Suggestions for PC anti-virus and utilities?

[HankB]

I've been using AVG anti-virus and AVG PC-tuneup for a couple of years now on a couple of old (some would say ancient) Dell PCs - one of them an XPS 410 running Windows XP, the other an Alienware R4 running x64 Windows 8.1 professional. But my AVG license is running out in a little over 3 weeks.

AFAIK I've been kept "virus and malware free" by this software, but I have reason to believe the disc scan feature of AVG PC-tuneup buggered up my old XP box, which I figure I'll be replacing soon anyway, as I like having 2 functional PCs in case one craps out and I need to search the web for a solution. (BTW, AVG customer "service" is terrible.)

SO . . . what does the APS community suggest? I see a lot of ads for "PCMATIC.COM" but I'm not knowledgeable enough to separate the reality from the hype on this sort of thing.

Suggestions?

[HeroHog]

I went to Kaspersky Free.

[Hawkmoon]

As far as I know, although AVG is now owned by Avast, they are still different products. After using Avast Free for a number of years I got fed up with the constant badgering to upgrade to the paid version, so I looked around. I tried AVG Free, Bitdefender, and a couple of others I can't remember. I didn't try Kaspersky, because it's a Russian product and I don't trust it.

I hated AVG, and I also didn't like Bitdefender or the others I tried. I'm back to using Avast Free.

[HeroHog]

AVG and AVAST use the EXACT SAME interface now. Had trouble with Avast, switched to AVG, saw that and went for Kaspersky and am happy.

[lee n. field]

I've been using AVG anti-virus and AVG PC-tuneup for a couple of years now on a couple of old (some would say ancient) Dell PCs - one of them an XPS 410 running Windows XP, the other an Alienware R4 running x64 Windows 8.1 professional. But my AVG license is running out in a little over 3 weeks.

AFAIK I've been kept "virus and malware free" by this software, but I have reason to believe the disc scan feature of AVG PC-tuneup buggered up my old XP box, which I figure I'll be replacing soon anyway, as I like having 2 functional PCs in case one craps out and I need to search the web for a solution. (BTW, AVG customer "service" is terrible.)

SO . . . what does the APS community suggest? I see a lot of ads for "PCMATIC.COM" but I'm not knowledgeable enough to separate the reality from the hype on this sort of thing.

Suggestions?

I've never heard of Pcmatic.  Doesn't necessarily mean much.  But, the website doesn't give me the "scam!" vibe that I get from some such things.

I'll still put AVG Free on stuff that needs an AV quick, but I make sure folks know it's a basic program that's a come-on for the full product.

I've been messing a bit with Bitdefender, lately.

[Hawkmoon]

I've been messing a bit with Bitdefender, lately.

Let us know how you like it.

I'm trying to remember why I ran away from it. I remember that I had it installed for less than a week. I think I gave up on it because it was even more obnoxious than Avast is besieging and barraging me with pop-ups asking me to buy the full, paid product.

[Sindawe]

I run Kaspersky AV & Malwarebytes in tandem on my Win 8.1 machine, both licensed and updated regularly.  I also run KAV Rescue disk from USB on a monthly basis.  Never been infected.

[Regolith]

I'm running the free version of Bitdefender, and I like it. It's quiet, doesn't badger me, and I never have to mess with it. The only problem with the free version of Bitdefender is it's very, very basic. You can't configure very many things with it. I've not found that to be a problem, though. I've never gotten a virus while running it.

My brother runs the paid version and likes it a lot.

ETA: One thing to note, if you're running Windows 10, is that Windows Defender is actually pretty good these days. If you don't like any of the free antiviruses, you can probably get away with just running Defender so long as you aren't doing something stupid like installing random software you found on the internet.

[Ben]

I run paid Kaspersky on the main machine. I think a lot of the "Russia" stuff is overblown, and revdisk gave a good explanation on why here a while back.

I had never gotten around to installing it on my travel laptop, but am going to when I get back home because AVG just installed their web browser without my permission and made it the default browser. I consider doing crap like that the equivalent to malware, so will be using my extra Kaspersky license now.

[MechAg94]

I am using PCmatic.  Seems to work okay.  I still run the free version of Malwarebytes and Adaware (owned by Malwarebytes) regularly.  I do my best not to trust just one product.

[Calumus]

My residential clients who need, or can make do with a free AV get Kaspersky Free unless they have an issue with it. Then they get Bitdefender. I'd be leery of using any software suite that includes driver update software and registry optimizers. CCleaner was the only program that I trusted to touch the registry, and that was only through Windows 7. Windows 8 and on, just leave the registry alone. Driver update utilities are usually one of the first things I remove when cleaning an infected PC. You also need to be aware of programs that do disk optimization. Sometimes they only defrag, which will cause an early death for SSDs. Windows 8 and on have a built in optimizer that works fine.

[Hawkmoon]

Defragging kills SSDs?

I didn't know that. Why? How? Please enlighten me.

[bedlamite]

SSDs have a finite number of write cycles before the drive is toast. Moving stuff around uses a lot of that up. It's not necessary anyway since the random read speed is not much different than the sequential read speed.

[Calumus]

SSD  life spans are measured in total write cycles. When you defrag, you're writing and rewriting data as files are reassembled and moved to a place that the program deems optimal. Aside from actual physical wear on the ssd, it doesn't gain you anything. Once the drive is indexed, it doesn't need to search for any part of a file. It knows where everything is and can access it essentially instantly. Windows 8 and above does disk optimization. That's fine because it determines what kind of drive you have, and treats it accordingly.

[Hawkmoon]

Makes sense, which is why I wouldn't have thought of it.

Thanks.

[RocketMan]

I always had good luck running paid versions of BitDefender years back.  Right now I am running a free version of BitDefender on my old XP workbench box in the Man Cave downstairs.  It works well enough that I am going to put it on another box I use for ham radio stuff.

[lee n. field]

SSDs have a finite number of write cycles before the drive is toast. Moving stuff around uses a lot of that up. It's not necessary anyway since the random read speed is not much different than the sequential read speed.

I've stopped worrying about SSD life.  Turn off defragmenting, and make sure you're backed up elsewhere.  Hard drives die all the time.