So: I have been happily using Emsisoft Anti-Malware Home for a few years. Unfortunately, they are discontinuing Windows 7 support and I need to find an alternative. We need to protect two main computers: PC 1: Multi-boot with Windows 10 LTSC 2021, Windows 10 Pro, and Windows 7 Pro (all 64-bit) (and also Linux Mint, but that is another story). PC 2: Windows 7 Pro 64-bit. Older, very slow laptop. I need to protect Windows 7 for a year or so until I can replace PC 2. We are privacy oriented. We prefer free, but we are willing to pay for a subscription since that would likely have better privacy. What anti-malware setup should we consider in 2022+ for Win 7? Thanks!
I was thinking Kaspersky Security Cloud free, or Avast One Essential free. Both are also approaching their committed 2 yr post win 7 EOL support.
Thanks! I wonder how BitDefender is on privacy? Or resources? And how long it will continue to protect Win 7? Though I only have to make it through another year or maybe two.
Yeah, that is a concern. Does anyone happen to know when they will give up the Win 7 coverage? Or have an opinion on how privacy respecting they are? I used Avast a couple times in the past, but became concerned that they were not the best on the privacy front.
I am trying to understand what Forticlient is. And when I searched for Forticlient Free, I landed on a site that said "forticlient-free.com is not an official representative or the developer of this application..." I sometimes use Comodo Firewall. I wonder what else people are using for Win 7.
This - https://www.wilderssecurity.com/threads/wisevector-stop-x.431502/ It also has a thread at Malwaretips. Highly praised program from both high and low security tech people.
Comodo Internet Security, it's free and bullet proof. It's also very light; and no, don't disable the AV.
windows 7 -> paperbasket NO antivirus is able to fill the security gaps, it only detects what for its programmed. number of gaps increasing, for now already several hundred. for win10 you dont need nothing else.
Thanks all! I am researching all this! I am reading the privacy policies and some of the companies I used to respect more may have slipped a bit. Keep the ideas coming!
Of COURSE, upgrading to Win11 (not Win10!) is a practical & "politically wise" essential for the job-security of those who are ITs of business networks, military facilities, power grids, etc. However, Win7 is quite safe for security-conscious HOME users who are not foreign spies, or involved in transacting major "closely-held" deals via the internet, or trolling black-hat forums, & other such venturesome activities. With Win7 I use: (a) Full-time -- OSArmor plus VoodooShield plus a FW (b) On-demand -- WiseVector & Virus Total. I have been up & running since Win95 days. Over the years I have had several malware infections. However, I have never had a security incident that I could not easily recover from. Never have needed a fresh OS install. Never have lost any key data. Never have had compromised passwords or identity thefts. Why was my computer "immune" from any lasting bad effects of these infections. Only ONE reason: the keystone to these many years of safe computing is that I began imaging my main drive from the first time I ever heard there was such a thing. Over the years, imaging has been, & still is, the solid foundation of security for all my various computers. I still image main drive to external drive 3x/week & retain images 3-4 weeks. To OP BigCat: Lots of excellent suggestions in this thread. Whether or not you continue with beloved Win7, I wish you fair winds & a following sea.
And that is the bottom line. A fresh image supported by daily incrementals to keep your current work safe. I do an image monthly, and save all my work to an external every day. I learned the hard way. Writing up to a couple of thousand words a day = 12,000 words a week. I used to save weekly until something happened and I lost 10,000 words. That convinced me daily was the way to go. A fresh full image and daily incrementals saves a lot of grief. The minutes spent creating them is not wasted.
Thanks for the continued advice! I noticed no one mentioned paid Malwarebytes, which does seem to still support Win 7. Could that act as a "good enough by itself" anti-malware answer? It used to be pretty well respected. Is that still true?
One i can recommed is F-Secure Safe. Its light in terms of performance, it offers good security, great behavior blocker(DeepGuard) and their banking protection is good too. In terms of privacy, F-Secure is from Finland. Sure you can download the trial version of it and then, take a risk and buy a license from Ebay. SerialCart is one that i've been using for couple of years. It's 100% legit to buy cheap lisences.
Win10 is OBE. Win 11 is the way to go for an upgrade. However, the title of this thread is "What Anti-malware for Windows 7 in 2022?" -- NOT "What version of Windows should I Use?" @moredhelfinland -- Thanks for calling attention to F-Secure Safe. It's one I haven't heard of for quite a long while. I shall give it a trial spin on my Win7 laptop.
I run ESET NOD32 with Malwarebytes Premium side-by-side on two 7x64 machines. One PC is much slower so I cut back on the real-time Malwarebytes protections I run on that slow one, meaning just the Ransomware Protection and the Exploit Protection are active. On the stronger PC I run all four Malwarebytes protections... Web, Malware, Ransomeware and Exploit. I wanted something to complement ESET, and Malwarebytes fits that purpose perfectly. I would not feel too good about Malwarebytes by itself, however. What really helps keep my home computers safe is Sandboxie. I consider it to be my Number 1 security program. Naturally, Macrium Reflect is present, as are numerous other add-ons, such as browser extensions and manual scanners.
You all are awesome! Thanks for the discussion; I love this forum. I am still following this thread...
For PC2, as I do with my 11 year old Gateway, Microsoft Security Essentials and AppCheck (with Exploit Guard enabled) and Windows Firewall. I used to have a task scheduled to check for the sigs/defs every two hours and which updates when available. (But now it's so little used, I just check manually when I power it up, mostly to manage my AT&T NetComm Wi-Fi/4G hot spot as I'm not attaching that to my LAN.) The sigs/defs are the same as and used in the same way as by the latest and greatest Defender for when the latest and greatest Defender uses sigs/defs. I protect the browser with the AdGuard extension with all the Stealth Mode settings enabled and the Online Malicious URL Blocklist enabled in Filters > Security; update interval, 1 hour. Of course, the browser's resident protections as well. If you're doing anything with that laptop which lead you to conclude you need more protection, stop doing it. And resume when you get a new one. For PC1, any system powerful enough for the way you got set it up, anything which supports Win7 when you boot to that. Cheers.
