at the router firewall. Newer Windows versions have more vulnerabilities and telemetry compared to older ones.