Are paid antivirus programs actually worth it, or am I just wasting my money?

[u/OsThe1st]

I currently have McAfee installed on my laptop, and I’ve been wondering if paying for an antivirus is actually worth it or if I’m just wasting my money.

I mainly use my laptop for university work, programming, and personal entertainment, like watching movies and TV shows. I don’t do anything particularly advanced when it comes to cybersecurity, but I do download files and tools occasionally for my projects and other stuff.

I’ve heard that Windows Defender has gotten pretty good over the years, so I’m wondering if there’s any real reason to keep paying for McAfee.

Would switching to Windows Defender be enough for my use case, or does McAfee offer meaningful extra protection that I’d be giving up?

[u/seven-cents]

McAfee is a bloody virus

[u/Penis-Dance → u/seven-cents]

It's worse than most viruses.

[u/hilda-reced]

I use Windows Defender only, and have for years. My systems are both fine.

[u/HaiKarate]

At some point, Microsoft woke up and realized that being in the anti-virus business was CORE to protecting their Windows business, and they made Windows Defender a serious anti-virus product.

Ever since they did that, I've never used another anti-virus product.

[u/beingsubmitted]

I consider McAfee and nortons to be malware. They're not merely unhelpful, they take your machine hostage.

[u/Overall-Badger9008 → u/beingsubmitted]

Yeah it's like parasite & removing it completely is so complicated.

[u/Safe-Instance-3512]

Don't click links on Google sponsored ads or in email. Thats like 95% of infections.

[u/TheRZU → u/Safe-Instance-3512]

This.

[u/ChasDIY]

Why pay when your can get extremely good for no charge

Completely uninstall McAfee (they make it difficult) and check to ensure defender is then activated

[u/ChasDIY → u/ChasDIY]

I've been using only AVG Free antivirus on my PCs EVER

It is very worthwhile to use an antivirus app

[u/Safe-Instance-3512 → u/ChasDIY]

AVG? I haven't seen anyone use that in almost 20 years. Windows defender is perfectly fine and routinely scores high on tests.

[u/ChasDIY → u/Safe-Instance-3512]

My problem is I run an app the defender won't allow and I can easily get around it with avg...the only av I have ever used for about 25 years

[u/WorkingInAColdMind → u/ChasDIY]

That doesn’t sound like a great endorsement.

[u/ChasDIY → u/WorkingInAColdMind]

For the avg user, defender is great

[u/TheRZU]

Wasting money. Uninstall McAfee.

[u/Suspicious-Cat-266]

Since Windows 10, paid Antivirus are a waste of money. Windows 11 has much better built-in security compared to old Windows.

Your ISP and Mobile SIM provider will try and sell you these add-ons as well, but you don't need it.

Pre-installed trialware should be removed from laptops and PCs.

Keep the OS, browsers and other programs up-to-date. Use an adblocker in your browser to keep the web experience clean and free-from unwanted pop-ups.

[u/InevitablePeanuts → u/Suspicious-Cat-266]

well Windows 11 is, itself, essentially malware at this point but Windows Defender is (was) decent on Windows 10.

[u/Apart-Reality-4454]

I mean when was the last time your antivirus software ever flagged an actual for-real virus, right.

I too have been using these paid products pretty much non-stop for 20+ years and I've never once had an alert go off on my own machines. My kid is a gamer and every now and then an alert and quarantine will go off on some minecraft plugin jar having something sketchy but that's about it.

Seems like anyone worth their salt as a proper zero-day blackhat type would know how to effectively obfuscate the payload code through any number of methods...

But moreover modern operating systems are just so much more secure and difficult to "infect" than in the old days.

....unless you're mossad and have can through big budgets towards tech like Pegasus but then again when has any antivirus program ever flagged any of that class of malware? Ever?

Most direct method remains human-initiated installs running as a dum dum administrator on Windows and launching untrusted/unsigned binaries.

[u/Hminney]

Check reviews. Microsoft defender (free) is adequate for most people, and the best depends on the updates from month to month.

[u/GrahamR12345]

Step AWAY from the computer…

[u/cbhbzb]

wasting money

[u/PhotoFenix]

Oh, the company started by the guy who was investigated by the SEC for pump and dump schemes, had tax evasion charges and was accused of murder? The one that puts fear tactic based pop-ups all over your system when your annual subscription is about to expire?

That one?

[u/Crushcode8]

you are wasting money

[u/Wolfie-Man]

For IT clients that may make a mistake on opening attachments, I recommend bitdefender . Malwarebytes is also good , but more expensive (I buy bulk bitdefender). Windows security is good enough for disciplined users. There are also windows settinsg you can change to prevent silent installs.

[u/Lion2471]

I won't tell you what to do, but for me Windows Defender is good enough, especially because I don't do sketchy things.

[u/Alvarrune]

I have used Windows Defender since they fixed it and never had any problems.

[u/themoop78]

Sandboxie is all you really need. Viruses for most people come through your browser. Sandbox it and have Windows Defender running. Haven't had a virus in, I don't know, over a decade?

[u/VoltageinTheory]

McAfee and Norton are viruses.

[u/Lance-Boyle-666]

Windows Defender is good enough. The reality is no antivirus software is perfect. You still need to be vigilant.

[u/CognitiveReframer]

I use AVG free antivirus, malwarebytes, and a free trial of Wisecare 365. All completely free and I don’t have any problems.

[u/Moscato359]

Waste of money Use defender

[u/Imaginos75]

Even before Defender got good, Mcaffe want worth paying for. For real it's garbage, and has been for decades. Defender does a solid enough job as long as you arent jumping around sketchy pirate sites and know better than to click every link you are sent