Anti-virus for Idiots ?

[Sundayjumper]

OK, maybe harsh, it’s for my parents, but they need something very straightforward. I think I used to use AVG. Is that still good ?

[Shlergen]

Kaspersky - pretty light weight and I've installed with a group license for most of the family. I only hear from them at renewal time

[Matty]

Kaspersky - pretty light weight and I've installed with a group license for most of the family. I only hear from them at renewal time

Easy there, Comrade. Can't say I'd be recommending Kaspersky at this particular time... !

[Shlergen]

To be fair I didn't make the association but yes very correct. In that case, Avast.

[Mito Man]

Windows Defender for me and I'm an idiot

[tim]

Don't bother, use the default Windows setup, it's perfectly good.

[Broccers]

Buy them chromebooks/box no need for any complications

[NGRhodes]

Windows defender, its the default, free and well supported.

Any differences in performance, scanning ability between the major virus scanners is statistical noise, you got more variance between different sample sets/machines than the scanners themselves, take any one of test/review with a huge pinch of salt, only choose something different to Windows Defender if the feature set appeals to you.

Something that is rarely mentioned is that Windows defender is by far the most reliable virus scanner, there was a code analysis done a few years ago, that showed Windows defender interfered with Windows the least (hooking into filesystem drivers, injecting into system DLLs etc), had the least bugs and was least susceptible to being exploited.

[Simon]

Tim and Nick? are correct. Make sure your autoupdates are turned on and Windows Defender is just fine for most people. No need to invite any other app onto your system for the job.

[DeskJockey]

Tim and Nick? are correct. Make sure your autoupdates are turned on and Windows Defender is just fine for most people. No need to invite any other app onto your system for the job.

This. When my current paid for subscription runs out, I won't be renewing it.