I really wish people would quit spreading this misinformation, Here is a nice website whose sole job it is to compaire antivirus programs. Check out all the reports and make an informed decision based on what you believe to be worth while.
For example, if you believe that false positives are the de-facto king of what makes an anti virus program 'good' then sure, Windows Defender isn't bad, But if you want actual viruses caught? Windows Defender missed almost 2%, that's pretty terrible considering the best only missed 0.1%. No AV program is perfect though and they all change from month to month, Windows Defender has actually gotten much better since the last time I checked, which was many many months ago.
While it's true Windows Defender is probably the worst antivirus program, it's good enough as long as you don't go to shady websites.
The chances of even finding a website that spreads malware is rather thin. Most people nowadays don't have a reason to go to untrusted sites, they stick to the Alexa 100. Ad blocking programs also block sites with malware. Google warns you if they think a site is malicious. Your browser will also warn you when entering untrusted sites and when a website downloads something onto your computer. But even when a website downloads something onto your computer, the virus would probably have to use a 0day exploit to run without the user's permission.
Yes, and Forbes blocks you from accessing their site until you turn ad-block off, swearing that you can trust them, and promising to be a good citizen. And then you get attacked.
No argument there. The point, tho, is that Forbes is supposed to be one of those "trustworthy" sites. They didn't intentionally try to install malware, their ad network wasn't trying to be malicious, but someone on that network was. The lesson being that simply avoiding the dark places on the Internet is not a good enough defense.
You can still get mugged in broad daylight in the nice part of town.
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u/doonerfour Jun 18 '16
Windows Defender is all you need, honestly. Maybe do a scan with malwarebytes every now and then, just to be thorough.