Security Software Question

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I have recently switched back to Windows for my day-to-day work machine after ten years using a Mac as my primary machine. I also re-subscribed to Windows Secrets (I was on the free newsletter years ago) and it feels good having an “old friend back”. I also plan to periodically check the Windows Secrets Lounge and try to brush up on my Windows knowledge.

My Windows machine is a Surface Book (i7 model).

I am wondering what I should do about antivirus software on my Surface Book. Here are the current options I’m evaluating:

1. My current antivirus vendor is Thirtyseven4 (it’s basically a branded version of QuickHeal). I used them on my Mac in the past mainly to scan for Windows viruses to ensure I wasn’t passing on viruses to Windows users through any email infections. I’ve always liked the company and support, but their software brought a $10,000 Dell Workstation I was working on to slow it to a crawl, so I’ve been hesitant to install my copy of TS4 on my Surface Book.

2. I ordered my Surface Book at Best Buy which came with six months free of Webroot Internet Security. I went ahead and installed Webroot since my school and other IT consultant highly recommends it. So far, it’s been running well, and I haven’t noticed any slow downs.

3. Another option I have looked into is using Windows Defender in Windows 10 and looking into Microsoft’s New “Advanced Threat Detection” for Windows Defender, but I believe it requires an upgrade to Windows 10 Enterprise versus Windows 10 Pro which I’m on now. My primary email account is an Office 365 Exchange Online account which uses both Exchange Online Protection and Office 365 Advanced Threat Protection. Before installing Webroot, Windows Defender was running OK in terms of performance as well. Since I have the Anniversary Update installed, I currently have Windows Defender set to Periodic Scanning Mode.

4. I’m also wondering if I should install Malwarebytes Free Edition onto my system as a backup on-demand scanner in case I ever need it.

What would your recommendations be for security software on my system? Any recommendations are much appreciated.

Thanks!

Nathan Parker

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I currently have Windows Defender set to Periodic Scanning Mode.

I’m also wondering if I should install Malwarebytes Free Edition onto my system as a backup on-demand scanner in case I ever need it

Those 2 are all I use on my HP x64 W10 Pro laptop. Seems to work just fine.
On my W7 Pro Desktops I use MSE and malwarebytes Free and have for years now.

Don't take yourself so seriously, no one else does
All W10 Pro at 22H2,(2 Desktops, 1 Laptop).

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I recommend that you get a highly-rated antivirus product for your Surface Pro. Here are some ratings you can check out:

https://www.av-test.org/en/antivirus/home-windows/windows-10/

I don’t have Windows 10, but I use Trend Micro. They are highly rated for Windows 10 and other versions of Windows. I believe in paying for AV protection, because if they are making money off of me, they will be more motivated to do a good job.

You should have only one primary scanner, which stays active in the background, constantly monitoring things. But you can have as many manual scanners on your computer as you want, which sit dormant until you run them to do an update or a scan.

Group "L" (Linux Mint)
with Windows 10 running in a remote session on my file server

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…you can have as many manual scanners on your computer as you want, which sit dormant until you run them to do an update or a scan.

I did this for a long time! However, there was a consequence from time to time, even on-demand-only programs often install drivers that still sit, at least partially, resident; and sometimes EXEs that do likewise. BleepingComputers and the [version]forums.com post cautions concerning having 2 or more AVs installed, or especially having 2 or more security suites installed.

"Take care of thy backups and thy restores shall take care of thee." Ben Franklin, revisted

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Thanks everyone for the feedback!

I checked out the AV-Test site. Surprisingly, I don’t see Webroot on there, although PC Mag heavily talks it up. Does anyone know how Webroot compares to other top-rated antivirus programs on there such as Trend Micro or Kaspersky?

I did see QuickHeal on there (which Thrityseven4 is just a custom-branded version of QuickHeal), and performance did score extremely low, and antivirus catching didn’t score as well as others, so it would probably be wise for me not to install TS4 on my system.

Nathan Parker

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Thanks everyone for the feedback!

I checked out the AV-Test site. Surprisingly, I don’t see Webroot on there, although PC Mag heavily talks it up. Does anyone know how Webroot compares to other top-rated antivirus programs on there such as Trend Micro or Kaspersky?

I did see QuickHeal on there (which Thrityseven4 is just a custom-branded version of QuickHeal), and performance did score extremely low, and antivirus catching didn’t score as well as others, so it would probably be wise for me not to install TS4 on my system.

The latest AV-Test reviews are nearly 6 months old, as is Rubenking’s review of Webroot on PC Mag.
The products that consistently get top results on the various testing sites are Kaspersky, Bitdefender and Avira; all offer free trials.

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Those 2 are all I use on my HP x64 W10 Pro laptop. Seems to work just fine.
On my W7 Pro Desktops I use MSE and malwarebytes Free and have for years now.

Exactly the same here. By far the biggest infection danger is from user action, so if you know what you’re doing and are careful, a couple of decent protections should keep you safe.

And if not, then a decent back-up strategy–or maybe even System Restore–will get you out of trouble. You need those anyway to protect against hardware failure or user error.

the AV-Test site. Surprisingly, I don’t see Webroot on there

There are a number of different categories which malware falls into, so it depends how individual test sites categorize. One’s virus may be another’s rootkit.

Lugh.
~
Alienware Aurora R6; Win10 Home x64 1803; Office 365 x32
i7-7700; GeForce GTX 1060; 16GB DDR4 2400; 1TB SSD, 256GB SSD, 4TB HD

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“…a decent back-up strategy…” –Lugh; +1 from me! Have restored, over the years, several recently-saved OS partition full image sure fixed the immediate problem set! System Restore Points — I’ve experienced in the past about a 50-50 success rate, for whatever reasons

"Take care of thy backups and thy restores shall take care of thee." Ben Franklin, revisted

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My advice would be to have more than one product, hopefully both best of breed. I would recommend Malwarebytes Pro and something else. For the something else, get a reputed thing, that fares well on tests, and that is not wholly reliant on blacklists.

I went with Emsisoft Antimalware a few years ago. That’s a personal choice and shouldn’t be seen as a recommendation :).

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Thanks everyone for the feedback! I’ll continue to evaluate security software solutions and see what works best for my setup. So far with Webroot+Windows Defender Periodic Scanning, I haven’t experienced any major system slowdowns, and no malware has shown during scheduled scans.

I will probably not use TS4/QuickHeal since it didn’t fare too well in the test results link above, and in personal experience, it did lead to some major system slowdowns on a high-end workstation I’ve worked on, so it’d probably fare worse on my Surface Book.

I definitely keep nightly images of my machine as I’ve learned from experience how precious it is to have them (once when a Dell rep corrupted the OS to the workstation I was working on!), and with System Restore, sometimes I’ve found it works, but sometimes it’s not 100% effective, so a system image is definitely the way I have to go for extra protection.

Should I keep Malwarebytes (even the free edition) around for on-demand scanning?

Thanks!

Nathan Parker

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Yes. Periodic scanning with the free version of Malwarebytes is a good backup. Also, consider a periodic scan with a free online scanners from one of the major A/V vendors.

--Joe

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Great. Will do. Thanks!

Nathan Parker

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