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Anti-malware software is almost universally terrible. My advice is to use the one that comes with Windows (aka Windows Defender). It's not perfect but it's the

Anti-malware software is almost universally terrible. My advice is to use the one that comes with Windows (aka Windows Defender). It's not perfect but it's the least worst option. Whatever you do, don't use McAfee. And definitely don't use some other random software you found online no matter what the reviews say. This type of software is always incredibly invasive. There is almost zero reason to give this much power over your system to another third party.

1337shadow 5y ago
In case you already have McAfee, you can use this tutorial by John McAfee himself to remove it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKgf5PaBzyg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKgf5PaBzyg
pram 5y ago
Yes I used Bitdefender for awhile, which was fine, and then they started installing stuff like VPN clients and weird browser extensions. I literally paid for it too, but not anymore. Total shady bullshit.
varnaud 5y ago
I removed Avira antivirus from my grandma low spec laptop and switched to the builtin Windows one. My suspicious was that it was constantly scanning the HDD and running a bunch of processes that overworked the laptop limited capacities. Boot to Firefox was improved by at least 30 seconds, navigating the file explorer felt much smoother and security was probably improved as well. For home users, I don't see any reasons to use a third party antivirus nowadays.
formerly_proven 5y ago
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CiniP-kUkAE36aI?format=jpg&name=900x900 https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CiniP-kUkAE36aI?format=jpg&name=... AVs and other "security products" massively increase attack surface (sometimes by literally disabling protections that the OS itself has, but usually by just being buggy and insecure in itself and doing things in obviously bad and insecure ways to be faster) and have been leveraged in so many attacks now that it's truly remarkable that there is zero change in how people think about it.
swiley 5y ago
I don't think I've worked somewhere that doesn't use McAfee. The worst was Honeywell, they had every single McAffee product ever installed and it made the machines unusable (SWE's were allowed to apply for 70 day temporary exceptions, so we could actually work instead of just watching the anti-virus/whatever break things.) McAfee also has a partnership with Verizon where they'll convince whoever is paying the bill to install software on the router that terminates SSL connections for you and forces you through their proxy (this requires installing their root CA cert, so yeah they've even managed to get into iPhones despite the AppStore.) RKHunter doesn't look so bad but malware is such a non-issue on Linux if you stay away from wordpress and npm so I don't even bother.

1337shadow 5y ago

In case you already have McAfee, you can use this tutorial by John McAfee himself to remove it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKgf5PaBzyg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKgf5PaBzyg

pram 5y ago

Yes I used Bitdefender for awhile, which was fine, and then they started installing stuff like VPN clients and weird browser extensions. I literally paid for it too, but not anymore. Total shady bullshit.

varnaud 5y ago

I removed Avira antivirus from my grandma low spec laptop and switched to the builtin Windows one. My suspicious was that it was constantly scanning the HDD and running a bunch of processes that overworked the laptop limited capacities. Boot to Firefox was improved by at least 30 seconds, navigating the file explorer felt much smoother and security was probably improved as well. For home users, I don't see any reasons to use a third party antivirus nowadays.

formerly_proven 5y ago

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CiniP-kUkAE36aI?format=jpg&name=900x900 https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CiniP-kUkAE36aI?format=jpg&name=... AVs and other "security products" massively increase attack surface (sometimes by literally disabling protections that the OS itself has, but usually by just being buggy and insecure in itself and doing things in obviously bad and insecure ways to be faster) and have been leveraged in so many attacks now that it's truly remarkable that there is zero change in how people think about it.

swiley 5y ago

I don't think I've worked somewhere that doesn't use McAfee. The worst was Honeywell, they had every single McAffee product ever installed and it made the machines unusable (SWE's were allowed to apply for 70 day temporary exceptions, so we could actually work instead of just watching the anti-virus/whatever break things.) McAfee also has a partnership with Verizon where they'll convince whoever is paying the bill to install software on the router that terminates SSL connections for you and forces you through their proxy (this requires installing their root CA cert, so yeah they've even managed to get into iPhones despite the AppStore.) RKHunter doesn't look so bad but malware is such a non-issue on Linux if you stay away from wordpress and npm so I don't even bother.