Free anti-virus etc

grumpycrab

Manxman_in_exile wrote: »

There's nothing from Norton when I click your link, just the McAfee warning I haven't proceeded past.

I don't think all AV have "link checkers" - that's what McAfee WebAdvisor is doing for you (and I think it's quite useful); you'd probably find that Norton would say something if you didn't have WebAdvisor... but not worth uninstalling it to find out.

Regarding anti-virus the concensus seems to be that you don't need to pay for it at home, so either the default Defender, Sophos free, Panda free, Kaspersky free, Bitdefender free would all be good. And with Malwarebytes for belt and braces. I think the latter free one doesn't provide real-time scanning after 2 weeks trial; is it worth paying for real-time Malwarebytes? see what people say...

Robisere

Well worth paying for Malwarebytes Premium. I use it and set it to scan as soon as the PC starts. It works in the background and gives full protection from more than just an AV can give. I also run Defender and do a full scan with that every day, leaving it to scan before I switch off.

EveryWhere

The thing that will make the biggest difference to the device is fitting an SSD. The problem that I see is that you are adding more and more layers to a slow hard drive on a relatively low spec device.

So I would spend the money on an SSD and use free solutions instead. Though you can purportedly obtain four years of Malwarebytes Premium for £5.

PRAISETHESUN

I used to use AVG free and never had an issue with it, but they've started pumping it full of obtrusive ads in recent years so I left them. I use Sophos which I get access to for free through my former university's site license. Otherwise the above-mentioned alternatives will likely be enough for you, unless you make an effort to regularly visit dodgy websites!