I have been a long time user of Kaspersky a/v software primarily because it is easy to turn off/shut down when I want to start a flight, so there is no interference.

Unfortunately, the USA has a ban on Kaspersky coming into affect soon, so I need to find new a/v protection.  I want one that I can easily turn off & shut down when I choose to do so.  Anyone have a good recommendation?  Price is not that much of an issue, as long as I can control when it is running.

Thanks.

49 minutes ago, beechcaptain said:

I have been a long time user of Kaspersky a/v software primarily because it is easy to turn off/shut down when I want to start a flight, so there is no interference.

Unfortunately, the USA has a ban on Kaspersky coming into affect soon, so I need to find new a/v protection.  I want one that I can easily turn off & shut down when I choose to do so.  Anyone have a good recommendation?  Price is not that much of an issue, as long as I can control when it is running.

Thanks.

Internet providers often provide a free one, usually Mcafee or Norton.

Barring that, I expect some to mention proudly that they use no Antivirus. 🤔

I'm not a security expert, but I work along side a bunch and they all say Windows Defender is as good as anything you pay for.  There was a time where you'd get laughed at for using MS built in protection, but today?  It is perfectly fine.  

I use it at home on my PC, at work for all our enterprise PCs and all my family PCs.  

It can be turned off, but it isn't super easy.  Granted, I have not needed to turn it off for any installation, including a bunch of enterprise stuff.  

I wouldn't go and say you don't need antivirus, but threats really don't come in like that anymore.  Mostly it is phishing.  The hackers go after the corporate targets.  Easier to "hack" the average person with phishing.  

Working in IT, I don't think I've seen a computer virus in many years.  

Give it a try.  The price is right!  

Thanks for the input.  I have removed Kaspersky from my laptop and desktop (flight sim) pc.  Currently, I am going with Windows Defender.  I'll wait and see.  I don't do much browsing outside of known & trusted flight sim and a few other sites, so perhaps Defender is enough.  We'll see.

Once again, appreciate the info.

I asked here some years ago, and the consensus was that Windows Defender was good enough for our usage.

I guess I should have added in my op, I have had equally negative experiences with both Norton and McAfee dating back as far as 2002-4.  I don't like those types that have total control and leave the user with limited control. No thank you.

Seems like Defender may be all I need.  Will wait and see if any other recommendations come along that might be worth inquiring more about.

 

MS Defender is more than good enough for the average user. You can easlily set it up to exclude the directories and folder that are used by MSFS.

 

I have used it for years without any issues.

Edited July 20, 20241 yr by andymandy

I used to use AVG or Avast!, but when I moved away from Windows XP, I just relied upon MS Windows Defender.  It seems to work well, then again, I do not click on unknown links and I do not visit questionable websites.

Windows Defender is good enough, provided you don't embark on "dangerous" browsing 🙂

Edited July 20, 20241 yr by jcomm

I think I will stick with Defender.  I flew a flight in P3Dv5.4 from DD KEWR to IS KATL using AS weather, Radar Contact v4.3, smartCARS 3 & It's a Pilot's Live v2 without any changes in behavior during the flight. Smooth consistent frame rates.  I added a lot of apps/programs to the exclusion list, so hopefully Defender will leave them alone.

 

On 7/19/2024 at 3:31 PM, HiFlyer said:

Barring that, I expect some to mention proudly that they use no Antivirus. 🤔

For bullet proof ease of use: Shadow Defender - the easiest PC/laptop security and privacy protection tool

Microsoft Defender has scored well against other payware anti-malware software.  However, it is not the best.

I pay $40/year for Bitdefender and have never had an issue.  It has caught and blocked many attacks over the years before they ever got into my system.  The malware scan is also faster than Defender and gets better detection rates.

I would not trust my computer security to Microsoft or any other mega-corporation.

Dave

Another vote for MS Defender. It is more than sufficient for our use and is relatively light, and more importantly, stable.

On 7/20/2024 at 9:49 AM, andymandy said:

You can easlily set it up to exclude the directories and folder that are used by MSFS.

While you can certainly do that if you want to I do not think it is necessary. I have not noticed it slows down MSFS at all. Probably it does most of its work when the CPU is idle anyway.

I take the exclude folders/app approach to prevent the a/v from thinking any of my flight sim items are potential threat and quarantine them.  How many times have you read on these forums where someone complains that their a/v software has detected a virus/threat in something they are trying to install?  I don't have enough fingers and toes to count them all on.  Just saying.

.

Windows Defender here ( or at least whatever it's called in Windows 11).  I also have a lifetime license for Malwarebytes, which integrates with Defender.