Best antivirus/antispyware 2018

win10freak said:

With that being said, always have full disk encryption in which most people do not have it turned ON.
BitLocker for instance, yes, although its really meant for encrypting data, but also is great for other security measures as well.
Full data disk encryption equates to system integrity.

Could you clarify a bit what you mean?

Cerawy said:

Could you clarify what you mean?

I would not suggest using disk encryption for anti malware purposes as it can slow things down, considerably, and ransomware can still encrypt every file it can access, even if they are already encrypted

Encryption is a no-brainer when it comes to prevention of loss of data due to hardware theft of a laptop or portable drive. For a business person, government official or armed services personal carrying sensitive data, it's a good idea to encrypt the data as it prevents embarrassment data getting into the wrong hands, when you leave your laptop on a train, or have it stolen

JohnBurns said:

In addition to your AntiVirus and AntiSpyware apps, whatever you choose, be sure to BACK UP. That will save you a lot of heartache just in case something bad gets thru. There are several free ones, Macrium and Aoemi being the 2 I like best

Err - Acronis is not free although some people do get a "free" limited version as part of a package deal but most do not.

Barman58 said:

I would not suggest using disk encryption for anti malware purposes as it can slow things down, considerably, and ransomware can still encrypt every file it can access, even if they are already encrypted

Encryption is a no-brainer when it comes to prevention of loss of data due to hardware theft of a laptop or portable drive. For a business person, government official or armed services personal carrying sensitive data, it's a good idea to encrypt the data as it prevents embarrassment data getting into the wrong hands, when you leave your laptop on a train, or have it stolen

I did some research regarding encryption, and it seems like it' s a feature only available in the professional version. I'm not sure if i need it. It also seems to require a microsoft account, which is not something that i want. Also, enabling bitlocker seems to give me a message saying this device cannot use a trusted platform module.

Encryption is needed if you lose your computer or device and it has critical data on it by critical I mean military troop movements critical, not a list of family birthdays.

Of course, Family birthdays are important and so should be backed up, preferably to more than one location including one in a different building as fire and flood protection.

If you wish you can keep an area of your system encrypted to contain banking data but there are other options for this as most attacks will originate online so a firewall and layered anti malware is the best way

As far as i understand it, bitlocker gives you a pin code that you need to get access to your computer, isn't this basically the same as setting a password, for signing into windows?

Bitlocker actually encrypts every file on the disk or partition so someone bypassing the access code by use of Linux, for example cannot read the data.

A Windows passcode only prevents you from entering windows so does not prevent the Linux method of accessing the data.

Windows passwords have been notoriously easy to get past, and I used to charge a set fee for unlocking laptops for users who had forgotten theirs. It was that quick to do that people balked at paying an hourly charge

Okay, so you will need a password regardless?

You will need an Unlock key of some kind for any encryption system - this could be a Password, but these days could also be achieved by the use of Biometrics - Fingerprints, Face recognition Etc, or an external physical Key, in the form of a USB device, but I believe that Bitlocker uses a traditional style Passphrase and as long as this is of a decent length, (30 random characters ) and secured it should be a good solution for the issue it's designed for