Best Freebie antivirus du jour (Win 11) ?

KingL2

Hi
Just got my first Win 11 machine.   My previous (Win 10) had MS Defender, which (I'm told) was good.  It seems like it's not available on W11 Home without an (online) MS Account, which I don't have or want. 

I have variously flipped-flopped between avast and avira for 20 years as trends/advice dictates.  What is the best freebie currently?
thanks ?

Neil_Jones

Defender is built into Windows 11. You don't need anyting else, and its in Windows 11 in all versions.

You probably are thinking of this, which is part of Office (and you don't need it anyway)

https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/security/business/siem-and-xdr/microsoft-defender-office-365

Not the first time MS have reused a name and confused everybody in the process.

KingL2

Much obliged, sir.  

I right clicked on a file, hoping to find the option "scan with Defender", only to find a redirect to "you gotta buy this sh*t"..

Fortunately, I have now found the registry edit for
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\YouShouldProbablyJustAskThatGuyNeilOffaMSEForums]

which seems to have fixed it,

ta muchly

pmartin86

As above, defender is built in, stick with that.

As always though, not a single AV/firewall/secuity product on the planet can beat common sense. Be weary of emals, websites, links etc and you wont need an AV.