How important is paid virus protection?

I had Mc Afee LifeSave up until now and now I need to renew my contract.

Since I have little money at the moment, I just ask myself how important virus protection really is?

Can't I make my laptop "safe" in another way?

A free virus protection is sufficient. Either way, you can get viruses. I would like to recommend the Avast Antivirus. It's the best for private people and it's free

Good to know…

You have to know… If you pay something like that, you are basically only making the hurdles more difficult for the virus to get onto your computer. Even with virus protection that costs 100 euro, you always have some risk. 😊

Kind of like when I do something for my immune system, then real viruses also have a harder time?

I agree. But you can still get sick 😊. Only that virus protection throws money out of the window. Because… The operators also have an interest in protecting customers. A free program is enough. In addition, you no longer need any extra virus protection in Windows 10, as Windows Defender is sufficient

Really? So I don't need to do anything extra? No antivir?

Yup. Windows Defender is fully developed in Win 10. Microsoft also wants to keep its reputation and is doing something to help. So you can sit back and relax 😊

As long as you don't go to dirty websites or fall for phishing mails, you don't need to be afraid 😊👍

Do not install any antivirus and configure Windows Defender.

If you want you can then install Malwarebytes Free, but it would be optional.

Configure Windows Defender… How does it work?

A paid one only tries to impress the layman with additional functions. It's in no way more reliable than a free one, and both have been massively overrated by laypeople for the past 25 years.

Timely security updates and backups are much more important.

Thank you. That helps me further.

Great.

No problem 😊👍

In the settings:

https://support.microsoft.com/...39afb6a963

Before doing this, you should uninstall your old antivirus.

Right. However, such behavior is not to be expected in people under 20, as there's a lack of knowledge and skills to assess trustworthiness.

Aha. OK.

On my Ubuntu machine I didn't have anything like that, neither paid nor unpaid. The Defender runs on Windows devices, which is included with the operating system and does not incur any additional costs. That is perfectly sufficient.