boltjames

I'm a senior executive and I use a thin and light notebook strictly for travel, it's not my daily driver, it's used perhaps 75 days a year, my kids have no access to it.

For almost a decade I've used AVG Free as my antivirus suite and it's performed very well. But they recently were purchased, they are into monitization, and my system tray is now a mechanism for AVG to send me spam pop up notifications trying to get me to pay for one of their products and it annoys the crap out of me.

Windows 10 has been fantastic for me, it has built-in antivirus and phishing and malware that I'd like to take advantage of. I am ready to get rid of AVG Free for good, but need to know if Windows Defender is good enough for me to use while traveling.

Anyone using strictly Windows Defender and having good results? Again, this isn't my daily notebook, it's not online outside of 75 days a year when I'm traveling, I stay at 5-star hotels in major US cities as well as Hong Kong and China, I don't visit online gaming sites, adult video sites, download illegal software, partake in torrents, click email executables, I'm just a typical 50 year old senior executive with internet smarts and just need to know if I'll be safe using Defender instead of a third-party offering.

Thanks.

BJ

joshwex90

I have been more than happy with Windows Defender, going back to Windows Security Essentials in Windows 7. See no reason to pay for something or use an annoying 3rd party service

DenverBrian

I've used Avast free for many years, although in the last year or so they've begun showing popups occasionally. Not enough to get rid of them. Yet.

Letitride3c

From your description, it should suffice - out of home office, I run a batch of desktop/server, notebooks & travel-sized netbook on W7Pro, Win 8.1 (reverted from W10Pro) and Win10 Home & Pro's - all but one using $S Windows Defender - including the firewall; behind the Fios modem/router. All of them doing just fine for the last several years. On a monthly basis, if not more often, Malwarebytes Anti-Malware does a deep scanning to look for anything out of the ordinary ... detected & alarmed a few suspected files at most for review & actions to mitigate.

Are there any unique programs or applications that you need access to in case of an emergency, i.e. hardware failure or unexpected SSD/HDD failure ??

My critical files are backed up to an *.edu cloud storage account, it's unlimited and I can retrieve those almost anywhere if needed; plus 2 local sets of external USB storage that's otherwise offline @home. There's an older Dell laptop running Linux, ready to go, in case SHTF & everything else go haywire and whenever I travel, there's LinuxMint on an USB stick - to get into emails & things ... usually, something that - on the road - either the Nexus tablet or iPad mini can handle until the mishap is recovered.

P.S. I dropped AVG about a year ago from 2 of my PC's - one of them still has Avast running - as noted above, not "too" annoying ... yet.

gfunkdave

Windows 10's built in anti virus is perfectly fine provided you set it correctly. Check out decentsecurity.com:

https://decentsecurity.com/#/holiday-tasks/

boltjames

Excellent blog, thanks for the link.

BJ

boltjames

Thank you all for the advice and confidence to move away from third party antivirus programs.

So far so good with Windows Defender, not sure if it's my imagination but browsing feels faster without AVG.

BJ

fyingman

I never recommend the default settings of windows security. It seems you need to frequently use public hotspots which are more vulnerable.
Try Comodo internet security(free version), It is having optimum security features like a premium security suite.
In my view, if we are connected to a network a firewall is more necessary than just an antivirus.Defender sometimes acts like a Dumb man, The IDS (intrusion detection system) of the Defender is not that much efficient like other 3rd party security software.
Don't limit the kids, let them freely use your Machine, enable an account with child safety. If I were in your position I will educate them about the current Internet frauds and threats (check this: http://nci.ca/7-online-safety-measures-your-kids-have-to-take/ ).

KCZ

To help with AVG popups...
Options>>Advanced settings>>scroll down>>Set max freq of in-app offers>>NEVER

You may still get an occasional popup, but they will be much decreased.

cblaisd

You have to buy the Pro version to get the "Never" option.

s0ssos

In a sense, if you connect to public networks, unsecured hotspots, then there is no software that will protect you completely. If you are worried about viruses and the such, your habits matter more than anything else (like opening up executables, having email clients that auto-download stuff).
But as everybody else said, to allay your fears Windows Defender should be fine (you were just using AVG anyway)

boltjames

Yes, thanks.

So far so good using Windows Defender and as you say it's really more about smart Internet habits more than anything else. Life without AVG constantly popping up ads in my system tray has been terrific, took the same approach on all my computers now, done with third party anti-virus, will roll with Microsoft from here in.

BJ

s0ssos

Oh yea, if you travel lots for work you should really get a VPN.

maortega15

Get yourself a free copy of Malwarebytes too for added protection. ^

PFSHero

Same here. I have already uninstalled a 3rd party AV that keeps on popping up!