Windows 10: Best program(s) for protection on Windows 10?

rule of thumb

 

They're just not necessary if your definitions are getting updated as they should. I have no autoscans and only do a monthly Malwarebytes scan. Maybe. I also turn off autodefrag options of any defrag program. They are not needed and only cause more wear and tear on your drive (this is also true of the AV autoscans). I do leave the automatic maintenance feature of Windows turned on though.

 

Can confirm, scheduled scans = 90's trash. Real-time protection is where your AV is efficient or not (heuristics, cloud etc. that's what really counts). And if your AV is efficient, you would never have to run industry-standard data-mining like malwarebytes, cc-cleaner and the like... It's borderline stupid to use AV X + anti-malware X. The AV program should handle malware too, else it just wastes precious processing resources. [yes I recommend "internet security" bundles - just not bloat and/or stuff that hinders your gaming habits like bitdefender or complete ****-ups like norton's]

 

This made me laugh so hard I had to clean my monitors off. Bundles = Bloatware.

 

I've now tried Panda as an alternative to Norton and the same issue I reported earlier still happens: Chrome becomes unresponsive and takes 2-3 min to start, Windows Explorer constantly crashes, and sometimes Windows can't even shut down. If I uninstall it everything works fine. So that's three anti-virus programs that don't work for me: BitDefender, Norton Internet Security, and Panda Free. I guess I'll just still with Windows Defender.

 

For me, Kaspersky Internet Security is the best antivirus..
You can give it a try if you want..

Here is the link: Kaspersky Internet Security Free Download | 30-Day Trial | Kaspersky Lab

 

For a firewall only, Tinywall. You have to do very little micromanaging, once it is set up. It's not an A/V, and with certain firefox extensions it will cover all your internet security needs.

 

I have found Windows firewall to be more than adequate , i also have Kaspersky but just the AV not the IS , my parents use to get infected almost daily until i put Kaspersky on their computer , no issues in two years.

 

Windows Fairywall is not adequate, you would be surprised what wants access to the internet. WFWall allows anything with the right permissions written in the program, and its quite easy to script those permissions into virus's & trojans. The kicker is that WFWall does not inform you of that newly installed spyware/trojan program now has those permissions.

TinyWall and other a/v bundled software that have firewall like capabilities change how firewall exceptions are handled by denying everything until explicit permission to access your internet is given. To top that off, 3rd party firewall programs are much easier to manage and maintain than WFWall currently is, no 16-"hunder-ed"-zillion-digit names to decipher to know what program wants out.

 

All i know is that i have not been infected a single time in many many years using it and the people that i have discussed this with like Shane (owner of Tweaking .com and PC Wintech ) the guys at (Bleeping Computer) and (Chaslang) at Majorgeeks have all told me it's fine and apparently they didn't steer me wrong .

Your the first that has disagreed but everyone has a different opinion , what do you think about the guy who said he hasn't used any firewall or AV in years and no issues .

 

Everyone will do whatever works for them. I used to follow advice of others all the time but as I got more Savvy(and paranoid) with Windows OS, I changed a lot of assumingly "ordinary" habits. People complain about Windows Defender, its very basic a/v, but its suitable for my needs. With an active firewall and IP blocklists, there isnt a whole lot of data that is leaving my computer without dancing a jig for me. With TinyWall I can even unblock Windows Update with single mouse click. I'm not trying to sell TinyWall, I'm just saying there are better programs than the built-in firewall.

So it boils down to the same old motto, The best protection is you.

 

It sounds like you're getting conflicts from left over parts of the uninstalled products. You should use the different companies' uninstall tools and probably do a registry cleanup after wards with at least CCleaner to be sure all invalid things are gone. A note on the Revo uninstaller program. I tried it and it doesn't do any better than just running the product's uninstall routine and then doing CCleaner's registry check.

People say that Bitdefender is one of the hardest to completely remove. Norton used to be but since 2007, it has done a very good job of completely removing itself without the aid of any special tools. It doesn't hurt to run them though.

People have said that using Defender along with Malwarebytes anti-exploit (a different product from the free or paid Malwarebytes Anti-Malware) works very well. Defender's biggest weak point is protection against new malware. Anti-exploit is strictly for that purpose and uses heuristic routines to check for suspicious behavior. It has no definition files at all and does not do real time scanning of files every time they are opened. What it does is shield only your browser where the great majority of new threats are encountered.

 

I've tried uninstalling BitDefender, then their removal tool, then CCleaner and I'm still seeing BitDefenders tag under Notifications. Not sure if that's a bug in Windows or if there is still some residual of BitDefender but I'm waiting to see what happens now.

 

CCleaner does not do any deep cleaning of your registry, never has, never will. You need to get one that does more DEEP cleaning of registry files. I own CCleaner Pro. run it on two computers. But if you want something that will do deeper cleaning, you have a few choices. Glary Utilities is one, and their is a free version you can use. Ace Utilities is also good choice but only free for 30 days. I have all 3 myself. I bought two of those 3 long time ago, maybe 3 or more years now. Those are just some choices for you to consider.

 

That's very true and that's why I said "at least" use CCleaner. I use Auslogics Registry Cleaner for much more intensive cleaning. It digs much deeper and even on it's max settings, I have never had to restore any changes it made. The best part is that it's completely free. Just leave it on autobackup to be safe.