Many experts advise that we should use several AV programmes to catch all the rubbish, I've found that AdAware finds PUP adware that Kaspersky doesn't. I'm still wondering if it is wise to give full access to a company which is based in Russia, a world centre for cyberwarfare.

In reply to a post by Malwaremike:

Many experts advise that we should use several AV programmes to catch all the rubbish, I've found that AdAware finds PUP adware that Kaspersky doesn't. I'm still wondering if it is wise to give full access to a company which is based in Russia, a world centre for cyberwarfare.

You would be surprised that they are not the only country who have a reputation for hacking etc USA and UK Intelligence services do it too, there have been a few exploits that have originated from the likes of the NSA

In reply to a post by trolleybus:

In reply to a post by Pheasant:

On my windows boxes I’ve used nothing other than the native/built-in windows protection for well over a decade, with no ill effects.

How can you be so sure that you machine is absolutely clean of any unwanted software?

You can’t be certain of anything really, but personally I haven’t found any of the other paid for products to do a dramatically better job. To my mind there’s more downsides than upsides using them. YMMV.

I don’t use anything extra or third party on the Mac’s I run either.

In reply to a post by Pheasant:

To my mind there’s more downsides than upsides using them. YMMV.

When smaller third party ("security") companies are trying to replace / override parts of the operating system, this HAS stopped Microsoft patches from installing, and in some cases this wasn't resolved for 6 months. So by using a "security" product, the consumer was less protected than just having Windows Update run automatically every month.

These security companies do not have access to the Windows source code, they do not know better than Microsoft (or Apple).

In my view if you want to run a third party security product, you're better off ditching Windows or MacOS and running Linux.

My view is the free ones are all pretty much the same non are 100% secure so just use the one you prefer and a bit of common sense when it comes to sites you visit.