Microsoft essential antivirus?
- Thread starter jaysmiley
- Start date
mastertech
Solid State Member
- Messages
- 16
- Location
- USA
I know this will probably offend some people, or be taken in a negative view and if it is I apologize as it is really not meant to be taken like that...
I have a particular view on antivirus protection as that is a majority of the calls that I get...When it comes to being protected free protection programs are nice for those that absolutely cannot afford others that are available...
From real life experience I will tell you that Avast is the best free one but depending how much your computer set up and information is worth to you I would recommend Vipre or Kaspersky paid versions as they are by far the best.
While free programs give you basic protection there are differences however subtle they may be between free and paid...I am very happy to see that Microsoft Security Essentials was pointed out for what it is...I have been fighting that one for a long time.
I have a particular view on antivirus protection as that is a majority of the calls that I get...When it comes to being protected free protection programs are nice for those that absolutely cannot afford others that are available...
From real life experience I will tell you that Avast is the best free one but depending how much your computer set up and information is worth to you I would recommend Vipre or Kaspersky paid versions as they are by far the best.
While free programs give you basic protection there are differences however subtle they may be between free and paid...I am very happy to see that Microsoft Security Essentials was pointed out for what it is...I have been fighting that one for a long time.
mastertech
Solid State Member
- Messages
- 16
- Location
- USA
One other thing I would recommend, something that very few do is to check the chosen antivirus program...since you mentioned ESET
No matter what program you have installed, there are none that protect 100% of the time from 100% of threats...regardless what you have installed you need to checkup on their work, just like we were taught to check our work in school...The way to do this is to use free scanners or rescue scanners in conjunction with antimalware scanners....
Vipre, Kaspersky and several others have free rescue scanners...Vipre's can be ran in Windows without the need for making a bootable CD...Eset also has a free Online Scanner...Using these to make sure nothing has made it past your installed antivirus about once per month or so is a critical need...
Most real viruses are designed to be stealthy, if your antivirus program has missed it you will never know it is there unless you check it with something else...While many antivirus programs boast antimalware that is not their main focus and may be lacking in that area...using programs like malwarebytes and Emsisoft's Antimalware is recommended at least on occasion to ensure that no malware or malicious programs have made their way past your antivirus too...
Unfortunately most people that have antivirus installed get a false sense of security and think they are safe as long as there are no visible problems and this can't be farther from the truth in a lot of cases...
As a real world example...whenever I install antivirus on a new customers computer I usually end up finding the following as I do a free cleaning too...
Kaspersky: Usually find 1-4 medium to low threats existing on computer
Norton: Usually find 3-9 medium to low threats
McAfee: Usually find 8-16 low to high threats
Avast: Usually find 4-12 low to high threats
Microsoft Security Essentials: Usually find 12-23+ low to high threats
In my opinion, other than Vipre Kaspersky is the better choice paid, avast the better choice free from real world experience...MSE is definitely one to stay away from as is McAfee on the paid side...Regardless of the choice it is critical you check up on them
Thank you for all the opinions. I tried many times all the antivirus mentioned here, when i was using windows xp system. And so far it was good but a little bit problem about the internet security. I am using only a free version because it is very expensive if i will buy.
