Best anti-virus?

Liz3yy

Hi all, wonder if I could pick your brains? I recently bought a new laptop which came pre installed with a 14 day trial of McAfee anti-virus. It ends soon and will cost £20 per year. Is this worth paying for, or are the free anti virus offerings worth trying instead? I’m reluctant to pay out of I don’t need to. Thanks 

DoaM

The best AV is to uninstall McAfee and use the inbuilt Windows Defender. And get MalwareBytes AntiMalware (free version) to run, say, weekly scans. You don't need anything more (unless you're a click-happy eejit who doesn't read what's on the screen before pressing the mouse button).

jonnygee2

I use Bitdefender. For £70 / yr it covers all my devices, provides a good password manager and limited VPN. Seems worth it.

If you only need to cover  for anti-virus the laptop and that's it, Windows Defender is great and free, and already built in. As above malwarebytes free version can be run too, between the two you have enough protection for the average user.

JamoLew

DoaM said:

The best AV is to uninstall McAfee and use the inbuilt Windows Defender. And get MalwareBytes AntiMalware (free version) to run, say, weekly scans. You don't need anything more (unless you're a click-happy eejit who doesn't read what's on the screen before pressing the mouse button).

This 100%

RumRat

JamoLew said:

DoaM said:

The best AV is to uninstall McAfee and use the inbuilt Windows Defender. And get MalwareBytes AntiMalware (free version) to run, say, weekly scans. You don't need anything more (unless you're a click-happy eejit who doesn't read what's on the screen before pressing the mouse button).

This 100%

Thirded.....

ballyblack

 I recently bought a new laptop which came pre installed with a 14 day trial of McAfee anti-virus

The laptop manufacturer was probably paid to install that crap on your laptop.......get RID!

AndyPix

jonnygee2 said:

I use Bitdefender. For £70 / yr it covers all my devices, provides a good password manager and limited VPN. Seems worth it.

If you only need to cover  for anti-virus the laptop and that's it, Windows Defender is great and free, and already built in. As above malwarebytes free version can be run too, between the two you have enough protection for the average user.

Which devices do you have this 'protecting' for £70 a year ??

[Deleted User]

I use the latest Norton 360.  I bought this from Ebay and paid £23 for a 10 user licence.  We use all 10 (PC's, Laptops and Android Phones) so £2.30 per device per year.  I'm happy with that .

debitcardmayhem

desktop said:

I use the latest Norton 360.  I bought this from Ebay and paid £23 for a 10 user licence.  We use all 10 (PC's, Laptops and Android Phones) so £2.30 per device per year.  I'm happy with that .

On phones ? Snake oil

mrschaucer

If you want Malwarebytes and bank with Natwest, they were offering the Premium version free to some account holders recently.

labp04

Don't want to hijack the thread, but wondering what folk think about the NatWest offer of Malwarebytes Premium ie would it provide better cover than simply Malwarebytes free alongside the inbuilt security with W10?