Can someone recommend a good but free virus protection program for my notebook? (Windows)
If you are already on Windows - hopefully you mean Windows 10 - you can simply use Windows Defender. That is completely sufficient.
Can recommend Avast Free Antivirus to you. Reliably detects viruses and other malware. The only disadvantage: The program sometimes annoys you with hints that are intended to induce you to buy the premium version, but this is normal with free virus protection programs.
Yes, the virus protection that is already included with Windows. It has become so good that additional virus scanners only make Windows slower. You just have to regularly install the Windows updates that the virus protection is up to date.
ADW cleaner is wonderful, I think, but it has no real-time protection, but does not have to be installed, it goes through the system once, gives you the result when you restart, and offers you to test the real virus version of Malewarebytes for free.
But it protects exactly zero against ransomware and is therefore far from "good" in my opinion
But it protects exactly zero against ransomware and is therefore far from "good" in my opinion
Three things;
The Defender has built in "Ransomware Prevention", which also works quite well. Second, the Defender is more than enough if you want to save performance and do not spend time on dark web websites, and thirdly, other antivirus programs are just as poorly equipped to counter it. When new ransomware arrives, no antivirus can counteract it - something like ransomware is mostly your own fault.
Use Microsoft Defender. It's free, comes directly from Microsoft and, in case of doubt, is best harmonized with the operating system. It recently received top marks in comparison with other tools: https://winfuture.de/...17310.html
It may be, but when it comes to general protection, many free tools are often significantly worse than the integrated Windows Defender.
In comparison, the Microsoft Defender scores top marks:
https://winfuture.de/...17310.html
Windows defender protects as well as a free virus scanner. Whoever wants more has to pay.
Thanks for the link. Find the rating a bit strange. If so many applications have the maximum points, then the test scenarios were simply inadequate.
Which is of course true, when compared to free tools, Defender is good. I work in this field and would never sell a solution without good ransomeware protection because that is simply the biggest threat right now.
But I can subscribe to the premise "among the free protection programs the Defender is good".
I can't confirm in the way that people who use the Defender are my best customers after what feels like every ransomware attack. Bitdefender has a good ransomware solution, and Sophos has a very good one, which also detects previously unknown versions because it monitors the entire system for massive file changes. There are probably 1-2 other good solutions, but obviously I haven't tried all of them.
However, ransomware prevention must first be activated specifically because otherwise there are so many false positives.
At least I can't confirm for Sophos, have never had a false positive result, neither with us in the company nor with customers. (For the sake of transparency, I also say that I sell the stuff as, but with full conviction)
