Advice please

[sarge43]

What is a good alternative site to Norton for on line security?

[Arne]

1. Look at the Iobit stuff.

You can give them money or not.
Everything they offer has saved me more than a few times.

[sarge43]

3. Thank you. I'll check it out n/t

[Laelth]

2. This is probably not the answer that you want.

I don’t have any anti-virus security software installed on my Win 7 PC. None, and I don’t have much trouble with viruses. I turn OFF the internal WinShield app (or whatever it’s name is—the red shield), and I keep it off, yet I never seem to have trouble with viruses.

Two reasons for this, I think. The older operating systems are less interesting to hackers. Their hacks are often geared toward more recent operating systems. Second, I never browse the web or download anything unless I am using a limited account that can not infect the operating system. I use my administrator account only for installing or updating software. That’s it.

If you can confine all your downloads to a limited account, your operating system remains intact and there’s little need for cumbersome security programs. Occasionally, I have to reboot to eliminate something nasty. Worst case scenario—I may have to run System Restore to get rid of something tricky, but I have never found any anti-virus software to be particularly useful.

-Laelth

[sarge43]

5. I have Win 10

I've been using Norton, but trying to navigate the site is a PITA now.

[Earthshine2]

13. What do you mean "navigate the site"?

If you have Win 10, you should probably uninstall Norton and never use it again.

Windows Defender is built into Win 10. For 99% of users, it has everything that's needed.

Win Def is light and streamlined. Norton is heavy and resource intensive.

I run Win 8 with real-time virus checking -- disabled!

Be careful about you click on and what you download, and you won't have problems.

[COLGATE4]

4. I've had good results with Malwarebytes

[sarge43]

6. Thank you. I'll look into it. n/t

[2naSalit]

7. I use Avast products...

Some are free, used only those for many years on several computers. I have WIN7 so when Microsoft stopped supporting it I purchased a couple products that serve me well and I use daily, some of them. I think I bought one cleanup program for $30/year and they offered the Virus scan thing for a discount so I spent $50 for a year. I like it, I stream news a lot and watch utoob vids and stuff gets loaded into my computer so I use the cleanup every time I go online. It keeps everything running smooth, monitors updates and driver updates and maintenance that should be done.

[sarge43]

8. Thank you. Sounds like it may be what I want. n/t

[2naSalit]

11. You can try the antivrus for free and they offer...

30 day free trials of other products you might like. I figured it was cheaper than buying a newer computer when this one is still in good functioning order. The maintenance program, the "cleanup premium" takes care of a lot of issues and I wish I had been using it before. After you use it, everything loads faster. $30 was well worth it for a year of that.

[CMYK]

9. I used to use Avast, but

I find all the antivirus software are heavy resource hogs - they take up a lot of your working memory and cpu usage.

I read recently that Win-10 uses it's own built-in Microsoft Defender, so add-on antivirus software is really not necessary anymore.

Haven't used an anti-virus for over a year, no problems.
Just stay smart - don't open unexpected or unknown attachments, don't visit questionable websites.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Defender

[Earthshine2]

14. Folks, pay attention to what our new-to-DU friend is saying.

He or she is quite correct.

If you are in the set of 99% of users, Win Defender is all that is needed.

[IcyPeas]

10. I also use Malwarebytes. The premium package.

it scans regularly and is updated for new viruses often.

worth it in my opinion.

[sarge43]

12. Thanks everyone for your advice. Most helpful

It gave me several options.