Anti Virus.

Indeed, how many people on the TV after an incident which almost demolishes their house then throw themselves on Giftaid because they didn't have house insurance. Added up, all these insurances can get expensive but some don't really matter -- product protection for your washing machine for example -- and some really do. House insurance is cheap and so, IMHO, is anti-malware software. I have fifteen thousand images at least on my computer, I do internet banking and generally use my PC for everything. While I back up regularly it's still nice to have someone looking out for me even if I have to pay them a few quid a year.

Which reminds me, time to do a backup.
 
In my area in 2007 there was very heavy rain for two days. The risk Manager at the local waterworks told his MD that there was a significant risk that the water works would be flooded and recommended a flood wall but the MD dismissed this risk because it was about 25%. It did flood and it cost the water company over £30M to cover the cost of claims and water distribution etc. A wall would have cost no more than £100,000 when first proposed.

Dave
 
I get that but are these paid ones any better than the one included with Windows is what I mean?
That and folder protection is surely enough. I mean folder protection even stops a lot of legitimate programs.

I would say yes, the paid for AV apps are far better.
They get updated very quickly when a new virus or malware hits the net.
A good app will just get on with things like updating in the background rather than pestering you to update.
Even though I've been a Windows user since V3.1 and I am a user of other MS products, I would not rely on them soley to protect my computers.
I remember when AVG was first released and the amount of viruses that slipped through it.
I believe in the old saying 'there is no such thing as a free lunch' when it comes to AV protection.
I also use Spybot Search and Destroy but just the unpaid version as a secondary back up for malware but Norton AV has not let me down with these.
 
I was running just Windows Defender for a while and all seemed well, but I had a feeling all was too good to be true and my GPU performance wasn't being consistent, so I ran a few anti-virus and anti-spyware programs etc only to discover data mining malware on my computer.

I now use Kaspersky as it seems lightweight and not too intrusive and the GPU went back to normal. I've since swapped out the SSD for a bigger one and did a fresh install, but still use Kaspersky as I don't trust just Windows Defender.
 
FWIW

I have been using ESET internet security for a few years now, this is a paid for product. I also have the Freeware versions of Malware Bytes and Super Antispyware.

AFAIK Windows Defender is/has an AV function and the one thing that has always been said is "do not have two AV programs installed/active..." In my case I make sure that Windows Defender is disabled/inactive.
 
FWIW

I have been using ESET internet security for a few years now, this is a paid for product. I also have the Freeware versions of Malware Bytes and Super Antispyware.

AFAIK Windows Defender is/has an AV function and the one thing that has always been said is "do not have two AV programs installed/active..." In my case I make sure that Windows Defender is disabled/inactive.
We use to sell Eset Nod32 when I worked for a company in Watford.
We were one of the first resellers in the country to sell it.
It was lean and not intensive on system resources.
Literally every customer who bought a computer in riddled with virus purchased Nod32.
I've not used it since Symantec sorted out Norton AV but it was still a very good AV app.
 
I was running just Windows Defender for a while and all seemed well, but I had a feeling all was too good to be true and my GPU performance wasn't being consistent, so I ran a few anti-virus and anti-spyware programs etc only to discover data mining malware on my computer.

I now use Kaspersky as it seems lightweight and not too intrusive and the GPU went back to normal. I've since swapped out the SSD for a bigger one and did a fresh install, but still use Kaspersky as I don't trust just Windows Defender.
Kaspersky have been around a very long time. They were the geeks choice and those who used pirate software back in the day.
I can't remember if it was an app or a game but (believe it or not there were trusted release groups) an unknown group release some software they'd cracked and riddled it with a virus.
Kaspersky labs was the only one to detect it when it was first released.
 
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We use to sell Eset Nod32 when I worked for a company in Watford.
We were one of the first resellers in the country to sell it.
It was lean and not intensive on system resources.
Literally every customer who bought a computer in riddled with virus purchased Nod32.
I've not used it since Symantec sorted out Norton AV but it was still a very good AV app.

Interesting insights.

Yonks ago I started with Norton........it became a huge resources hog and was also a horror to uninstall/remove.

I moved on to Kaspersky and it was great.....but though I cannot recall I think it became incompatible when I updated to windows 2000. So based on my research at the time ESET was in the top 3 programs. I have not rechecked of late its ranking but it does flag infected emails and block spurious web URLs. Plus it has a secured browser version of Edge for when needed.
 
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