Do you use : No Antivirus , FREE Antivirus , or PAID Antivirus and why?

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Norton72

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Dec 29, 2009
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I just use Widows Defender in Win10 along with CC Cleaner. I just downloaded AdBlock, we'll see how that goes. I used to use AVG, but after a few years of that I started getting popups wanting me to upgrade several times a day. I switched to Avast, but they started doing the same thing.
 
Mar 14, 2018
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After using Sophos for business for years, they have finally come out with a free consumer product, Sophos Home. Granted, takes awhile to install but have no complaints. Have always had good customer service from them.

Malwarebytes. IMHO, the best program out there.

Have used Avast Free for years, and still use the latest on some Window 7 machines. Haven't had the pop issue mentioned by others. If there are pop-ups, not a big enough deal to notice. Haven't tried AVG Free in ages, but seeing how Avast and AVG are now owned by the same company, I expect performance is pretty much the same.

Sorry, been a Microsoft guy since 1988 and just don't trust MS's ability to quickly respond to new threats.

 
Mar 20, 2018
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I don't use antivirus on mac laptop. As long as I keep avoiding click questionable links or websites and follow Mac updates, it would be good.
 

activegalaxys

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Nov 25, 2017
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I use AVG Internet Secutity. Mainly because it was cheap at the time (£15 for the first year w/ unlimited installs) and it does work. It picked up one virus a couple months ago, and its been fine since. Amazingly, It's particularly light on my poor old Dell, which struggles when playing 720p YouTube, so I'm happy with paying the horrific renewal prices that AVG put into place. Every time I scan I do a deep scan, which helps pick up those nasty viruses.

Of course, I do recommend AVG Free Antivirus if you can't afford Internet Security. And, if you don't like AVG at all, try Avast. It is light on older systems, such as my Dell, and can pick up a lot of viruses and malware if you have a badly infected system. Of course, when using free Antivirus, or any at all, get Malwarebytes. I don't use it because it puts a big strain on the CPU. I didn't intend to ramble on like this...
 
Mar 27, 2018
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I used McAfee for years and it was really good, though it was really very expensive. But now i only use Window Defender for Web security and Malware protection.
 

ahs89

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Jan 14, 2016
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I have been using Avira for many years and it works perfectly fine for me. It consumes less memory and most importantly it does not the bug, again and again, to convert to a paid one.
 
May 22, 2018
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we initially use the trial version but later on shifted to the paid antivirus which gives some good advantages over other versions.
 

RolandJS

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Mar 10, 2017
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Awhile back, I began using free AV, AM, etc. on my desktop and two laptops. Later, I migrated to paid versions for AV, AM & etc. Not too long ago, I began dropping one or two at a time AV, AM and related utilities. Now, I've been using Windows 7 Pro Firewall, Windows 7 MSE, Windows Defender, and only one pay-for -- Emsisoft AntiMalware which includes an AV engine.
 
Sep 19, 2018
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I've only ever used free ones because it just didn't make sense to pay for an antivirus, at least yet. I exercise caution by not clicking anything and everything I find on the net. So far I've had good experience with Bit Defender (nil resource impact on my 5 year old laptop running Win 8) and Malwarebytes Free.

I tried Malwarebytes' one month premium trial and must say that it makes more sense to get the paid version of Malwarebytes because it scans for malware in real time which can be serious if not detected in time. If a big virus is going to hit my computer then I really doubt if any of the paid antivirus is going to save me. For the other ones even free AV should suffice.

However, I've just joined this forum to get help with my first pc build so I will definitely buy Malwarebytes but will continue to run Bit Defender free.
 
Nov 16, 2018
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Free antivirus + Windows firewall should be enough. But if you want paid antivirus then I would recommend ESET Internet Security. Good protection, lightweight and there is no problems at all.
 
Nov 23, 2018
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I use bulldog, a paid one, my parents had a subscription for multiple computers, so I could just use it, if that wasn't the case I would've opted for a free one tho. But I wouldn't recommend going in without antivirus, especially not in older versions of Windows
 
Nov 25, 2018
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I only use free antivirus, but because my system is so beefy, I have a few, and it still won't weigh down the system. I use Bitdefender as Real-Time Protection, Malwarebytes as my Scanner, and Comodo as my Firewall. I also use Windows Defender Browser Protection for Chrome. I love everyone of them. They are all free as well. I would recommend every one of these respectively.

- Memeilicious
 
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