Is Win-10 Antivirus as good as what they say

[sanuk711]

As the above---my friends tell me that Win 10 is in the top 10 listings for its built in Antivirus.

 

I have run win-10 for the last 4 years had no problems, but I do wander around the internet a lot, take my sport of choice (boxing/football) from Russian sites. So, I have always worried a little. When I saw that Bitdefender will give you 30 days free trial—& it had really good writes ups, I decided to try it.

Sort of expected it to come back and say that it had found lots -but they had saved me. That there all gone now, so sign up.

But it came back with a complete clean bill of health.

 

So, after the 30 days---do I need anything else but Win-10 running?

[worgeordie]

It's good enough for the "Normal" user, as its depends on what sites

you visit , and if you click on anything, without knowing what it is.

 

Windows defender plus a scanner like Hitman Pro (free) that scans

your PC on start up , should be good enough.

 

regards Worgeordie 

[OneMoreFarang]

It's my job to administer many Windows 10 PCs and I use on all of them the Microsoft Anti-Virus (or more precise Anti-Malware).

On reason is that it is a good program which is fully integrated with Windows. When I read test when it is compared to other programs it's always in the top x list.

Another important reason why I suggest it is that it does not ask any unnecessary questions. Free versions of any program often tell you "you should have this or do that" to convince you to buy the program. And even if you buy it then the program will still ask questions from time to time. It's not as bad as it was years ago. But I remember questions like "do you want to allow xyzsomething.dll to connect to the internet?". A normal user has no idea how to answer such a question. If you click yes then maybe you just allowed a virus. If you click no then maybe something (important) does not work anymore. Windows Defender does not ask such questions. Good!

 

 

[tgw]

Have been running nothing else than Windows Defender for years now.

I'm pretty happy with it, other antivirus rather make problems than solve them.

[fdsa]

There is actually no need for any antivirus besides the one embedded in Windows. The much more useful tool is a firewall, which you should choose a third party one.

 

the largest vulnerability resides between the chair and the keyboard, you know that vulnerability - it's the one that disables UAC, runs untrusted software with Administrator rights, runs macroses/embedded binaries in the documents received from unknown email addresses, and ignores all warnings that OS gives about running that software.

No antiviruses exists that are capable of protecting from this sort of vulnerability.

[KeeTua]

59 minutes ago, sanuk711 said:

I do wander around the internet a lot, take my sport of choice (boxing/football) from Russian sites. So, I have always worried a little.

Be sure to keep your browser updated. Browser addons that can block scripting are helpful. Running as a standard user account instead of an administrator account can help a bunch to prevent malware from executing. Probably most of the ransomware attacks require someone running as an administrator account clicking on a malicious link somewhere, in email or browser. Its easy to switch your account over to a standard user account if you're interested.

[tgw]

45 minutes ago, fdsa said:

There is actually no need for any antivirus besides the one embedded in Windows. The much more useful tool is a firewall, which you should choose a third party one.

 

I found windows firewall to cover all bases already. no need for a third party firewall.

 

[OneMoreFarang]

1 hour ago, fdsa said:

The much more useful tool is a firewall, which you should choose a third party one.

There is a firewall in Windows since Windows XP SP3 (at least as far as I remember).

The firewall is good enough to protect users from outside intrusions.

If users want firewalls which do a lot more and have to be configured then users need a lot of knowledge. IMHO 99% of users don't have that knowledge and they shouldn't even try to "optimize" any firewall - especially not with all the tips and tricks which they see in some YouTube videos from people who pretend to be experts.

[tgw]

9 minutes ago, OneMoreFarang said:

There is a firewall in Windows since Windows XP SP3 (at least as far as I remember).

The firewall is good enough to protect users from outside intrusions.

If users want firewalls which do a lot more and have to be configured then users need a lot of knowledge. IMHO 99% of users don't have that knowledge and they shouldn't even try to "optimize" any firewall - especially not with all the tips and tricks which they see in some YouTube videos from people who pretend to be experts.

 

windows firewall also has rules for outgoing connections. it's fairly easy to use to whitelist or block any incoming or outgoing connection of a program, or in general.

[HB9CPW]

Microsoft is OK.

I fixed some PCs with viruses: The problem was always between the ears.

[OneMoreFarang]

1 hour ago, tgw said:

 

windows firewall also has rules for outgoing connections. it's fairly easy to use to whitelist or block any incoming or outgoing connection of a program, or in general.

Yes, it's easy when the user knows what he or she is doing. But it's seldom that you only have to allow MyProgram.exe. It's more likely that MyProgram.exe uses MyCrazyName.dll and that's what has to be unblocked. But make sure you don't unblock YourCrazyName.dll as the same time...

And this is not only about not so experienced users. Even many experienced users will have difficulties finding out what has to be allowed or blocked. It is not trivial in most cases.

[tgw]

11 minutes ago, OneMoreFarang said:

Yes, it's easy when the user knows what he or she is doing. But it's seldom that you only have to allow MyProgram.exe. It's more likely that MyProgram.exe uses MyCrazyName.dll and that's what has to be unblocked. But make sure you don't unblock YourCrazyName.dll as the same time...

And this is not only about not so experienced users. Even many experienced users will have difficulties finding out what has to be allowed or blocked. It is not trivial in most cases.

 

dll requiring separate security are so rare that the case never happened for me.

 

dll are run under the security scheme of the executable that references them, so if you block the exe, you also block any dll it references.

[OneMoreFarang]

1 hour ago, tgw said:

 

dll requiring separate security are so rare that the case never happened for me.

 

dll are run under the security scheme of the executable that references them, so if you block the exe, you also block any dll it references.

Believe me, I had to configure DLLs like that in Windows firewalls before. And I know it was a lot of hassle.

Now I use mostly external firewalls (FortiGate) and that configuration works different. I am not up to date anymore with the newest software firewall settings. But I would be surprised if that is much easier now.

[LazySlipper]

Add malwatebytes as extra protection for malware... works like a charm with windows X

[Raphael Hythlodaeus]

On 6/8/2021 at 6:15 AM, LazySlipper said:

Add malwatebytes as extra protection for malware... works like a charm with windows X

Malwarebytes has picked up malware on my PC that Windows Defender missed. Still, it seems Defender is good enough for most normal users. 

 

Even if you don't want to pay for Malwarebytes, the free program is OK but of course does not provide live protection. Useful as a double check.

[bendejo]

I use Defender firewall and Avira AV. 

I have access to McAffee AV for free (via a US ISP I had an account with) but have never installed.

 

I have 2 apps I've used since ancient times that turn up as false positives when I scan.  I don't know if Defender allows things to be quarantined with the option of un-quarantining, as I've never been able to find it.  At least the dumbed-down Avira free version allows that.

 

I once had Comodo installed, talk about fine-tuning options!  Then one day I realized Comodo stopped working, even though the tray icon was there and and the info balloon said all was well.  I took a closer look and found I had been AV-less for a few weeks -- damn!