Antivirus: yay or nay?

[Xiahou]

I'm a long-time A/V user, in the last few years using Microsoft Security Essentials specifically. Lately, I've noticed that MSE has been bogging down my PC post-login. Eventually, the problem goes away but my PC is very sluggish until MSE is done with it's gyrations.

To the point, rather than trying to make MSE behave, I'm thinking of dumping antivirus altogether. Does anyone else run without A/V programs? I can't remember the last time MSE actually hit on anything. My pfsense firewall performs some IPS functions that would block/alert on malware. I use NoScript & Ublock Origin on Firefox. It seems like I'm pretty well covered even without antivirus.

Someone tell me why antivirus is anything other than a waste of computing resources at this point?

[Crandar]

I was recommended to use Malwarebytes and I have no complaints yet.

[Xiahou]

I was recommended to use Malwarebytes and I have no complaints yet.

I had always heard good things about Malwarebytes (and SuperAntiSpyware), and have recommended it to people myself. However it's not what you'd traditionally call anti-virus.

Here's is Malwarebytes explanation of the difference between the two, but personally I always thought of antivirus of something that is always running and watching (or attempting to watch) for infected files. Malware, otoh, is something that scans memory or running processes for malicious code and it's usually run on demand.

I think the line is getting more and more blurred- but I see no issue with an on-demand scanner. I am getting sour on always-on anti-virus that's dragging down my PC.

[wooly_mammoth]

Being at least half-decent in the way I use my Windows computers + AVG free edition -> one reportedly infected file in the past decade+
I can't remember what MSE does, I may have some of that opened up as well (windows firewall and a couple other things).

Then again, I pretty much use Windows these days only for videogames. I've transitioned to linux for all the other computational problems of my life, and with that the virus/malware problem has vanished.

[Csargo]

I generally will just run sporadic scans every so often with programs like MB, MSE, etc. Never have any AV constantly protecting/running on my PC and I don't have any problems at all.

That being said I rarely venture to unfamiliar websites and things like that.

[Veho Nex]

Been running Eset NOD32 for years and ive only had 1 security issue and that was from my own stupidity. Literally ignored and canceled all the warnings that popped up.

[Gregoshi]

I generally will just run sporadic scans every so often with programs like MB, MSE, etc. Never have any AV constantly protecting/running on my PC and I don't have any problems at all.

Click here for your FREE PC check!

That being said I rarely venture to unfamiliar websites and things like that.

Um, sure, whatever you say.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Sorry Csargo, couldn't resist.

[Xiahou]

So I uninstalled it. It improved the post-login somewhat, not night and day though. Meh.

I still feel somewhat "naked" without antivirus- but I just have to remind myself that I can't remember the last time MSE actually detected anything, if ever in the years that I've used it.

[Montmorency]

Out of curiosity, does anyone here have any experience with Kaspersky?

[Beskar]

So I uninstalled it. It improved the post-login somewhat, not night and day though. Meh.

I still feel somewhat "naked" without antivirus- but I just have to remind myself that I can't remember the last time MSE actually detected anything, if ever in the years that I've used it.

I came across a very good tip for fast logging in which made a big difference to my set-up.

Run msconfig, and go to the boot tab. Make the 'timeout' 3 seconds, and go on advanced options, then make it so it uses all your cores (I got a quad-core, so 4) and enable it to use maximum memory.

[Xiahou]

I came across a very good tip for fast logging in which made a big difference to my set-up.

Run msconfig, and go to the boot tab. Make the 'timeout' 3 seconds, and go on advanced options, then make it so it uses all your cores (I got a quad-core, so 4) and enable it to use maximum memory.

I tried it and got BSODs.

I was able to recover it by booting repair mode, getting a command prompt and using bcdedit to remove the entries that were modified by msconfig. I don't doubt that it worked good on your system, but I post this as a cautionary note to others who might make the changes. Depending on your setup, it could improve things, but it's not without risk*.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Risk that I should have recognized, but didn't. So it served as a good reminder on my part

[Husar]

I still feel somewhat "naked" without antivirus- but I just have to remind myself that I can't remember the last time MSE actually detected anything, if ever in the years that I've used it.

How is that an indicator for anything? As much as I'm a Microsoft fan, I wouldn't quite trust MSE to catch every virus, so the lack of notifications may just as well mean that a lot slips past and works quietly in the background without you ever noticing it. Might also explain your slow startups.

[Beskar]

I tried it and got BSODs.

I was able to recover it by booting repair mode, getting a command prompt and using bcdedit to remove the entries that were modified by msconfig. I don't doubt that it worked good on your system, but I post this as a cautionary note to others who might make the changes. Depending on your setup, it could improve things, but it's not without risk*.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Risk that I should have recognized, but didn't. So it served as a good reminder on my part

The BSODs might be related to hardware issues on your end or needing to update drivers. You would experience the same issues if you were running a game or so.. because all it is doing is giving permission to use all your cores/memory on boot-up.

[Xiahou]

The BSODs might be related to hardware issues on your end or needing to update drivers. You would experience the same issues if you were running a game or so.. because all it is doing is giving permission to use all your cores/memory on boot-up.

Gaming performance is actually quite good. Rock solid stability and it provides good FPS on modern games for a system that's over 5 years old.

I think I figured out the problem, but I doubt I'll bother confirming it because it turns out that the boot settings are just for debugging anyhow and your system will use the max available memory and cores by default. All the boot options can do is artificially limit it.

For the record though, I suspect it was the max memory setting. There is a 1MB discrepancy between what Windows sees available (8191MB) and what msconfig filled in when I checked the box (8192).

[Xiahou]

How is that an indicator for anything? As much as I'm a Microsoft fan, I wouldn't quite trust MSE to catch every virus, so the lack of notifications may just as well mean that a lot slips past and works quietly in the background without you ever noticing it. Might also explain your slow startups.

At the very least, it's an indication that MSE is providing no value to me. Either it's missing viruses or I'm not getting any (the most likely option). Either way, there's no much sense in having it installed.

Coincidentally, I had a chance to test anti-virus efficacy at work yesterday....
I had an obvious phony email in my junk folder about a bill for a delivery from some company I never have done any business with. The email had an attachment, which was a zip file. I looked in the zip file and it had an .exe file in it- obviously malware.

So I scanned the zip file against VirusTotal. Of the 40+ engines it threw at the file, only 6 identified the file as a trojan. The rest said there was nothing wrong with it. (Note: I did this on a linux VM. I wouldn't have touched the zip file on a physical Windows PC.)

Conclusion: The best virus protection is common sense.

I do still recommend on demand scans like Malwarebytes- especially if you have less than safe browsing habits... like not using NoScript or a good ad blocker like Ublock Origin.

[Beskar]

For the record though, I suspect it was the max memory setting. There is a 1MB discrepancy between what Windows sees available (8191MB) and what msconfig filled in when I checked the box (8192).

That would explain it, I think.