I've worked in IT my whole life and personally haven't used 3rd party AV since MS released Security Essentials for Win 7. On the corporate end of things, Defender for Endpoint adds pretty impressive cloud monitoring and AI that detects suspicious activity before viral payloads are even downloaded to a machine. I'd argue that since the release of Win 10, 3rd party AV has done more harm than good. AV manufactures will blame "buggy Windows updates" for causing BSOD's when their products are installed, but the reality is many times the Windows updates are closing holes that AV vendors are arguably exploiting to give their products elevated access they shouldn't have. The vendors cry foul when MS is actually making the OS more secure. I chuckle when I think of the outcry UAC caused back in the day when it was basically the best thing Microsoft could have created to deny unauthorized privilege escalation.

With all that said, using a reputable adblocker with your browser, such as uBlock Origin, is going to give you greater protection than any AV software alone. The most common viruses these days are distributed via Google ads purchased (or hijacked) by bad actors. The top search result for common freeware ends up being one of these "ads", which will redirect you to a website and prompt you to "update" your computer or download a fake version of the freeware you are searching for. By the time Google discovers these nefarious ads, it's too late and the payload is already distributed to thousands of people.

Worse than that, the payload usually isn't a virus... it's a script that uses legitimate tools to scan your system and sends the results back to the bad actor so they can customize their response based on what you're running on your system. It may be days before they attempt to send a payload that will actually compromise your system by encrypting your files or stealing your browser sessions, allowing them to log into your accounts even if you have 2FA enabled on those accounts.

Notice I mentioned "legitimate tools" above... the other issue with 3rd party AV is they often take the nuclear option and block legitimate tools, leaving the user stuck troubleshooting why something isn't working or their system isn't performing up to speed.

Also, for any site listing the "top Antivirus software for 2023", you may find Defender completely missing from their list. You'll also find affiliate links to all of the recommended paid AV software... certainly no conflict of interest there!

MS Defender + an adblocker + common sense and not clicking "ok" on everything is all you need. The technically savvy out there should look into Pi-hole as well, which will help block ads for every device on your network.

8 hours ago, Victors Valiant said:

None. There is no reason to get virus protection. The best virus protection is yourself. Don't go on fishy websites, dont download things without verifying if they are legit, etc. As others said Windows Defender is more than enough. If you want to be double safe run bitdefender or malware bytes periodically. Also a pop up blocker never hurts

Been gaming for years and using Webroot. Has never bogged my system down and keeps me safer than Defender. Never had an issue with any game I play either.

Edited February 5, 20233 yr by Lotharen

Microsoft has way more security resources / expertise and exploit awareness than so called security companies.  I trust them.

Windows updates sends new defender definitions daily.

sp

Edited February 5, 20233 yr by Sky_Pilot071

8 hours ago, Sky_Pilot071 said:

Microsoft has way more security resources / expertise and exploit awareness than so called security companies.  I trust them.

Windows updates sends new defender definitions daily.

sp

Is that wishful thinking or some kind of fact?

After experiencing some of the non so convincing 3rd party AV, I went with the Windows built-in Defender ( ex-MSE). No regret.

Defender. You don't need anything else except that and common sense. 

For all of you using Defender, do you pause it during your flights or do you just leave it running all the time?

2 minutes ago, TexasGary said:

For all of you using Defender, do you pause it during your flights or do you just leave it running all the time?

You can add an exclusion for your MSFS folder so it isn't scanning files inside that folder every time you run it. 

Windows Defender.

Unless Microsoft has upper their game, and I'm doubtful of that. I read, back when I researched antivirus software, that defender was a joke. It didn't protect against a lot of things, to include keyloggers. Also, you don't have to go to shady sites to get a virus. Ads on some of the most popular sites have hidden nasty viruses, Facebook being one I can remember with in the last few years. There was an article just last week where even higher traffic sites were having the same thing done. I don't trust Microsoft to keep me safe, I use defender as well, but I have Webroot as an extra layer of protection and I get NO system slow down and its never interfered with gameplay.

I started my career in IT in 1995 and have seen many products, enterprise and consumer, over the years.  I've also been and seen many burned by AV products who do not react rapidly enough to emergent threats (Mcafee and Melissa, ExploreZip ca. 1999 for a couple of examples).  For those who cannot or are uncomfortable with 3rd party products, Windows Defender is truly a great product.  Combined with the virtualization-based isolation built into Windows 10/11 (if enabled), CredGuard, etc.  for 99% of people these are more than acceptable.  While you have to take "independent" test organizations with a grain of salt, AV Comparatives has been relatively free from controversy over the years.  Take a look at their performance / effectiveness charts and you will see Defender is nearly at the top, especially for effectiveness.  Where it is lacking is in overall system performance.  If you have to exclude directories with executable code (not databases, code) just to be able to eek out needed performance you are using the wrong product and opening yourself up to infection.  It doesn't take a genius to know to target common game installation folders from code inserted into browser based malware to effect attack, you know?

All of that being said, Kaspersky is and has been for many years at the top of the game in nearly all categories of testing.  Of course there are always fearmongers who will claim by either evidence (mass media stories with little or no basis in reality) or just simple fear of anything Russian that it is backdoored, trojaned by the developer at the direction of the Kremlin.  Being extremely paranoid and therefor running an enterprise class firewall in my home (with its own AV and IPS engines), constantly checking logs for strange traffic, etc. I can say that myself nor Sonicwall's excellent sandboxing and worldwide threat management based CAPT engines have detected anything to give me pause.  Admittedly several years ago I did stop using KAV due to concerns but after comparing network behavior with and without I went back to using it.  Why?  The best performance of my systems bar none AND industry best detection. 

To each his own though however I thought I'd share my experiences for those who do notice the place KAV has retained over the years in testing regarding performance and protection but have some concerns about its origin.  Other than KAV I don't see any other product worth spending money on if you are running Windows 10/11 for endpoint protection.  Again, Defender does a GREAT job, it just isn't the best when it comes to resource utilization.  By all means though, STOP excluding directories as if you were helping yourself.  Rare are the files needing exclusion (databases and their logs for example), excluding large swaths of executable code is a major mistake and one that threat actors take into account when writing malware.  Given the prevalence of PC gaming and knowing that folks engaging in this practice I'm sure you can see why...

As an aside Kaspersky moved their corporate HQ to Switzerland (along with all of their developers and data) in 2018, completing the move entirely in 2020.  https://www.kaspersky.com/about/press-releases/2020_kaspersky-completes-its-data-processing-relocation-to-switzerland-and-opens-new-transparency-center-in-north-america

Edited February 5, 20233 yr by badgenes

Windows defender and excluded the sim folder in settings (more out of a hunt for performance gains than anything else)

Never an issue. But then I don't dabble in pr0n, warez, shady internet sites that want to give me pills to enlarge my ****, or the societal cancer that goes by the name of Facebook. 😉

 

ESET here for years no issues at all they even have a gaming mode.

2 hours ago, bhx22 said:

ESET here for years no issues at all they even have a gaming mode.

I am doing the same, ESET has worked great for years and does not interfere.

Lee