Which antivirus program for Windows?

I now have a new Windows laptop and wanted to know which antivirus programs you recommend and whether free programs are enough or whether you should pay for proper virus protection. I appreciate your help.

I assume you have Windows 10 on your new laptop… Hence the built-in Windows Defender, additional antivirus programs are not necessary

The Windows security already implemented (formerly Windows Defender) is completely sufficient and is also one of the best free "antivirus programs".

Garkein's antivirus program is even a security hole, because you give the program the rights to go through every file, Windows's own Microsoft Defender is more than sufficient.
In addition, you won't get any viruses if you don't download dubious and stupid things.

I had Bitdefender myself. The best protection against viruses is common sense. You will certainly not be able to receive a paid TV channel via strange links on the Internet for free without side effects. In addition to thinking, the Windows Defender integrated into Windows 10 is sufficient in most cases.

Bitdefender, for example, handles many cases more strictly, which tends to require unnecessary intervention in non-dangerous matters. I therefore advise Windows Defender.

It has already been mentioned that Windows Defender is sufficient.

In addition, the best protection against viruses is a regular backup on different media. This also insures you against hard drive defects, files deleted by mistake, theft and, if you always keep a backup medium away from home, even against a house fire.

The virus scanner keeps 95% or 99% of viruses off, but in the event of damage, a backup is a real treasure. Who cares if a virus attack can be restored to the previous day in 8 minutes?