Thinking Of Dropping These Programs (after Years)

I have been a lurker on this forum for almost 20 years now (god I'm old lol). Over the years, any time I have been recommended to use a certain security program to maintain my PC, I've usually held on to it and continued to use it throughout the years (to scan my PC and keep it running healthy).

However, the list has grown enormous, and too hard to keep up with updates and use them all the time now. Plus, I don't really know how helpful they are at this point anyway, as just a general routine.

Here is that list. In 2022-2023, with Windows Defender being my default go-to on Windows 10, and all my internet activity running in a Sandboxie 100% of the time, how many of these (if any) are really that necessary any more? Just for routine scanning (with no major infections or issues going on).

• Spybot
• Malwarebytes
• SUPERAntiSpyware
• ATF cleaner
• CC Cleaner
• Hitman Pro
• Rogue Killer
• Adwcleaner
• PC DoctorToolBox

 

I don't believe you need any of the programs mentioned.

 

I would get rid of all of your "protection" programs, and I would forget about sandboxes too.

I use BitDefender's "Internet Security" for everything, along with whatever Windows 10 provides. The cost is around $24 to protect up to 3 computers for one year. I haven't had any problems with it for the last 3 years (but then I haven't had any malware or viruses on my computers for the last 40 years either). I've set it to do a complete scan every couple of weeks, but no matter what I do it like to do its 2-minute "quick-scan" every few days.

 

I’m a premium user of CCleaner but this will be my last paid subscription.
When reporting potential bugs the support is next to useless & often imply there cannot be a problem with the software or they treat you like an idiot.

 

Good decision! I haven't used CCleaner since its inception and I haven't missed it in the 40 years that I've been using PCs.

 

I also don't think you need any of those protection programs anymore. Windows OS has gotten much better over the years. For me, this is what I do:

1. Use the included Windows firewall and 'defender'.
2. Keep OS, browsers and apps up to date.
3. Use computer as 'standard user' - switching to admin only when I specifically need to.
4. Bookmark all important websites (email, social, financial, etc.) and click those bookmarks to visit - and not email links.
5. Download / update apps from legit websites - again not from email links.
6. For all important websites, use good passwords + MFA (whenever possible).

So far, so good...

 

Maybe luck, maybe not... who really knows? For years (back in the Win 7 days), I relied solely on Microsoft's built-in antimalware (under Defender and various iterative names) - and manually scanned with the much more respected Malwarebytes antimalware every month. And in all that time, Defender never picked up a single malware... and neither did Malwarebytes... except for a tiny handful of PUP's.

As they say, YMMV.

 

Yep. A little common sense precaution will go a long way. But throw caution to the wind... all that "behavioral analysis" and "heuristics" likely mean very little... outside of the slick marketing brochures / antimalware webpages! Corporations large and small get owned every single day... don't put too much reliance on antimalware 'suites' meant for a household computer.