Best Antivirus

What is the best antivirus?

is there a decent free one?

I've just realised malwarebytes are no longer offering theirs free. It was quite a decent antivirus imo. It's a real shame name now they've got greedy

end of an era?

Is there a decent free alternative?

I am going to be navigating sites soon where I really need a good antivirus.
tbh i may have already caught one..

I wouldn't really like to pay for one, but the pain and inconvenience of having my computer at risk, is too high so if i can't find a free one then recommend a paid one.

What OS are you using?

windows

i have used various free products over the years... ZoneAlarm, AVG, Avast, Comodo,MBAM... they all worked & i never had serious malware problems

i did use Combofix once or twice

i just googled the first one in that list and its a paid product

i just googled the first one in that list and its a paid product

Avast is one I use, one of the best IMO. Regular update definitions and serves as a Anti-malware and Anti-virus.

AVG is the exact same as Avast, just different branding. Only thing is that Avast does try to up-sell but ignore the prompts you get from time-to-time.

I am going to be navigating sites soon where I really need a good antivirus.
tbh i may have already caught one..

Windows Defender, coupled with not going to dodgy sites in the first place. AV will protect against unsophisticated attacks, but can't do an awful lot if you're actively going looking for trouble. Not to mention you can't rate one AV highly on account of it catching stuff that another AV doesn't, because you can't account for all the things you don't know got through.

If for some reason you actually need to navigate to dodgy sites, you should change your entire approach. AV is not the solution here, compartmentalising your system is. Ideally that means a totally different computer on a separate network, but in reality it probably means a virutal machine.

As far as third party tools go, none integrate with Windows as well as Defender. Performance hits range from minor to quite substantial. It isn't uncommon for free tools to throttle your computer, pretend you have a problem and convince you into buying the paid version. Ultimately I wouldn't be relying on just an AV to keep me safe though, it's another barrier rather than a "do whatever you like without thinking" card. AV is in some cases quite trivial to bypass.

how easy are these virtual machines to set up? is there any sites you recommend that shows how in an easy to follow way?

will being on a virtual machine prevent me from being tracked regarding my downloads. I'm aware I may be tracked and my ISP contacted. I'd rather not fork out money for a vpn or seedbox. If I get a warning letter i may consider doing so. I have tor but i've heard that is ineffective for masking identities using torrent.

unfortunately i cannot find these files anywhere other than torrents. of the few direct download links i found all are dead.

Relatively simple. Download and install virtualbox, download either a Linux ISO or the Media Creation Tool and create a Windows ISO. Create and install the OS, more or less done.

There are dozens of sites that will walk you through creating a virtual machine. Of course whether it's a viable option or not is another matter. I'm just assuming your host machine is capable of running a virtual machine, because it's the solution to the problem presented. It's not necessarily a solution to your specific problem.


No, a virtual machine will do nothing of the sort. The goal of running a virtual machine is to sandbox any malware you download. Torrenting was never mentioned, and is a totally different field. The point of running a VM is that you'd be able to download a file, and if it's malicious you simply delete the VM rather than having it infect your entire OS.

Also worth asking, why would you be contacted by your ISP? Torrenting is not inherently problematic, however the most common reason is to circumvent copyright protection. If that's the route this thread is going down, then a reminder it is against TSR rules to discuss that.

Additionally, torrenting just adds another layer to the problem. It's sounding an awful lot like you're going to dodgy torrent sites, then unsurprisingly getting malware. But even assuming you find a legit site to download whatever it is you want, you have absolutely zero knowledge as to whether the original creator has put something malicious in the files. Backdooring a popular program, or sticking some malware in a popular film, then releasing it out to be torrented is an excellent way to share malware.

If you are actively going looking for these things, there is only so much protection can do for you.


And what are these files exactly? Keeping in mind the above points.

I have 4GB of ram, If I allocate 2GB of ram to the virtual box does that mean as soon as I run the virtual box I will only have 2GB Ram available on my main windows?

because I fear it may crash or something or all the programs freeze up. I'm not sure if Windows can even run on 2GB RAM.

Not necessarily, but I generally don't recommend trying to virtualise Windows on 4GB of RAM as 2GB doesn't give you a great experience. It'll run, just won't be pretty.

It's not like it's really an issue though. If the host crashes you just reboot.

Also fair warning, if you end up downloading a malicious file to your virtual machine, and then proceed to move that file from you VM to your host, you've now infected your host and the VM was fundamentally pointless. And of course, odds are you cannot be sure whether the file is malicious or not. Not to mention malware escaping a VM, or being aware it is in a VM, is a thing. I'm not expecting you to suddenly decide not to go looking for these dodgy files, but you are completely and utterly responsible for whatever happens to your machine. None of this is a surefire way to not get infected. Proceed at your own risk.