Antivirus Software

[Tail End Charlie]

I use McAfee, no real idea if it's any good, but for the twenty quid a year it's peanuts really.

 

[PaulSB]

I've used Defender for 20+ years in both a home and small business environment. During that time I haven't experienced any issues at all.

Prior to using Defender I had used both free and paid versions of McAfee, AVG, Norton and Kaspersky all of which created issues with running either the PCs or laptops. In each case I had to remove the AV software which isn't an easy task when it seems to burrow deep into the machine's OS.

Personally I would only use Defender as MS aren't going to offer a poor product to protect software you've already bought from them.

I wouldn't consider anything else.

 

[HMS_Dave]

Anti Virus Software is reactionary. Meaning, as new threats, exploits and phishing processes are detected, the AV software gets updated to react to the threat but usually only after they've been circulated and so there is often a small window of opportunity for the malicious activity to do it's worst. Defender is usually updated very quickly but not immediately which can be said for all AV products. Therefore, the best course of action is to practice safe internet browsing and computer use. Its probably not much help to list the practices i use such as virtual machines, as its far beyond the scope of the question and you can simply google "how to browse the internet safely" etc

In my opinion, you're better off sticking with Defender and just browse safely, taking note of links, extensions, email attachments etc.

Nothing is 100%.

 

[The Central Scrutinizer]

Well I've let the Malwarebytes lapse and for the time being will just carry on with Windows Security.