3 minutes ago, Phantoms said:

While Norton would want you to believe otherwise, Windows Defender is a very capable antivirus. Not only that, there's no added cost of getting it and it's running on most developers machines so problems are much fewer than other antivirus software.

It's capable if you don't mind the fact that it often  misses viruses. 

A myth purported by other antivirus makers. It's unlikely that it will miss anything in the wild that the other guys find. And as far as aftermarket antivirus makers go, Norton is one of the worst in it's performance and actual capabilities. MSFS has advanced Defender a long way to the point that unless you are actually trying to get a virus, it's just as good as the other guys and there's no need to buy additional software. The same as they did with defrag software. Their browser and maps may still leave a lot to be desired, but their built in antivirus works great.

Many large corporations (like the one I work for) rely completely on Windows' built-in security - it's perfectly adequate. My parents were tricked into buying Norton. It was pre installed on a laptop they bought. After a year they started getting alarmist pop ups saying their computer was at risk - click here to subscribe to Norton. Luckily they were able to cancel. Highly dubious business model. 

 

Windows Security is excellent, and although Norton 95 was good in its time, it has increasingly become overly intrusive bloatware. If you wish to supplement, use Malwarebytes for keeping yourself malware-free. 

For the past week My sim started either hanging up during loading a flight or CTD when I tried to turn on live weather. It also start giving problems highlighting airports and departure spots. It start happening all of a sudden after 6 months of no issues. So I removed all add ons from Community, repaired reloaded and reinstalled FS 6 times all with the same problem. Then I start getting constant message saying my bandwidth was too low and put me in off line mode. I finally found what was causing my problem after hours of pulling my hair out and ready to put this sim back on the shelf. It was the mod that injects google maps in place of the default Bing maps. it's called "MSFS2020 Map Enhancement". Although it worked as described, after turning off, it doesn't change an entry in your C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts file back to it's default setting and causing FS to CTD and hang during startup or not work at all no matter how many times you uninstall and reinstall. I was luck and had a backup copy of that host file and when I put the original back in pace my sim start working again as usual.Hope this helps someone.

Follow this if having CTD issue/s...

 

 

Defender is adequate. The University that owns the software development company where I work uses the Enterprise Endpoint version of it.

The aftermarket antivirus vary a lot.

Sophos for example is exceptional. A really good product.

Symantec and MacAfee on the other hand are both truly awful. 

Edited March 21, 20224 yr by Glenn Fitzpatrick

My practice is to use the Defender.  Once every 3 months I run the free online version of Trend just as a backup check.  Over the last couple of years never needed it as Defender seems to handle everything in the wild now.