Need new AV

Dropping Norton because of continuous pop ups pushing their products so need new AV. I think Norton is very good, I have had it 20 years ,liked it and found it effective. But I am not accepting the lifelock spamlock, pushing their vpn and trying to upsell even when marketing communications turned off.

Is Malwarebytes an AV as well as anti malware?
Is MS Security being free a serious contender?

I still have Win 7 due to I like it and I am unable to build the PC I want because of Covid
Any suggestions welcome

 

I've used them all, nothing is better than Panda Free. No toolbars, no HTTP scanner (I don't want anything slowing my internet or VPN), just a lightweight good file scanner.

Just make sure to untick the box to install Opera browser during installation.

See the latest performance test results, it's been the lightest for months:

https://www.av-comparatives.org/com...2021&chart_month=10&chart_sort=1&chart_zoom=0

Real world protection tests:

https://www.av-comparatives.org/com...chart_month=Jul-Oct&chart_sort=1&chart_zoom=2

 

you forgot that norton includes a (coin-)miner mining for them, not you.

MBAM is not competive, its detections is the worst of all.
Defender is competing on same high level as others.
but it do not inject stupid dll or extensions which cause issues, and it will cause issue.
dll injections may interfere, eg. with sandboxie, there are lots of stories in the sandboxie threads here.

stats
https://www.av-comparatives.org/vendors/microsoft/
https://www.av-comparatives.org/vendors/malwarebytes/

all
https://www.av-comparatives.org/vendors/

overview
https://www.av-comparatives.org/tests/summary-report-2021/

the tests do not differ security suites, which includes firewalls and more, while defender is only antivirus, attached with windows firewall, smartscreen and more. defender has anti-exploit, cloud scan, same as others.

as a paid customer of MBAM meanwhile i consider MBAM as obsolete, even not as a (free) second opinion scanner.

all scanners are feeded from virustotal beside its own signatures. daily protection varies in per mille. the best special tool against adware is malwarebytes adwcleaner (free tool) - it is much more specialized on adware and adware files than MBAM itself, like any tool.

 

Thanks
How does a HTTP scanner work?Is it good not having one?

 

defender is http scanning.
https://malwaretips.com/threads/does-windows-defender-does-https-scanning.112085/
it is working best with Edge or Chrome, firefox has its own protection.

 

Norton coin miner? By default, Norton Crypto is turned off. You need to manually turn it on. They do not hide it . if people want to mine its up to them. They know what , if anything, they get out of it.

 

http scanning.?is that good or bad?

 

does it autoupdate? the programme got issues in that regard

 

If I were on Windows 7 I would probably use ESET or Panda. They are both light and offer good protection.

I'm not sure that Microsoft Security Essentials is as good as Microsoft Defender on Windows 10, so I would go for 3rd party AV in your situation.

 

It does, basically, I install it, go to options, scroll the bottom, disable Panda News, add some exclusions, and I forget it. It auto updates and it never bothers me unless there was a threat. I use uBlock Origin on my web browsers so no need for an HTTP scanner like with other AVs which may slow down your internet. This for me is the perfect combo and it's free.

 

smartcreen is part of defenders http scanning. you need to turn it off, otherwise its still working.

and YES http scanning is mandatory! other programs uses a web-proxy to perform this, and this need to insert a certificate into each browser - or windows. such http scanning is also called as MITM and thats acting like malware. some vendors change its behavior and do no longer work this way, but they still have http scanning.

in fact each file cached by a browser is scanned - because its written to disk. background disk scanning is already present. except payload less malware but thats detected from anti-exploit (remember - defender can do this).

ublock detects only whats given by list, it does not intercept payload less infections if not detected. but its filtering with list is outstanding, even in basic settings.

i suggest you to forget any of your questions now, and our answers. just use defender and try to get along with it. if you dont like it after weeks (!), ask again. but it do not make sense to ask about nifties if you dont got them before.

 

WiseVector Stop-X (WVSX) is a free but excellent AV that also includes an integral firewall and a HIPS (Host-based Intrusion Protection System). WVSX is super easy to use and is very un-intrusive. WVSX's website is HERE.

WVSX uses signatures and also a very powerful behavior-blocker. WVSX is well supported by a helpful tech from WSVX on THIS Wilders forum. Despite its multiple components, WVSX is light as a feather, even on older computers & laptops.

 

Is Panda still alive and well? Last time I installed and used version 21, now there is only installer from 2019 for version 20. It seems to me like it is on the verge of death like Forticlient or Bitdefender.

 

The first thing I do when I install my OS is disable Windows Defender from its roots including smartscreen called ToggleDefender.bat

 

Still on W7 myself. I'm on Bitdefender Total Security. Have been for 7+ years.