Free Internet Security Programmes

I have become unhappy with Kaspersky Internet Security and uninstalled it.
Anyone have suggestion for a free programme please?

AVG, Avast, etc.

Try them and swap if not happy.

Or even Windows Defender if using Windows 10/11.

Thank you both for prompt replies.

I have Defender with Windows 11. Is this running in the background?

If you have removed any other anti virus suite, go into 'settings', 'privacy & security', 'windows security', this will tell you if need to activate Defender, or if it is already running.

In reply to a post by esseldee:

I have Defender with Windows 11. Is this running in the background?

It should be, as the other poster says check it is running after you have removed another product.

The built in Defender in Win10 and Win11 has recently had some really good reports in various AV comparison sites. You shouldn’t need anything else for most people.

@burble Many thanks.

one wonders why I was paying so much for KIS/KPM before

In reply to a post by esseldee:

one wonders why I was paying so much for KIS/KPM before

The security companies want to stay in business don’t they? 😂

Every little bit will help me in care home whilst I can cover fees for wife and self from sale of house. Wine over. lol

In reply to a post by esseldee:

Every little bit will help me in care home whilst I can cover fees for wife and self from sale of house. Wine over. lol

👍

@esseldee
My sympathies on your situation, facing so many oldies like ourselves. For what it's worth I dumped Kaspersky earlier this year after so many Governments warned on its security risks and W10 Defender has done a fine job for us both so far.
Best wishes, I hope things work out.
Mike

@ Malwaremike

Many thanks Mike. Keep well
Sellick

An occasional scan using the free version of Malwarebytes might be an idea as well as just Defender. Just for reassurance.

In reply to a post by pluralist:

An occasional scan using the free version of Malwarebytes might be an idea as well as just Defender. Just for reassurance.

If you're the type whom goes on dodgy websites, but don't keep the likes of MalwareBytes Free installed. Uninstall after scan.

(I don't actually think it adds much value on Win10/Win11 these days)

Why uninstall the free one? It doesn't do anything until asked to, at which point it updates if necessary.

In reply to a post by esseldee:

I have become unhappy with Kaspersky Internet Security and uninstalled it.
Anyone have suggestion for a free programme please?

I use AVG and have for many years its free and is highly recommended in the review sites -

https://uk.pcmag.com/antivirus/120817/the-best-free-...

Avast and AVG are owned by the same company i chose AVG as i prefer the simpler user interface.

.

Edited by Jack_Hackett (Sat 17-Sep-22 17:02:07)

I have Malwarebytes Premium installed and running alongside Windows Defender. MBAM does a daily scan at the end of which I get a pop up telling me the scan is finished, that's the only time I'm aware of it. I do a weekly full scan manually with Defender. The two get along very well together.

In reply to a post by longedge:

I have Malwarebytes Premium installed and running alongside Windows Defender. together.

He asked for free internet security Malwarebytes premium is advertised at £29.99 for one device and £69.99 for more than one.

Edit to add second price.

Edited by Jack_Hackett (Sat 17-Sep-22 17:47:00)

I have Malwarebytes Premium installed and running alongside Windows Defender. together.

The OP asked for free internet security Malwarebytes premium is advertised at £29.99 for one device and £69.99 for more than one.

Edit to add second price.

Edited by Jack_Hackett (Sat 17-Sep-22 17:47:52)

In reply to a post by pluralist:

Why uninstall the free one? It doesn't do anything until asked to, at which point it updates if necessary.

To avoid any malware you may pick up working around it.

I hadn't thought of that! Good point.

In reply to a post by longedge:

I have Malwarebytes Premium installed and running alongside Windows Defender. MBAM does a daily scan at the end of which I get a pop up telling me the scan is finished, that's the only time I'm aware of it. I do a weekly full scan manually with Defender. The two get along very well together.

Similarly here - the Premium version being provided free via my bank. I have the daily scan set to 2pm or later wakeup if off/sleep/hibernating at that time.

It does cause the cooling fan to run, that's all apart from the "All clear, finish" popup that you get.

My point was that the two, whether the free version or the full version of Malwarebytes happily co-exist with Windows Defender.

It so happens that my copy of the premium version of Malwarebytes came free from Bits du Jour some years ago but that is irrelevant really.

In reply to a post by Jack_Hackett:

In reply to a post by longedge:

I have Malwarebytes Premium installed and running alongside Windows Defender. together.

He asked for free internet security Malwarebytes premium is advertised at £29.99 for one device and £69.99 for more than one.

Edit to add second price.

Some banks provide Malwarebytes premium to their customers free of charge.

In reply to a post by Michael_Chare:

Some banks provide Malwarebytes premium to their customers free of charge.

Out of interest does anyone know what banks?

NatWest apparently did/do…. though the link is from a couple of years ago.

Hang on, just checked, it is still available to their customers.

In reply to a post by Zarjaz:

NatWest apparently did/do…. though the link is from a couple of years ago.

Hang on, just checked, it is still available to their customers.

Thank you

On startup, my laptop would use a lot of cpu while (MBAM or MBAN) did its thing so I disabled it.

(I don't get those two acronyms. MBAM appears to be a legacy Windows product and MBAN a Master of Business Analytics).

Free Malwarebytes does nothing on startup or at any other time unless you want it to, and the suggestion recently to uninstall it after use makes sense to me.

For the Premium version to run a scan on startup is down to your settings. Mine is set to run at a time I expect the machine to be on, 2pm unless the machine is sleeping or hibernating, as I said.

It's very rare for it not to run at some time then or later, so rare I don't remember what happens next morning on startup if it hasn't. When it is running all I really notice is the fan starts running then cuts out after. It's on an HP laptop with Win 11.

Edited by pluralist (Sun 18-Sep-22 11:56:57)

I may have caused some some confusion with a reference to MBAM, sorry, the main executable is mbam.exe.

In reply to a post by pluralist:

(I don't get those two acronyms. MBAM appears to be a legacy Windows product and MBAN a Master of Business Analytics).

Malware Bytes Anti Malware was its original name. The non-free version does various checks of the operating system at start up, as does the competition (Norton, McAfee, AVG, etc).

Which I find crazy as Windows 10 and Windows 11 has this built in, by the original creator of the operating system, whom know a lot more about the product than any third party.

My view: all 3rd party tools, including MB are from companies and organisations that we needed in the eras from DOS in the 80's through to WinXP / Win7, but they now need to gradually vanish. No wonder Symantec was purchased by a major hardware vendor. (Broadcom), and Intel sold McAfee, realising there will be no money in security software.

Big corporates use Microsoft's product (with the enterprise add ons for reporting and central control).

Apple has changed macOS and with their own CPUs the OS now resembles iOS (iPhone/iPad) and you cannot write to it. Microsoft virtualised all the parts of the OS that applications attempt to change, so that the problems of XP etc don't happen.

Those (like me) whom remember Dr Solomon's Antivirus can relax now. This isn't those days.

Edited by jchamier (Sun 18-Sep-22 13:47:38)

Which I find crazy as Windows 10 and Windows 11 has this built in, by the original creator of the operating system, whom know a lot more about the product than any third party.

I have tried defender and I find it scans really slow I also prefer not to put all my eggs in one basket a personal choice which has served me well over the many years using my PC.

In reply to a post by Jack_Hackett:

I have tried defender and I find it scans really slow I also prefer not to put all my eggs in one basket a personal choice which has served me well over the many years using my PC.

In corporates (100,000 devices, multiple continents) we gave up full disk scanning over 10 years ago. On access is the way forward.

Of course each to their own, just keep an eye on The Register for security holes in products (Microsoft and others) and on sites like AV Test or AV comparatives.

Of course each to their own, just keep an eye on The Register for security holes in products (Microsoft and others) and on sites like AV Test or AV comparatives.

Thats not something i have ever done i keep AVG updated manually every time i boot the PC it's a habit i got into years ago and as i say its served me well.

This is an interesting watch.
https://youtu.be/Wz81YEW0BT0?t=309

I might just give Defender a try


.

Edited by Jack_Hackett (Sun 18-Sep-22 14:47:21)

In reply to a post by Jack_Hackett:

This is an interesting watch.

I don't generally trust YouTube videos, but then I'm at the corporate level, not home level. I really dislike demo/trial versions of AV tools that disable the Windows built in tools, and then sit there 'expired' for years.

don't generally trust YouTube videos,

He is basically saying the AV companies are collecting lots of info with all the scanning they run in the background and are farming it out to other people.

They all work by collecting and sharing data, building a ‘trust’ matrix, even MS Defender does this. But I’m not surprised if the companies are selling the data to others, they need income as their business gradually disappears. Hopefully someone with proof will take them to the Information Commissioner.

In reply to a post by jchamier:

They all work by collecting and sharing data, building a ‘trust’ matrix, even MS Defender does this. But I’m not surprised if the companies are selling the data to others, they need income as their business gradually disappears. Hopefully someone with proof will take them to the Information Commissioner.

I have now got windows security (i didn't know they had changed the name) set to recommended settings and will give it a try i cannot argue with the stats below -

https://www.av-test.org/en/antivirus/home-windows/wi...

I note that was using Windows 10 Professional. That may or may not be relevant.

Edited by pluralist (Mon 19-Sep-22 00:24:35)

In reply to a post by pluralist:

I note that was using Windows 10 Professional. That may or may not be relevant.

Surely it will be the same whichever OS you have as there is no paid for version of WD/WS

In reply to a post by pluralist:

I note that was using Windows 10 Professional. That may or may not be relevant.

It is not relevant. MS doesn’t differentiate on standalone setups.

Corporates with around 500 or more can sign up to a cloud service, formerly called Windows Defender Advanced Threat Protection, which gives central control, and reporting - required for compliance reporting. It doesn’t change the protection level.

In reply to a post by jchamier:

In reply to a post by pluralist:

I note that was using Windows 10 Professional. That may or may not be relevant.

It is not relevant. MS doesn’t differentiate on standalone setups.

Thanks for letting us know.

In reply to a post by Jack_Hackett:

Thanks for letting us know.

If you use Windows Enterprise then all bets are off, but at that point you're business scale.

mban.exe is part of malwarebytes and ran as a service most times I started my laptop. Sometimes it would hog the CPU and would slow down the startup process.

In response to the OP:

Microsoft Defender gets decent reviews these days and is OK for most purposes. If you want to ditch Kaspersky for something that might be a bit more effective than Defender the best free bet right now is probably Avira. Avast Free is effective but produces too many noisy popups trying to sell premium features for my liking, whereas Avira only produces one or two popups per week. I used Bitdefender Free until recently which was great (and silent) but this has now been discontinued.

I also use Malwarebytes (free version) but only on demand for an occasional malware scan.

Edited by Stargazer99 (Thu 22-Sep-22 18:32:06)

In reply to a post by Stargazer99:

In response to the OP:

Microsoft Defender gets decent reviews these days and is OK for most purposes. If you want to ditch Kaspersky for something that might be a bit more effective than Defender the best free bet right now is probably Avira.

Could you explain why Avira is "more effective" than Windows security most advice seems to be that you no longer need a third-party AV.



.

Edited by Jack_Hackett (Thu 22-Sep-22 20:41:42)

In reply to a post by Jack_Hackett:

Could you explain why Avira is "more effective" than Windows security most advice seems to be that you no longer need a third-party AV.

and third party testing reports the built in tool meets all requirements. Even better it doesn’t expire or require payment, or change parts of the operating system that prevent security patches being applied. So in all a win I think.