Freebie windows security must haves?

[slackerinabox]

Have been on mac for years and web research usually leads to cleverly disguised marketing - what would be a good av and anti malware tool to invest in be? Free is better, but low resource drain's important - my laptop's far from cutting edge and can be slowed down by too many chrome tabs.

on the chrome note - man, was safari better at suppressing annoying pop ups. I've tried adblock plus, any other ways to curb browser spam?

 

[RolandJS]

Within Google Chrome, on the advice of others, I've been using uBlock Origin for some time now.
AdBlock and its subsidiaries are aok also.

Avast AV, Avira AV are both great choices, when installed via custom or advanced.
SpywareBlaster is great for host file operations.
Malwarebytes AM version 2 is your best bet for Malwarebytes.
SUPERAntiSpyware is also aok choice.
Ruiware's WinPatrol family has trialware, I cannot remember if there are free versions of them.

 

[bononos]

........
on the chrome note - man, was safari better at suppressing annoying pop ups. I've tried adblock plus, any other ways to curb browser spam?

Adblock plus has been working hand in hand with advertisers and tracking users and selling personal data for years. Not a good choice at all. It also uses more resources than the better adblockers because of its user tracking.

As for adblockers- ublock(Chris Aljoudi) is also useless because Aljoudi is basically cybersquatting (after tricking the original author that he was going to continue the project) and collecting donations for doing very little. Ublock origin by Raymond Hill is the adblock you want.

The built in windows defender is quite good. The well known companies in AV like Avast/Avira/Bitdefender are also good but make sure you don't install any adware which could come in the form of extensions etc.

 

[lxskllr]

Defender only, and ublock origin. If you're dedicated, umatrix and/or noscript. Security software is scareware that many times subverts real security, and causes issues with the a properly running computer.

 

[PeterRoss]

Windows 10 has a very strong anti-virus and somewhat anti-malware Windows Defender (installed by default). I do not think you need a 3rd party Anti-virus on that front. (If you still chose to get, majority of providers have free versions that work well, but they are somewhat heavy on the resource usage) You do need anti-malware though. Malwarebytes, Hitman Pro, ADWCleaner are probably your go-tos. I personally use Malwarebytes and am very satisfied with it. As for pop-ups, as people mentioned uBlock origin is the way to go, it stops a majority of pop ups and unwanted content. Hopefully, this helps you!

 

[XSoldier77X]

Have been on mac for years and web research usually leads to cleverly disguised marketing - what would be a good av and anti malware tool to invest in be? Free is better, but low resource drain's important - my laptop's far from cutting edge and can be slowed down by too many chrome tabs.

on the chrome note - man, was safari better at suppressing annoying pop ups. I've tried adblock plus, any other ways to curb browser spam?

for windows, avast, avira and maybe avg free are decent tools. if you have windows, again, if you have windows defender security center itself is decent. avira, avast and avg are also decent tools if you're on mac.

 

[slackerinabox]

Windows 10 has a very strong anti-virus and somewhat anti-malware Windows Defender (installed by default). I do not think you need a 3rd party Anti-virus on that front. (If you still chose to get, majority of providers have free versions that work well, but they are somewhat heavy on the resource usage) You do need anti-malware though. Malwarebytes, Hitman Pro, ADWCleaner are probably your go-tos. I personally use Malwarebytes and am very satisfied with it. As for pop-ups, as people mentioned uBlock origin is the way to go, it stops a majority of pop ups and unwanted content. Hopefully, this helps you!

Thanks guys - really appreciate the info. As other's suggested, uBlock origin has been a lifesaver and makes chrome usable again (seriously, i kept on getting microsoft tech support fishing pop ups). Will look into the ad/malware choices and stick to windows defender as an av. thanks all!