What After Bitdefender Free Antivirus

Since Bitdefender free antivirus is going to retire later in the year, what options, suggestions and recommendations are available?

PS: I have used Avira and Avast antivirus in the past and the only reason I switched to Bitdefender was because it did not have any ads.

 

You could try Kaspersky free here is the link https://www.kaspersky.com/downloads/try-free-cloud-antivirus

 

Thanks for that suggestion. I tried to find if once set up, is continuous internet access is required for it to be working? Or would it work offline as well? I understand I'd need to periodically connect to download the latest updates and definitions.

 

yes, it does work offline but the protection will be dramatically reduced so it would require internet access to be fully working.

 

Almost twenty years of relying only on Windows' own built-in antimalware, since the days of Win 7, but pairing that with almost monthly manual, full scans using Malwarebytes - neither has ever caught anything whatsoever, after their initial scans of 3 or 5 harmless PUP's. Last year, I finally just removed Malwarebytes and no longer bother with manual scans to 'double check' against Windows' own.

Thinking about it... if major corporations get hacked despite their layers of expensive defenses - how good can lowly home versions / personal level protection antimalware be anyway? To me, better than hunting for "the best" antimalware is to (1) keep OS and apps updated, (2) use computer as 'standard' user and not 'admin', and (3) bookmark all your important bank/email/etc. sites so you can avoid clicking email links and still access them easily.