Virus & threat protection in Windows

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[Kathy Stevens]

I just realized that Windows Security is adequate for virus and threat protection for Microsoft products including Edge and Office. But it is less than satisfactory for non-Microsoft apps. such as FireFox.

While we have purchased antivirus software for our office computers, I am wondering if there is any “free” software that we can use on our laptops when we are out of the office.

When I go on line I see reviews for:

• AVG Antivirus Free,
• Avast Free Antivirus,
• Avira Free Security Suite,
• etc.

I am wondering if anyone in the AskWoody community has used free antivirus software and, if so, what are their thoughts related to recommencing it to others.

• This topic was modified 7 months ago by Kathy Stevens.

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I use free versions of AV products on some of my computers, including Panda and Bitdefender. For years my free antivirus of choice was Avast Free, but recent editions have gotten so bloated that I’ve uninstalled it and replaced it with Panda or BD. AVG was bought by Avast in 2016 and so I haven’t even bothered to look at it. Avira was purchased by Norton in 2020, but I have no experience with it.

No complaints here with either Panda or Bitdefender, they run without problems or annoyances except for the occasional pop-up seeking to upgrade me to the paid version.

 

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Kathy Stevens

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Kathy Stevens wrote:

But it is less than satisfactory for non-Microsoft apps. such as FireFox.

Why?

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According to tom’s guide,

“The catch with Windows Defender and the other built-in security tools and features in Windows is that you have to stick to Microsoft products. This means using Edge instead of Chrome or Firefox as your default browser, Microsoft Office 365 instead of Google Workspace or LibreOffice and Microsoft Teams instead of Slack or Zoom.”

https://www.tomsguide.com/news/windows-defender-good-enough-for-new-laptop

 

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Almost contradicted in the next two paragraphs:

As a result, if your Chrome or Firefox browser is used to visit a malicious website, you’ll have to rely on the browser’s own protection, not Microsoft’s. To be fair though, the protection offered by Chrome and Firefox is pretty good on its own.

Microsoft does have browser extensions for Chrome and Firefox but they’re limited to machines running the Pro, Enterprise or Education versions of Windows 10 and Windows 11.

For ANY version of Windows 11: Microsoft Defender Application Guard Extension

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Kathy Stevens

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Kathy Stevens wrote:

According to tom’s guide, “The catch with Windows Defender and the other built-in security tools and features in Windows is that you have to stick to Microsoft products. This means using Edge instead of Chrome or Firefox as your default browser, Microsoft Office 365 instead of Google Workspace or LibreOffice and Microsoft Teams instead of Slack or Zoom.” …

Hi Kathy Stevens:

The next paragraph in that tom’s guide article at https://www.tomsguide.com/news/windows-defender-good-enough-for-new-laptop states:

“As a result, if your Chrome or Firefox browser is used to visit a malicious website, you’ll have to rely on the browser’s own protection, not Microsoft’s. To be fair though, the protection offered by Chrome and Firefox is pretty good on its own.”

I use Microsoft Defender as my main antivirus and supplement my real-time protection with Malwarebytes Premium (note, however, that I have a perpetual / lifetime license that hasn’t been offered by Malwarebytes since March 2014 so I don’t have to pay an annual subscription fee). I’ve disabled the setting in Malwarebytes Premium at Security | Windows Security Center | Always Register Malwarebytes in the Windows Security Center so that Microsoft Defender still acts as my primary real-time antivirus and Malwarebytes Premium (which also adds supplementary Exploit / Ransomware / Web Protection) acts a a second line of defense to look for threats that might possibly be missed by Microsoft Defender. If I didn’t have a perpetual license for Malwarebytes I probably wouldn’t pay for a Malwarebytes Premium license and would just run the occasional on-demand scan with Malwarebytes Free to check for anything missed by Defender, but that is something I would also recommend for anyone using a third-party antivirus like McAfee, Bitdefender, Norton, etc.

I also use Firefox as my default browser, and as that tom’s guide article notes, this browser already has it’s own basic built-in protection – see the Firefox support article How does built-in Phishing and Malware Protection work?.  I’ve also added two reputable content blockers – uBlock Origin and Malwarebytes Browser Guard (which offers the same Web Protection feature as Malwarebytes Premium) – that work well together and are both superior to the Norton Safe Web browser extension that came with the Norton Security suite I used for about a decade until I purchased a new Win 10 laptop and switched to Microsoft Defender. I use both those browser extensions in my MS Edge browser as well.

If you go with a free antivirus program chances are:

• It won’t come with a built-in VPN and/or good two-way firewall included with many paid third-party security suites these days.
• A reputable free content blocker like uBlock Origin and/or Malwarebytes Browser Guard will often provide better web protection for your browser than the basic web protection that comes with most free or paid antivirus programs.

————-
Dell Inspiron 5584 * 64-bit Win 10 Pro v22H2 build 19045.2846 * Firefox v112.0.2 * Microsoft Defender v4.18.2304.8-1.1.20300.3 * Malwarebytes Premium v4.5.27.262-1.0.1991 * uBlock Origin for Firefox v1.49.2 * Malwarebytes Browser Guard for Firefox v2.5.9 * Macrium Reflect Free v8.0.7279

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Kathy Stevens

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Kathy,

I got away from free a/v quite a few years ago. Most got bloated and I just didn’t find one I liked. On many of our clients’ machines we run ESET that I purchase and stockpile when on sale (usually at newegg). We also have a very large share that run Windows Defender and have not had issues even though they use Chrome or Firefox as their primary browser and do all kinds of “crazy” stuff 🙂 That said, I do install ublock origin on all browsers and tweak many settings including website notifications to off.

If I had to pay $30-40/year for 1 ESET license I’d probably just go Defender

Just my experience over the last few years.

Never Say Never

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Kathy Stevens

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I also moved away from free A/V years ago, but deals from 3rd party vendors are attractive.

March of 2023 renewed my Bitdefender Family Pack Total Security subscription through the Newegg website. 2 years for $59. Covers 15 devices (computers/phones etc). That’s $2.00 per year per device.

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Kathy Stevens

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Kathy Stevens wrote:

I am wondering if anyone in the AskWoody community has used free antivirus software and, if so, what are their thoughts related to recommencing it to others.

Kathy, I used to use all of those products you mentioned, many years ago… depending on how well they scored on independent test sites like https://www.av-test.org/.

Nowadays I don’t use any of them. My reason? Just Google ‘Who owns <insert name of AV vendor>’ and you’ll soon see why.

I still rate Eset but find BitDefender too flakey at blocking innocuous sites for no apparent reason. They’re both a bit too ‘twitchy’ for my liking. Norton products have become like viruses themselves these days… intrusive, obstructive and massive resource gobblers (like McAfee). The last decent Norton product was when Peter Norton was still at the helm, IMO.

These days I stick with <insert description of the week> Defender on all my own home devices… although I admit to using third-party tools (like sordum.org) to control its weird excesses, for example, ‘exclusions’ not working.

(Defender is quite shocking in how it ignores ‘exclusions’ and its GUI interface is a pig’s ear, IMO. It’s easier to use PowerShell and third-party tools rather than the Defender GUI, IMO)

Hope this helps…

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Kathy Stevens

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Kathy Stevens wrote:

… While we have purchased antivirus software for our office computers, I am wondering if there is any “free” software that we can use on our laptops when we are out of the office. When I go on line I see reviews for: AVG Antivirus Free, Avast Free Antivirus, …

Hi Kathy Stevens:

One other comment about Avast in particular, and free antivirus products in general.

You might want to read PC Magazine’s 27-Jan-2020 The Cost of Avast’s Free Antivirus: Companies Can Spy on Your Clicks about how Avast was collecting user browsing data for their subsidiary company Jumpshot and then selling that information to online marketers. While many antivirus products will share “de-identified” data with partners, this Jumpshot data was especially egregious because it was tagged with a unique and persistent device ID that could allow marketers to trace the data back to the real person. After this abuse of customer data was made public (and caught the attention of members of the US Senate) Avast was forced to close down their Jumpshot subsidiary – see the companion PC Magazine article Avast to End Browser Data Harvesting, Terminates Jumpshot.

You didn’t say what antivirus your office currently uses or what type of business this is, but I would advise against using Avast Free or any other free third-party antivirus on a business computer, especially if there is any chance that these computers will store client contact information and/or data. If an individual chooses to use a free third-party antivirus on their personal computer that’s their decision, but business computers require much stricter safeguards.
—————
Dell Inspiron 5584 * 64-bit Win 10 Pro v22H2 build 19045.2846 * Firefox v112.0.2 * Microsoft Defender v4.18.2304.8-1.1.20300.3 * Malwarebytes Premium v4.5.27.262-1.0.1991 * uBlock Origin for Firefox v1.49.2 * Malwarebytes Browser Guard for Firefox v2.5.9 * Macrium Reflect Free v8.0.7279

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Kathy Stevens, NaNoNyMouse

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[opti1]

cyberSAR wrote:

On many of our clients’ machines we run ESET that I purchase and stockpile when on sale (usually at newegg).

It seems that recently ESET changed their policy on activation for their products bought from third party vendors like Newegg.

For a few months now lots of folks on a deal site I go to (that often features Newegg deals for ESET products) have complained that the email they received from Newegg says activation for the ESET product they bought will start from the date of their purchase, not from the date they manually activate the product. Lots of disappointed and angry posts.

I tracked down a page at the ESET site that confirms this change but of course now I cannot find it.

Basically it said that to have a new or renewed license added to the end of the current license it must be purchased from an official ESET partner. It goes on to say that in the US that official partner is https://www.eset.com/us/

Based on that, since Newegg are not a designated official partner with ESET, the clock for the term of the license anyone purchases from there should start running from the date of purchase of the product, not from when the license is activated.

I’m curious if you have run into this situation with any of the licenses you have purchased from Newegg?

 

• This reply was modified 5 months, 4 weeks ago by opti1. Reason: Edit for clarity

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I did some a couple months ago with licenses purchased last year with no issue. Have some to do this weekend and I’ll use one of my newer purchases from about a month ago and see what happens

Never Say Never

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opti1

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Just did my first one this evening. NOD32 A/V. Set to expire 06/12/23 and updated license with one purchased 04/20/23. Went fine and shows expiration as 06/09/24. If anything changes on the others this weekend I’ll post back.

Never Say Never

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opti1

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opti1 wrote:

… For a few months now lots of folks on a deal site I go to (that often features Newegg deals for ESET products) have complained that the email they received from Newegg says activation for the ESET product they bought will start from the date of their purchase, not from the date they manually activate the product ..

Hi opt1:

I don’t use ESET, but I did find one 11-Jan-2022 post by itman in the ESET forum thread I bought a license, but I can’t use it that would seem to confirm that some product keys purchased from newegg.com can “expire after a certain time“, although it doesn’t specifically mention anything about the 1-year activation period starting on the date of purchase. A second 09-Jan-2023 post <here> in that same thread by Moderator Marcos states “To make the long story short, it may happen that boxed versions in retail stores contain an expired activation code in case the store could not sell it on time. However, contacting the seller or the local support should the the way to go and they should provide a valid activation code instead.”
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Dell Inspiron 5584 * 64-bit Win 10 Pro v22H2 build 19045.2965 * Firefox v114.0.1 * Microsoft Defender v4.18.23050.3-1.1.23050.3 * Malwarebytes Premium v4.5.30.269-1.0.2037 * Macrium Reflect Free v8.0.7279

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cyberSAR wrote:

Just did my first one this evening. NOD32 A/V. Set to expire 06/12/23 and updated license with one purchased 04/20/23. Went fine and shows expiration as 06/09/24. If anything changes on the others this weekend I’ll post back.

Thanks for doing this and reporting back.

Assuming that your subsequent activations follow this same pattern it does clarify that the clock starts at time of activation and NOT from the date of purchase as some folks had indicated, which didn’t make sense to me.

So I guess the thing to remember with third party purchased licenses is to not activate them  until your current license expires if you want to get the full term out of that new license.

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Just did 5 more with newer purchased licenses from 04/20/23. All are fine and show  06/09/24 as expiration. ESET has always gone for 1-yr from date of install, not extending the old license exp date. I always update a week or two before expiration just to stop the aggravating notifications. That may be different if you utilize the ESET account but I don’t know, as I don’t use that. I’ll be doing another bunch later this month and using my old licenses purchased in 2022. If anything goes goofy I’ll try to remember to post back.

TBH, I really like ESET NOD32, but if I had to pay full retail I’d probably just go with built-in Defender on most machines.

Never Say Never

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opti1

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lmacri wrote:

I’ve also added two reputable content blockers – uBlock Origin and Malwarebytes Browser Guard (which offers the same Web Protection feature as Malwarebytes Premium) – that work well together …

Hi Imacri:
I have a question about the Malwarebytes Browser Guard extension, which I have posted <here>.

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[opti1]

cyberSAR wrote:

Just did 5 more with newer purchased licenses from 04/20/23. All are fine and show 06/09/24 as expiration.

Thanks again for doing this and reporting back.

I’m due for renewal soon and I’m getting those notifications. They mention a 20% discount to renew through ESET which brings the price pretty close to what Newegg currently is offering. If I remember correctly ESET increases their discount if you let the current license run out so that’s another option for those who would be inclined to take it.

• This reply was modified 5 months, 4 weeks ago by opti1. Reason: Edited for clarity

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Hi @opti1

Just updated the 1st of 5 machines with a license I purchased Nov ’22 with no issues, so I’m not seeing anything to prevent me from continuing on my path. HTH!

Never Say Never

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opti1, Cybertooth

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[opti1]

Thanks again @cyberSAR for following up. I think that sets the record straight.

Unfortunately I missed the nice Newegg deal from April. Their best deal at the time I renewed was only $10 off ESET’s price. So I just went with ESET to keep all the licensing information the same and avoid having to enter the new license info on each of our several devices . . .

 

• This reply was modified 5 months, 1 week ago by opti1. Reason: To mark as resolved

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