Is paying for antivirus a waste of money?

Stephanie said:

I was using 360 Total then changed to ZA but found Boot and shut down was slower !

They were probably doing a scan which caused the slower boot/shutdown time.

timerity said:

What then is the reason you have backups if not to recover your missing/damaged files after a virus/malware attack. I'm missing something obviously.

Hi there

You are missing the point of backups -- BIG TIME if you think it's only useful to recover from Malware and virus attacks - that's probably the LEAST useful function if like me you've never had any problems with viruses etc. I've certainly hosed a computer up in a myriad of other ways and glad I've had the backups to fix it with.

here are all sorts of reasons

1) software update doesn't work or re-install fails on new OS etc.
2) OS upgrade doesn't work
3) accidentally deleted data
4) system broken via messing around with it - e.g wrong or accidental registry or other setting tweak etc
5) HDD fails (or other hardware malfunction)
6) You want to change to a newer HDD
7) Computer gets stolen / lost etc.
8) You buy a new computer and don't want all the bloatware that usually is pre-installed on these things.

Can think of a few other reasons too but you should have got the drift -- Backup is NEVER a waste of time and should always be taken regularly

Cheers
jimbo

jimbo45 said:

Hi there

Even things like Malwarebytes that a lot of people recommend - are now a total waste of time -- I can give you ANY number of PUPS against which which Malware bytes is totally useless. -- PUPS act as "Normal Windows programs" and can behave as a perfectly legitimate (but hideously annoying) program. Unless you have a specific block against "progname.exe" then how in the world will Malwarebytes know it's a PUP.

For example say you have PHOTOSHOP.EXE and FOTOKINO.EXE - both could be 100% legit programs -- how will Malwarebytes react.

I think people also need to know - or at least understand :
a) How executables work - i.e what windows does when a program is launched
b) what specifically are they trying to defend against.

My own view is still the same - use COMMON SENSE, have backups and use Windows defender. Anything else isn't worth it ad can just consume resources on your machine.

Cheers
jimbo

u know that "COMMON SENSE" in human that the one often fail

thats why paid AV isnt waste of time/money as it give layer of security
user might dont realize they getting malware, and Internet Security do its job by either preventing user or removing malware before it infecting system

afaik malwarebytes PUP isnt that stupid, i havent look into it very much (ie. how it works etc.)
but so far, i havent got any stupid/fail detection
and there are lots way to detect either its its legit programs or PUP... like SHA/MD5, filesize, file-property compare and that just basic stuff

if it even cant detect renamed legit program, then it mean its scan-engine also broken, because it simply detect filename, instead scanning into deep into the file
and if malwarebyte that bad, i believe it wont be popular either... people nowdays not that stupid

Would I trust Defender to conduct my financial affairs on line, experience tells me most certainly not.
Avira, Mbam and Mbam Anti-Exploit suffice.....all free.
Plus of course multiple security identity measures taken by these businesses.