Less intrusive "Free" AV

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  1. Posts : 2,935
    Windows 10 Home x64
       #1

    Less intrusive "Free" AV


    Hello.

    I may be looking for an alternative AV to WD in the near future.

    Which free one do you think is av with less bloatware and less intrusive to the system?

    I know some of them include some not-so-good toolbars and some of them may even spy on you or, at least, gather personal info about web surfing habits and some other telemetry things.

    TIA.
      My Computer


  2. Posts : 191
    Windows XP, 10; Knoppix [Debian] linux
       #2

    eLPuSHeR said:
    Hello.

    I may be looking for an alternative AV to WD in the near future.

    Which free one do you think is av with less bloatware and less intrusive to the system?

    I know some of them include some not-so-good toolbars and some of them may even spy on you or, at least, gather personal info about web surfing habits and some other telemetry things.

    TIA.
    I have BitDefender Free running on an old XP machine with 512 MB and it is not very intrusive; however the UI is primitive and limited.

    On most other machines I use Avira Free. It is configurable and reasonably bloat-free (except for losta churning at start-up on machines with truly limited resources).
      My Computer


  3. Posts : 149
    Windows 10 Pro x64
       #3

    eLPuSHeR said:
    Hello.

    I may be looking for an alternative AV to WD in the near future.

    Which free one do you think is av with less bloatware and less intrusive to the system?

    I know some of them include some not-so-good toolbars and some of them may even spy on you or, at least, gather personal info about web surfing habits and some other telemetry things.

    TIA.
    Simple Answer - Windows Defender
      My Computer


  4. Posts : 5,442
    Windows 11 Home
       #4

    360 Total Security Essential without the cleaner is pretty light and nice looking.
    It has great detections too, it contains 4 AV engines, including Bitdefender & Avira.
      My Computer


  5. Posts : 2,935
    Windows 10 Home x64
    Thread Starter
       #5

    Thanks. I have already downloaded it from a link you posted on another thread...
      My Computer


  6. Posts : 2,935
    Windows 10 Home x64
    Thread Starter
       #6

    mike s said:
    I have BitDefender Free running on an old XP machine with 512 MB and it is not very intrusive; however the UI is primitive and limited.

    On most other machines I use Avira Free. It is configurable and reasonably bloat-free (except for losta churning at start-up on machines with truly limited resources).
    As far as I know BitDefender doesn't get along well with W10 yet...
      My Computer


  7. Posts : 2,935
    Windows 10 Home x64
    Thread Starter
       #7

    garydexter said:
    Simple Answer - Windows Defender
    But I am already using Windows Defender, which I think it's fine. My main concern is that it's bombarding me with too many false positives lately.
      My Computer


  8. Posts : 1,621
    Windows 10 Home
       #8

    Anyone considering Avast Anti-virus free -- make sure you do the custom/advanced install, thus you get to choose which services, modules, you want.
      My Computer


  9. Posts : 5,442
    Windows 11 Home
       #9

    eLPuSHeR said:
    My main concern is that it's bombarding me with too many false positives lately.
    You could try using this, run CMD as admin and enter:

    reg add "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows Defender\Real-Time Protection" /v "DisableBehaviorMonitoring" /t REG_DWORD /d "1" /f

    Eventually you might also want to disable cloud based protection via the settings.

    It should stop false positives, but it will also lower overall protection, WD will be unable to stop suspicious threats.
      My Computer


  10. Posts : 552
    Microsoft Windows 10 Home 64-bit
       #10

    360 Total Security Essential, gets my vote too. And yes Bitdefender free is not compatible with Win 10.
      My Computer


 

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