Windows 8 Antivirus

musicmelody

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Nov 5, 2012
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Okay, I can't really find a concrete answer on this. I had windows 7, was using avast, had previously used MSE and it did me well. Upon upgrading to Windows 8 (keeping all my stuff from 7), updating and checking drivers, I now realize that it has a built in WD/MSE and I'm wondering, do I need avast? I don't normally make myself susceptible my self to AV attacks, and I have malware bytes, and a few other spyware scanners if I ever get suspicious. I'm just worried avast may be slowing me down, because I have noticed my computer running slower since I installed Windows 8.

Thoughts?
 



Hi :)

I wouldn't rely on it and I don't...I use NORTON Internet Security 2013 ...

The best there is IMHO....

All the best Brett :)
 

musicmelody

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Eh I'm not too fond of Norton, and i have avast, I was looking for a free antivirus, if I need one, I'm just trying to determine if I need to add anything to it, or if it is sufficient on its own.
 


I've had Windows 8 since the launch. My Brother has done a lot of torrent downloads and such on this PC and I've never EVER gotten any problems. It's really cool not having to deal with software issues for my antivirus, as you also mentioned - it's also great not having antivirus programs that slows booting times by a decade or two. I have confidence in Microsoft know what they're doing. :bounce:
 
I used to use AVG but I found that I had to many false positives and hassle. After trying several anti-virus programs I settled for Microsoft Security Essentials as this gave the least hassle. I also use the free version of Malwarebytes as this is non resident and compliments MSE as it is the best anti-virus program at actually removing a virus once infected. As for Norton, well unless you want to cripple your computer I would stay well clear. I am fed up with people saying that Norton is not as bad as it used to be and that the latest version is not that bad, every year I try it and every year I find that it has not got noticeably better, its just that computers have got faster with more memory and can now run it, but if you don't mind dedicating one of your cores and a gig or so of memory to the anti-virus program then go ahead install Norton. The only thing that I have noticed that has got better about Norton is that the uninstall program has improved.
You should not run two resident anti-virus programs on your computer, doing this will cause your computer to run very slowly even on the fastest of computers.
 



Hi :)

That is total tosh about Norton... at the moment (on my machine)its using a lot less than 0.5 % of my resources... (NIS2013)

I have fixed viruses and then installed NIS for years and the problem of Norton using a lot of resources was cured in the 2008 edition...

We install , as a guess, hmmmm probably around 500 copies of NIS a year in my shops.... and we NEVER get a machine back with Viruses on it....

MSE is by far the best of the free programs but we still get machines in with MSE "AND" Viruses...for removal...

All the best Brett :)



 

Computered

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Oct 8, 2011
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With the quality of the free AV solutions available for home users it makes zero sense to pay money for one.

In my testing and use of Windows 8 I have found the built in AV works fine provided you are not trying to infect your PC. By that I mean browsing the sites known to have the higher instances of malware associated with them.

If you want more security I suggest a free AV solution. The new Avast looks interested and I am currently testing it. The new Comodo Internet Security set is free and has a neat feature called Sandbox browsing. Basically it runs your browser in a sand box so even if you go someplace dumb it is easy to flush the sandbox and kill the infection.

As far as Norton, the new solution seems to fix the bloated issues they had in the past, not noticed the slowdown we used to see. However as for protection I can tell Brett that of the over 300 calls to homes I got this last year for infected systems, over 75% were systems running Norton.

Again I will stress however that the quality of the free solutions is good enough that a home user paying makes no sense.