Anti virus software

[Beebo]

Is there any decent free anti virus software for a laptop.
Or is this one of the things you should pay for?

 

[markemark]

Forget whether it is work or personal. The decision should be based on how important the information you keep on it is, how robust are your backup processes, how careful are all the users, how much of an issue would it be should your device lose it's data and be unrecoverable.

 

[sungod]

avast has a good reputation

but as above, have backups, and a recovery plan in the event you have to take things back to bare metal

 

[vickster]

I just use Windows Defender, no issues
(and obviously avoid sites that might be 'troublesome', don't click on dodgy links of course)

 

[Beebo]

It’s my daughter’s university laptop. I have no idea if she backs it up. I will have to ask her.

 

[sungod]

It’s my daughter’s university laptop. I have no idea if she backs it up. I will have to ask her.

at minimum, get an external usb drive and just copy her coursework/whatever to it

malware aside, laptops can be stolen, and stuff just fails, keeping copies of files is basic protection against the day something happens

 

[presta]

Bitdefender comes top in the Which tests.

 

[Electric_Andy]

Hard to say, as I've used them all in the past (Avast free, McAffe, Norton, and some other free ones) but never had an issue. I guess you don't know how good any of them are until the worst happens. I've read on some other IT forums that windows defender is so good now that you don't need anything else, but that is just others opinion. At the very least I'd encourage her to back up everything on an external hard drive. be careful with the cheap ones, one drop or knock and they can stop working (as my son found out with his playstation library). They do big flash drives now, or SSDs. Someone else will probably say which is better

 

[markemark]

It’s my daughter’s university laptop. I have no idea if she backs it up. I will have to ask her.

I would use a free one but work out a robust backup process. Not just antivirus but making sure 3 years work accidentally gets deleted or the laptop stolen (more likely imo).

Backup needs to be automated as much as possible else it’ll never be done. That way even if hit by a virus, the laptop can be restored to factory settings and files recovered.

 

[FrankCrank]

+1 for Windows Defender. It's built in for Windows 10 and 11, and has proved great from my perspective these past few years. Daresay the keen sales staff at PCWorld etc would beg to differ, but ask ask them how much commission they get, and you'll see what drives their keenness

 

[nogoodnamesleft]

In the common pursuance of profit, my experience was that these companies basically want as much of your money as they can get. So commercial offerings might look free but check what important protections are add-on subscriptions.

Also they seemed to want to tie themselves into all sorts of aspects of your computer operation, providing things like identity theft detection, VPN (theirs with few undertaking most want from a VPN), device space recovery (cleanup), AI scam detection, Password Manager, Dark Web Monitoring, etc. and it all comes with an ongoing cost and no information about how to change (eg all your passwords stored with one anti-virus company how do you move those to a different company if their anti-virus becomes cheaper/better.

 

[MontyVeda]

Windows Defender here too.

I used to use all sorts of other anti virus (AVG, McAfee, Zone Alarm, Norton) but they all had niggly little issues and hindrances... as did the microsoft AV in those days. But Windows Defender seems very robust and doesn't annoy me, and its free.

 

[presta]

Windows Defender seems very robust and doesn't annoy me, and its free.

Does it satisfy the banks, or do you have to be seen to have installed a separate bit of software for the job? (I tried asking Lloyds, but they didn't answer.)

 

[a.twiddler]

I used Avast free for years but got fed up with their endless attempts to get you to upgrade to their paid version which became more blatant as time went by. When I got my current laptop I decided to try Windows Defender and so far it's worked fine. I don't miss the endless pop ups urging you to Upgrade Now! XX days left before you're unprotected! every time it updated itself and then when it comes to it, a microscopic option to continue with the free version after you've waded through the anxiety inducing choices when trying to avoid selecting the paid version. I'm sure the rest are just as bad. It's actually a decent antivirus, if not for the harrassment. A major bonus of Windows Defender is that you don't get any of that.

As for the banks, I can't really say, apart from my bank for years trying to push Trusteer on line. When I cracked and tried it several laptops ago it just made everything soooooo slooooooow. I thought it might have been due to something else but no, when I uninstalled it everything went back to normal. Uninstalling it was a drama in itself, with Are you Sure? You could be vulnerable to (pluck any horrible thing from your fevered imagination). It was almost as if I might die if I removed it. I certainly don't want to try it again even though I'm now on Windows 11.

It reminded me of when I had a Windows 98 desktop which came with Norton Antivirus. That was also incredibly slow, and it was pretty difficult to uninstall. The only way that you find out about these things is if you have them installed, and then you can't get rid of them. In the end I took it back to the shop and they did it. I think they had to reformat it and reinstall everything minus the Norton.

So I'm very much of the "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" school of thought now.

 

[vickster]

Does it satisfy the banks, or do you have to be seen to have installed a separate bit of software for the job? (I tried asking Lloyds, but they didn't answer.)

No idea, I bank on my iphone