Is paying for antivirus a waste of money?

Craig · 05 Mar 2016

@Lee: great to hear...i was beginning to think i was the only one here that thought Windows Defender was fine to use by itself without the need for any other virus protector (free or paid).... :)

Fafhrd · 05 Mar 2016

not recent news, but...

Anti-virus pioneer Alan Solomon thinks anti-virus is dead. He uses Linux instead | War on Error | Techworld

British anti-virus pioneer Dr Alan Solomon is so convinced that AV software no longer works that he gave up using it a “long time ago” and solved his security worries by moving from Windows to Linux, the iconic figure has said in a blog.

John McAfee rubbishing the software that still carries his name was one thing but Solomon’s more clinical disassembly of an industry he helped create in the 1990s with Dr Solomon’s highly-regarded Anti-Virus Toolkit (bought by Network Associates in 1998 for $642 million) is more like a well-aimed punch in the solar plexus.

Describing Symantec’s recent declaration that antivirus is “dead” as a “Gerald Ratner” moment [see endnote], Solomon goes on to deliver the coup de grace...

BTW Windows Defender does not work by itself - it also has the Malicious Software Removal Tool to deal with running threats as well as manage anti-piracy measures - unless it is disabled by choice.

Hemimax · 05 Mar 2016

Been using MSE and Defender since Vista.
The machine cannot do it all, the best antivirus is you!

blutos cousin · 05 Mar 2016

On this dual boot box I use Windows Defender which includes the MS Malicious Software Removal Tool and I use Malwarebytes ( free ) on demand malware scanner and Mbam real time protection . I also use Google Chrome x64 for my default browser and a standard windows user account on the web to keep malware outta my root drives , etc,etc......and just as important along with some common sense and ~25 or more yrs experience on the web a lot of AV suites are mega bloatware these days anyway

OTOH I've had good luck and used Avast and AVG (free) and Mbam over the years also . I have AVG (free) and Mbam on 2 other W10 10586 th2 boxes here .

The HP elitebook here just has WD and Mbam like this one .

The free bloatware antivirus aka Crap aFee AV suite offered by my ISP was just that and I don't use it

Sent from Windows 10 Pro Insider Preview Evaluation Copy . Build 14279. rs1

Geneo · 05 Mar 2016

heyyahblah said:

SMH, If you like wasting time formatting and restoring from backups, be my guest. I could think of other things to do during that free time, whilst I was protected from that malware that could have prevented a long and tedious mess in the first place.

I guess a lot of people like playing with fire and feeling invincible, until the day comes that they finally get burned.

It takes me three minutes to make a backup (push a button) and 5 minutes to restore. A big waste of time indeed

I am not suggesting you don't have anti-virus software, just that it isn't foolproof.

DooGie · 05 Mar 2016

I've been using ESET Nod32 for the past 10 years. I tried various others before that, ie Norton, McAfee and several free ones and wasn't happy with any of them. Most were resource hogs.
imho I've always found Nod32 to give great protection and is very light on resources. And I feel that paying for it is very worthwhile and good value.

blutos cousin · 05 Mar 2016

DooGie said:

I've been using ESET Nod32 for the past 10 years. I tried various others before that, ie Norton, McAfee and several free ones and wasn't happy with any of them. Most were resource hogs.
imho I've always found Nod32 to give great protection and is very light on resources. And I feel that paying for it is very worthwhile and good value.

Never tried ESET Nod32........but it's true any AV program can affect start times and use some resources & memory to varying degrees but a fast multi core CPU and sufficient Ram helps with all that even an older 4 core AMD K10 and also ofc . an SSD for the OS and frequently used stuff including web browsers but the Free Avast and AVG aren't bad outside of WD and probably offer better protection than WD . U can get all that free . None of that AV stuff is worth paying for IMO and if any of them ( paid or free) find something it's old news anyway

DooGie · 05 Mar 2016

blutos cousin said:

Never tried ESET Nod32........but it's true any AV program can affect start times and use some resources & memory to varying degrees but a fast multi core CPU and sufficient Ram helps with all that even an older 4 core AMD K10 and also ofc . an SSD for the OS and frequently used stuff including web browsers but the Free Avast and AVG aren't bad outside of WD and probably offer better protection than WD . U can get all that free . None of that AV stuff is worth paying for IMO and if any of them ( paid or free) find something it's old news anyway

I guess it's just a case of horses for courses. What suits one doesn't suit the other

blutos cousin · 05 Mar 2016

DooGie said:

I guess it's just a case of horses for courses. What suits one doesn't suit the other

right good to have choices

whs · 05 Mar 2016

Geneo said:

It takes me three minutes to make a backup (push a button) and 5 minutes to restore. A big waste of time indeed

I am not suggesting you don't have anti-virus software, just that it isn't foolproof.

That is a very sensible position to take.