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Are third-party antivirus programs still recommended?

You should definitely install Crowdstrike.

More seriously, I don't bother at home. Windows comes with a protection component now. That seems to be good enough. If my employer has one on my work laptop, I've never seen it.

What I do see a lot more of is protections at the app and network level. This tends to make computers much less promiscuous by default. It's hard to get a virus, if you're not visiting shady websites or downloading software from questionable sources. There's been a lot of progress in vector suppression, lowering the need for treatment after the fact.

Meanwhile, the big names in consumer antivirus from my youth all seemed to become more trouble than they're worth, sometime around ten years ago. McAfee, Norton... even MalwareBytes.

So I wouldn't recommend them, but I wouldn't not recommend them. It's up to you. My view is that if you're smart enough not to fall for obvious email, phishing, or social engineering phone calls, you're probably smart enough to avoid the kinds of online behavior that necessitates anything more than Windows Defender on default settings. On the other hand, if you're not smart enough to dodge a Nigerian prince scam, you're probably not smart enough to properly deal with an obnoxious antivirus app, and probably not smart enough to notice whether you've been infected anyway. Regardless, just run MalwareBytes once or twice a year.
 
I beg your pardon, good sir. Ten years? McAfee was worse than an actual virus even two dozen years ago.

Actual experiment in getting a computer virused, way back, btw. It actually caused less CPU usage, network traffic, and everything, than McAffee, which couldn't even <bleep>ing update itself without causing a bigger mess.
 
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What theprestige said. At my last job my CTO had all work laptops protected by one of the big names but she said it was mainly because working with the NHS we were subject to audit and it was easier to defend a 3rd party she had a long history with but she admitted Windows defender was as good.
I remove McAfee if it's bundled on my PC as I've been burned by it but others swear it's been fine for them. They probably make their own underwear from steel wool.
I used to use AVG and Avast but one started eating RAM and the other screwed up updating and was a massive pain to fix and I'm pretty confident at fixing windows.
Windows defender runs quietly, updates quietly (by MS standards) and nothing has got through - I run a few scanners like HijackThis and MalwareBytes now and again.
 
I sound judgemental but AV programs to me have a very very short run up to a trust cliff. The idea is that you lose trust in something a little then suddenly trust falls off a cliff and never recovers. If an AV program shows unexpected effects like massive RAM usage or blocking MSI I stop trusting their technical ability and/or testing strategy and walk away.
 
Wudang said:
I sound judgemental but AV programs to me have a very very short run up to a trust cliff.
Click to expand...

Worst by far is Norton.

They manage to get themselves in partnership with retailers to provide absolutely nothing. The whole platform is spyware itself and it's next to useless against actual threats.

Windows Defender and common sense are by far the best options for a home PC.
 
Old style worms and viruses aren't the things causing problems any more anyway. You're more likely to get scammed via social engineering, as predicted by Mitnick back in the 90s.
 
alfaniner said:
Why would they not be?

The question asks it all.
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- Constant nagging to buy the paid version
- Takes up memory unnecessarily
- Sometimes includes bloatware BS
- Windows Defender is (finally) good enough

The answer says it all.
 
I will echo the sentiment that Windows Defender is adequate for most home users. That and a little awareness and good policies will mitigate most of the risk you face. In fact, a lot of the solutions on the consumer market contain bloatware that increase the risk of an infection.
 
For many years I systematically installed AVG on Windows boxes but since Win10 came along I haven’t bothered. As many others have said, a combination of Defender and education seems to be effective in nearly all cases.
 
I swapped over to Spybot S&D if I need anything, but I don't think I've run a 3rd party AV for a decade.

Same as everyone else has said, everything got way easier with pornhub :D
 
arthwollipot said:
I don't run anything in particular on my home box. Windows protections are pretty good these days.
Click to expand...

That's basically what I've heard for about the last 10 years from apparent experts. I say apparent because it doesn't take much for someone to appear to be an expert in this sort of thing to me, at least.
 
Donal said:
I will echo the sentiment that Windows Defender is adequate for most home users. That and a little awareness and good policies will mitigate most of the risk you face. In fact, a lot of the solutions on the consumer market contain bloatware that increase the risk of an infection.
Click to expand...
I have also heard that from folks that appear to be experts to me.
 
ahhell said:
That's basically what I've heard for about the last 10 years from apparent experts. I say apparent because it doesn't take much for someone to appear to be an expert in this sort of thing to me, at least.
Click to expand...

Yup. Same here. Just Windows Defender for well over a decade and no issues.
 
I've been running Trend Micro for several years, but the company I work for paid for it. I've recently mostly retired and I think I'll just let it expire next time around. Windows Defender has been doing fine on all the other computers in the house.
 
alfaniner said:
Why would they not be?
Click to expand...
Because I've picked up a few comments like this responses in the thread after yours, and didn't know whether they're typical or outliers. And because Avast started doing pop-ups lately and they've been increasing, after I had originally picked Avast because it left me alone while others did the pop-up thing.
 
Random (but possibly knowledgeable) people on the internet have assured me that the default Windows protection can handle all likely threats just fine. Now I, a random (but definitely not knowledgeable) person, am passing this information on to you. Do with that what you will.
 
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