How it Works19 mins ago
Anti Virus Recommendation?
15 Answers
Can somebody recommend a good antivirus for me, please? I do a lot online where money is concerned, so as well as online banking and paying all my bills, I also buy a lot from eBay, catalogues etc. It doesn't need to be free, but I don't really want to pay more than £25 for the year. Thanks in advance.
Answers
Best Answer
No best answer has yet been selected by Barsel. Once a best answer has been selected, it will be shown here.
For more on marking an answer as the "Best Answer", please visit our FAQ.The following is a direct copy-&-paste from my answer to a similar question a few weeks ago but it covers all my thoughts on the matter anyway:
In the fifteen years or so that I've been on AB, this must have been one of the most frequently occurring questions. I'll try to summarise the usual responses:
Firstly, the anti-virus software that's built into all recent versions of Windows seems to be good enough for many people. (It used to be called Windows Defender; it's now Microsoft Defender Antivirus). Millions of people across the world use it perfectly happily without any problems.
However Microsoft Defender does have some critics when you read technical magazines. (Things weren't helped some years when a senior Microsoft executive suggested that it was only a first line of defence). I've also noticed over the years that Microsoft's security programs have a nasty problem of getting 'stuck in a loop' when trying to update themselves, resulting in the computers that they're hosted on running at a crawl. So some people have chosen to look elsewhere for their antivirus protection.
A decade or so ago, AVG seemed to be the most popular freebie used by AB members but it seemed to fall out of favour, possibly because some people found that it was slowing their machines down quite a bit. (Once again, it seemed to be a fault with the update process that was behind the problem). I was one of those who decided to move away from AVG, choosing to use Avast instead (as did many other ABers). I've stuck with Avast ever since and, as far as I can tell from the posts I've read over the past few years, it remains the most popular freebie among AB members.
Kaspersky frequently comes out top of the reviews for full commercial security suites though and, now that they've introduced a free version too, that seems to be doing equally well in the reviews of freebies.
For other possibilities, independently reviewed, see the PC Mag website:
https:/ /uk.pcm ag.com/ antivir us/1208 17/the- best-fr ee-anti virus-p rotecti on
In the fifteen years or so that I've been on AB, this must have been one of the most frequently occurring questions. I'll try to summarise the usual responses:
Firstly, the anti-virus software that's built into all recent versions of Windows seems to be good enough for many people. (It used to be called Windows Defender; it's now Microsoft Defender Antivirus). Millions of people across the world use it perfectly happily without any problems.
However Microsoft Defender does have some critics when you read technical magazines. (Things weren't helped some years when a senior Microsoft executive suggested that it was only a first line of defence). I've also noticed over the years that Microsoft's security programs have a nasty problem of getting 'stuck in a loop' when trying to update themselves, resulting in the computers that they're hosted on running at a crawl. So some people have chosen to look elsewhere for their antivirus protection.
A decade or so ago, AVG seemed to be the most popular freebie used by AB members but it seemed to fall out of favour, possibly because some people found that it was slowing their machines down quite a bit. (Once again, it seemed to be a fault with the update process that was behind the problem). I was one of those who decided to move away from AVG, choosing to use Avast instead (as did many other ABers). I've stuck with Avast ever since and, as far as I can tell from the posts I've read over the past few years, it remains the most popular freebie among AB members.
Kaspersky frequently comes out top of the reviews for full commercial security suites though and, now that they've introduced a free version too, that seems to be doing equally well in the reviews of freebies.
For other possibilities, independently reviewed, see the PC Mag website:
https:/
For APG:
You're right in believing that you should only ever have a single antivirus program running (as two running together can result in conflicts) but Avast should automatically disable Defender when you install it.
For Barsel:
The free version of Avast Antivirus is absolutely identical to the version you get with their full (paid-for) full security suite. You just don't get all of the 'bells and whistles' which the latter adds on. (See here for the differences: https:/ /www.av ast.com /en-gb/ compare -antivi rus ). Most of those 'extras' are either built into Windows (or, for example, your browser) or available through other free software anyway, so you simply don't need them.
(Use the link on that page, at the foot of the 'Free Antivirus' column).
You're right in believing that you should only ever have a single antivirus program running (as two running together can result in conflicts) but Avast should automatically disable Defender when you install it.
For Barsel:
The free version of Avast Antivirus is absolutely identical to the version you get with their full (paid-for) full security suite. You just don't get all of the 'bells and whistles' which the latter adds on. (See here for the differences: https:/
(Use the link on that page, at the foot of the 'Free Antivirus' column).