I've been using ESET NOD32 for many years now... very light weight, effective and also has gaming mode to further reduce any load on the system during gaming. However I never use it as I haven't experienced any FPS drops or performance issues due to NOD32.

On Win 10 MS successor of 'Defender' (built-in free 'Ms security essentials') here, and Kaspersky small bus. on Win 2008 r2/Win7 server system. Then only Malwarebytes and anti-ransomware trial version.

Thanks guys. Adorante, that is so me very interesting stuff.

So I should just be checking if Win7 has Security Essentials updated Is Security Essentials the actual AV? Does Avast or even Malwarebytes get in the way of Security Essentials?

v6,
boNes

bones security essentials will just install the AV and block the other part I forgot the name and it can be set to update the definitions at start ,,Give it a trial ..Heck it's free and you can always uninstall it..It is a good post from Andorante,,I use that and Malwarebytes free never had any troubles

I'm heavily advocating here for MS AV solutions instead of 3rd party AV products, but I have to put it into perspective:

Last week Tavis Ormandy and Natalie Silvanovich, security engineers from Google published an egregious bug in Microsofts antivir engine affecting both Defender and Security Essentials. In effect anybody could have build a worm exploiting Windows computers running MS AV and made them executing any code. Microsoft has published a patch since.
https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/security/4022344.aspx

Now imagine: If even the manpower from Microsoft wasn't enough to get such a serious bug, how do all those smaller AV vendors fare? I worked in a very small IT company and the boss' mantra seemed to be "Security by obscurity". I wouldn't count on that, when you're using a bestselling AV product and someday a hacker publishes a zero day exploit.

Sophos Advanced with Intercept X. (AV/Anti-malware/Anti-cryptolocker)

That's a very interesting perspective. Thanks!

v6,
boNes

On Friday I received an e-mail on my CompuServe account (been a member since the 90's, hard to let it go) from "Kellie" something at some domain I didn't recognize. No proper title (a number) and no message, just a small PDF attachment. Maybe part of the latest ransomware breakout?

Now, I'm a cynical SOB when it comes to emails and phone calls, they're all suspect to me until proven otherwise, and this one was nothing but one big red flag. I was already tardy on my monthly backup plus drive restore (Acronis on Win7, otherwise Norton Ghost) so I decided to play with it. Did my backup (personal files only), then downloaded the PDF to my laptop (Save vs. Open). No complaints from McAfee (my free ISP AV suite). Next I did a scan on it, nothing. Hmm... I know better than that.

Then I double-clicked to open it. Got a warning from Acrobat Reader that I might want to reconsider before opening it. I shut it down under Task Manager (don't assume dialog boxes are legit, even helpful warnings/updates - *everything* can be faked).

Next I uploaded it to a free service which scans it using 30-something AV type programs. Many programs found a trojan and/or other suspicious content (from javascripts to an imbedded file). McAfee (as well as some others) found nothing.

Which leads me to the conclusion that the best AV solution is using common sense.

That was enough fun, I booted off my Acronis CD and restored my drive as planned, including the boot sector.

I have used Trend micro for several years. doesn't seem to slow anything down and has good support. they were right there when this ransomware came up.

I use Trend Micro also. It came installed as free 90 day trial when I bought by last custom system from Cyberpower a few years ago and it seemed so low profile-especially with start up that I went ahead and bought it once the trial was up. I have learned not to renew it directly when the program tells me it is about to run out. Instead, I just purchase a new license on Amazon, which is usually 40% cheaper than renewing it directly through Trend Micro. TM seems to follow the same business plan that the TV cable providers do in that they offer the best prices to new customers and let their loyal customers foot the bill by constantly jacking their renewal fees up.

The only issue has been that I had also bought a subscription to Malwarebytes some time back and Trend Micro didn't want to play nice with it. I thought I had it fixed by setting up Trend Micro to ignore Malwarebytes, but it seemed that if one or the other had an update, I started having issues again. My operating system is on an SSD with limited space. For some reason, Trend Micro stated creating these huge error logs because of the other program, which used up all the memory on my SSD. This in turn caused operating issues. After removing Malwarebytes the issue went away.

Cheers

Your anti-virus program is only 50% of the battle:

-- do you open links in email you didn't request
-- do you use email links to go to any of your password protected sites
-- do you have your anti-virus set to auto so that it receives updates and does daily scans without your input
-- are you mindful of all the scams out there including by telephone
-- are you careful of where you go on the internet and what you're attempting to download
-- do you occasionally log into one of your password protected sites using a computer you don't own such as in an internet cafe
-- are you careful not to share your passwords with any friends including family
-- do you use two-step authentication and/or software or hardware random access code generators
-- is your computer getting all its software updates automatically without you having to remember to do it
-- are you logging out after each email visit
-- are you closing your browser after logging into a financial site (such as your bank account)
-- are your passwords complex enough (at least 8 characters long, special characters and both upper and lower case), do your passwords contain any personal identifiable information (they should not)
-- do you share any software with friends/family/co-workers such as a game or other program on removable media (USB flash drive etc,)

Thanks again, all. It is a lot of information to digest at once, but it all seems to boil down to there isn't really one program better than another, just some common sense being better than none. Doesn't seem like it is worth or even justified to have to pay for AV software if they are all just as good. If MS has a decent one, has the manpower to address issues, and is free, that seems to be the way to go.

Thanks.

v6,
boNes