AntiVirus windows 8?

Windows 8 is still running on a laptop, upgrade to Win 10 is not possible.

That's why I need an AntiVirus and can't choose between the following programs.

Avira Free Security Suite

Kaspersky Free Security Cloud

Avast or Avg (which of the two?)

Which one would you recommend?

On my 7 MS Security Essentials is still running. There are still updates several times a week…

But is also not so good in terms of protection…

In combination with Malwarebytes Pro but completely sufficient…

Unless you click on everything that hasn't disappeared on the trees in three: Use the Windows Defender.

Assumes, of course, that you have not deactivated it in the tuning craze - because then you should know how to reactivate it again.

I would use Microsoft.

In Windows 8 this is not called Windows Security but MS Security Essentials.

If you don't trust me, I would recommend Avira or Kaspersky!

And which of the two? 😅

I now have better experiences with Avira.

Can you explain this to me?

More reliable, better recognizes viruses, uses little power.

OK.

I use Bitdefender myself, it is chargeable. I can only recommend.

http://htttps://av-test.org There are current tests for most AV programs.

Avira in the paid version is not bad at the moment.

Kaspersky has always been one of the leading software in the AV field.

I would rather say the opposite. I have had the experience, at least in the past, that there are often false alarms at Avira compared to various other providers. Either way, I don't trust Avira because the Ask toolbar was included in the setup.

I personally completely exclude Avira. For the reason alone, because the https://www.pcspezialist.de/blog/2015/06/17/ask-toolbar-durch-microsoft-gesperrt-toolbar-als-malware-deklariert/ was previously included in the setup. It may be that the scanner itself is good, but whoever works with such a data collector or has done it in the past is dubious for me.

In the free area I would recommend Avast, with which I have had only good experiences for years. There are also various paid versions that offer a few additional functions, but these are not absolutely necessary. The same applies to paid anti-virus programs.

Of course, a virus scanner does not offer 100% protection. You should also always pay a little attention to which pages you visit and which files you download. In addition, it is always advisable to select the custom installation for software installations, in order to then be able to remove ticks from certain offers, which can prevent the installation of additional software, adware or similar. This saves you a lot of work to remove all the stuff.

The Windows Defender integrated under Windows 10 is on a par with other well-known manufacturers such as Avast and Kaspersky. Basically completely sufficient. With Windows 8, however, I would choose another program like you.

The Defender is good, but it lags behind the other manufacturers in terms of recognition.

I did a little test.

I downloaded 200 viruses (ransomware, Trojans, etc.) that are a maximum of 4 hours old.

Kaspersky and co left between 5-10 files, the Defender 30.

When I ran the undetected viruses, all of them were blocked, but the detection could be better.

As I said, it is good on Windows 10, but not on Windows 8. You will have done the test on Windows 8 or not?

No, that was on Windows 10.