This is one of the number one questions people ask me. I have been repairing computers for 16 years and believe me I have seen just about everything know to man on computers. I could tell you MSE is the best but because its free many will not use it.
Its sort of like anything you buy. If the price is to cheap most think it is not any good.
. At one time several years ago it was a known fact Norton would bring a computer to its knee
s. The computer would be running fine until someone installed Norton then a slowwwwww computer is what they had
. Norton finally got wise and trimmed their version down and it uses very little resources now
.
No one antivirus is going to stop everything out there today. I highly recommend malwarebytes pro version as it will block you from a bad website. Its has worked many times for me. I also have Webroot SecureAnywhere myself. The only reason is I bought it for someone else and you could put it on three computers. They just give it to me one for buying it for them. It works good and I do like how it saves passwords without me typing when I visit certain sites. I also like the add-on it installs in your browser showing bad and good sites. That also is not 100% because the bad guys are always ahead of us.
Just watch when you search using a search engine like google watching to see how long that site has been there. I have seen them show 10 minutes ago when I would search for something and my webroot showed it a safe site. They also have a way of putting a bad site on the top of the search engine. I just watch where I visit.
The bottom line is this. If Norton makes you fell safe then by all means buy i
t. I have seen specials where when you buy it a rebate comes with it and many times you get it for almost nothing. I bought Webroot last week for $50 with a $45 rebate. I also suggest to anyone to keep your programs updated, especially Java and Adobe. I actually removed Java this week and will wait and see if I really need it.
The bad guys have figured a way to exploit a computer when someone has outdated software
. Java is one they are hitting. Also you may think your computer is safe but the first thing a trojan does is disable your antivirus updates. It will look just fine sitting threre in your taskbar but it will never work correct until your remove the trojan. There are some out there today that is next to impossible to remove without reformatting your system. The trojan will also stop updates from microsoft without you ever knowing it. Here is a good site to check if the site you are going to visit is safe.
Zscaler Zulu URL Risk Analyzer - Zulu
I also recommend this to people, especially if you have younger ones in the house that will be using the internet. It works great.
OpenDNS for Homes and Families
The free version works fine.
Good luck