New To Win10: Malwarebytes? Or Avg? Or...?

was happy enough with Win7/AVG but circumstance forced me to Win10. Anyone have strong ideas about the cheapskate's anti-malware strategy? is AVG and the windows firewall enough? Is the Malwarebytes $39 buy-in worth it? Is some other program better? Does anyone think I should just stick with the pre-installed McAfee free-trial? ...thanks all for any insight!
-k

 

I would use windows defender and Malwarebytes free never had any problems with that combo. Windows defender has improved immensely.

 

Thanks, Gang!

 

Malwarebytes free or paid? It depends on who uses the PC and what they do on it.

After the 14 day full trial, Malwarebytes "free" reverts to manual mode. You have to run it manually each time you suspect something's happened. Although the free version will clean many mild to moderate issues after they've happened, there is some malware out there that's next to impossible to remove (at least without corrupting Windows in the process).

In contrast, the paid version is proactive. It constantly monitors the system and will stop almost all malware before it has a chance to infect your PC.

At work, I strongly recommend the paid version if the client brings in a PC loaded with a toxic waste dump of existing malware. The most common instances of this are:

• Kids (or adults) who click on and load any "free" software or browser "helpers" they see an ad for (more often than not laced with malware).
• People who visit "adult" websites.
• People who download (illegal) music, videos, software, etc. from BitTorrent or similar sites.

As an example, I had one client with a browsing history consisting of adult websites I've never even heard of (legal, but off the scale of kinky) and over 1000 scan entries of malware infections. After I installed Malwarebuyes paid edition, it took six months before he was reinfected. When I checked the Malwarebytes log file to see what it HAD blocked over that time, the log file was long as a telephone directory!

 

Yeah I'm leaning towards paying: I'm pretty careful but have slipped up a couple of times, and $40/yr is a pretty good price for peace of mind.

Plodr warned about AVG being owned by data-harvesting Avast: I just saw a note that Avast now owns ccleaner as well :-/

Um, any thoughts on bloatware identification and removal? is PC-decrapifier a worthy tool? I used to use The Ultimate Troubleshooter to identify and kill unwanted startups and processes, but it hasn't been updated in forever: is there another good tool for that?

...I can't believe this beast is running @200 processes: sheesh

 

I don't like AVG and have not used AVG in a few years due to the fact it's now Bloatware.And it really does not help in any way. And another thing is if you USE AVG you are technically using AVAST now as well.Well be cause Avast Bought AVG out right lol.

 

I new that since 2016 and i kept telling people not to use them two software.But people still do because they think it's helping.When it's not.

 

If you go with Malwarebytes paid, it's often less expensive to buy it from a retailer versus paying Malwarebytes online. If you do this, just enter the license code in the box to instantly upgrade the free version to the premium one.

Walmart.com usually has the 3 PC/1 year for $30.99 (free shipping if total order is over $35). Office Depot/OfficeMax often puts the 3 PC/1 year on sale (in store or online) at $29.99 (and, if you show the Walmart.com price to them on your phone when checking out, will usually match Walmart.com's price if it's not on sale). Amazon has a 2 PC/18 month license for $39.99.

 

Hi Tim,
I thought at one time the write up here on MG's re system security and antivirus was that you could run several av's at one time. Now just reading it again, I see it says to pick 1. What say you? I see you run both MBAM and Kaspersky. Of interest is that Kaspersky is a Russian based company. (YIKES)

I'm running Win 10, Home Edition, with Comodo firewall & av, , Spyware Blaster, and MBAM.

 

Malwarebytes can co-exit with an antivirus program because it's not an antivirus program.
Look at this comparative test.
https://www.av-test.org/en/news/21-security-suites-and-packages-put-to-the-test-for-windows-10/

As long as Putin doesn't have shares...

 

MBAM has a NY sale going, 25% 0ff... but my installed free version pushed me a notification which I followed to get 2 years of premium for $40 (coulda done 1 year for $20)

 

I used to run the free Malwarebytes until I started using Windows 10. Now I use Bitdefender and have found it useful. In 2019 it caught several malicious attempts to install stuff on my system - most recently last night right after I clicked on https://www.zerodollartips.com/cant-adjust-screen-brightness-windows-10.

I'll continue to use Bitdefender until I lose confidence in it, then try the paid version of Malwarebytes.

 

Scammers will try and use the change brightness on people.It hides what they are trying to do.