Alternatives to a standard Antivirus?

Discussion in 'other anti-virus software' started by AnthonyG, Jan 31, 2017.

  1. AnthonyG

    AnthonyG Registered Member

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    Hi, It's been a long while since I have read the forums so I have totally lost track of current trends.

    However, I seen this story on my RSS feed reader today and it got me curious

    http://www.myce.com/news/ex-mozilla...ll-antivirus-software-vendors-terrible-81385/

    So if you are using Windows 10 x64, do you still need to use a full antivurs package? Or is there better and less resource hog alternatives to keep your system safe.

    For me to be honest I do go to what would be considered very high risk websites frequenty and I cannot remember the last time my Kaspersky popped up with a warning on them for anything dodgy.

    My biggest bugbear seems to be non stop adverts that I block with adguard and not viruses. So just out of curiosity. Do many people still use real time on access antivirus software or have they switched to something else and if so what have they switched to?
     
  2. anon

    anon Registered Member

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  3. PastTense

    PastTense Registered Member

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    Yes, Anon, I have also read that thread but it is unclear what they have switched to. Some of us can't see the forest for the trees at Wilder's. It seems there are a large number of different types of approaches you can follow to secure your system, that there are a huge number of software packages implementing these approaches and it is not clear which of these approaches any particular package does (I have free Avast and I know it's called an anti-virus--but it actually does a number of things--but I can't tell you what they are), and if you implement a large number of packages your system slows to a crawl.
     
  4. Spartan

    Spartan Registered Member

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    oWIuz3d.png
     
  5. Krusty

    Krusty Registered Member

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    I keep hearing the WD is heavy but I don't see that on my machines. I've just uninstalled Norton Security from all three and can honestly say there really isn't any noticeable difference between Norton and Windows Defender, and I wouldn't say Norton was heavy either.

    To @AnthonyG ,

    If you were going to uninstall Kaspersky you could use WD along with the free version of VodooShield and have a pretty rock solid setup.
     
    Last edited: Jan 31, 2017
  6. plat1098

    plat1098 Guest

    Not seeing the "performance impact" with Windows Defender--at all. It's not that I don't believe the above graph, I just can't believe it.
     
  7. Kerodo

    Kerodo Registered Member

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    The graph says "Microsoft"... are they talking about the old MSE, or the new Defender? Maybe it's the old MSE, which did have some issues....? I don't notice any performance impact with Defender on Win 10 either.....
     
  8. entropism

    entropism Registered Member

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    Performance is Win 10 x64, protection is Windows 7.
     
  9. NWOAbschaum

    NWOAbschaum Registered Member

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    There is a huge impact on performance with defeder on win10 or any other version! its nothing like fps drops butjust open a folder with hundreds or thousands of exes. it takes ur whole life to open. defender is heavy as hell in this area.
     
  10. Kerodo

    Kerodo Registered Member

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    That was the old complaint about MSE on 7. Maybe it's still there with Defender on 10, but how often does one open a folder with thousands of exe's in it? :)
     
  11. anon

    anon Registered Member

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    PDF, page 3 =
     
  12. anon

    anon Registered Member

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    Last edited: Feb 1, 2017
  13. guest

    guest Guest

    exactly lol , same old same old.

    In fact the real questions are:

    1- how you setup your system: do you use SUA? do you set UAC at max? do you aply some tweaks to Win10, etc.. i
    2- how is your behaviors: are you careful with what you download and execute? do you research before you use an unknown application/executable?
    3- do you listen the eventual alerts you get from UAC or Smartscreen?

    if yes in all 3 , so you barely need an 3rd party AVs

    if you don't often download from them , better use a sandboxing/virtualization approach, less impact on your system

    personally i don't use real-time AVs (except Windows Defender , which is built-in Win10, and it is good enough to keep it) , i could just use built-in security features of win10, but i like and have to use (as closed-beta tester) some security apps (as my signature mention).
     
  14. anon

    anon Registered Member

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    It's possible to get infected by simply visiting a perfectly legitimate website*....... just visiting, without you ever realizing what and how it happen.

    *Avoiding the “dark corners of the Internet” is no longer sufficient to avoid malware attacks. ;)
     
    Last edited: Jan 31, 2017
  15. ance

    ance formerly: fmon

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    If you are RejZoR you do it every day ... :D
     
  16. Minimalist

    Minimalist Registered Member

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    If you are visiting high risk websites you could consider using Sandboxie for additional protection. It's not resource hog but it would improve your security considerably.
    If you would like to stay with Av/AM only you can check testing site like https://www.av-comparatives.org/. Check real world protection tests and performance tests and try some of better performers installing on your system.
    As you said adblockers are a must this days and will also stop a lot of dangerous content.
     
  17. Iangh

    Iangh Registered Member

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    +1. It's worth reading the AV-C report to see how they arrive at the impact figures. After I did I stopped paying attention to the graph.
     
  18. plat1098

    plat1098 Guest

    OK, thanks for the additional info, anon. Clearly the result doesn't apply to all Defender users/enablers.

    lol!
     
  19. AnthonyG

    AnthonyG Registered Member

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    I did many years back buy a lifetime licence to Sandboxie when using Windows XP. But I seen mentions that due to the way x64 was implemented Sandboxie couldn't do its thing no where near as well on x64 setups that it did on x86 and was not as secure so I gave up on it when I switched to windows 7 x64 some years back.

    The thing with the antiviruses there seems to be two distinct functions that need to be considered. The first is browsing the internet you can come across viruses hidden in the code on less than reputable webpages . This has always been my biggest worry and reason I use an antivirus as I have received some nasty stuff in the past (I remember getting a drive by premium rate dialer back in the dialup days that downloaded and installed on my system secretly via going to a hacked webpage and suddenly found I had a £400 phone bill one month from it)

    But what I am taking from this article by the mozilla guy is with Windows 10 fully up to date these are no longer in anyway an issue? (Meaning hidden malware installs onto my system via hacked or nefarious webpages)

    The other use is when you download an application from a less than reputable site and this is really a trojan. On this use the sensible thing would be to scan any application you get with jotti prior to installation. So if you did this every time you don't really need an antivirus running.

    My question is really more so aimed at the real time protection for visiting websites on the internet that antiviruses provide and if anyone uses anything different these days to protect them from them.

    I will look over Sandboxie again but is there anything else anyone uses to compare it to?
     
    Last edited: Feb 1, 2017
  20. Minimalist

    Minimalist Registered Member

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    Sandboxie is now fully compatible with x64 OS and AFAIK there is no impairment while using it on x64.
    Both issues can be tackled using SBIE. Controlling scripts helps a lot too.
    It could still be an issue although MS improved security in their latest OS.
    Yes installing it on jotti or virustotal can help you make decisions about unknown installers. I also test install stuff in Virtualbox before deploying it on real system.
    I didn't find software that could be compared by SBIE. There is some other virtualization software, but not quite like SBIE.
     
  21. Rasheed187

    Rasheed187 Registered Member

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    Actually, I stopped using real-time AV back in 2006, they were becoming too bloated and privacy invasive. On top of that, most AV's will never be able to spot 100% of all malware, which isn't that big of a deal, if you practice safe computing, but still something to think about. So that's why I decided to learn about HIPS/Behavior blockers, white-listing and sandboxing. And of course I always scan files on VirusTotal, which isn't foolproof either, but still better than depending on a single AV.
     
  22. greyowl

    greyowl Registered Member

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    What HIPS/Behavior blocker do you use?
     
  23. illumination

    illumination Guest

    I'm surprised no one has suggested using windows 10 defaults with a good adblocker like ublock origin with a few of the extra filters enabled, with the ability to add rules, filters , as well as the whitelist. Of course a few other extensions one could consider is IP and domain and either of the virus total extensions for Firefox or chrome for checking the legitimacy of websites. This coupled with safe habits would be more then proficient for most, unless your like me and tend to dive through many malicious samples on a daily basis in which I would advise locking the system down.

    I have one system set up above this way in my home, used by average users, and it has been infection free for the year it has been that way, although I do get complaints often about ublock actually blocking things it should :eek::D
     
  24. Minimalist

    Minimalist Registered Member

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    From OP:
     
  25. bellgamin

    bellgamin Registered Member

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    Re the Topic for this thread: "Alternatives to a standard Antivirus?" I recommend Zemana Antimalware, PLUS EXE Radar Pro, PLUS image your system disk at least weekly & retain >3weeks of images.
     
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