Are you using a recent version of Windows (8, 8.1, or 10)?
Do you have automatic updates enabled?
Do you have standard Windows features such as User Access Control enabled?
Do you use the computer with a standard user account as opposed to an administrator (root access) user account?
If the answers to all these questions are yes, I'd say you don't need an antivirus solution. Don't listen to the scaremongers. Microsoft has got you covered.
Honestly, I haven't had antivirus in 10 years and I haven't had a problem (although my windows usage has declined over the years... I mainly just stick to steam now.)
Run updates, don't use browser plugins, stick to applications you trust, and stay away from seedy looking sites when downloading common software. (Sourceforge comes to mind.)
I agree, but only if one uses noscript and requestpolicy, never torrents software, etc.
It's not that MS has you covered, moreso that AV vendors don't really catch new malware that has been mutated, packed, or whatever. So a more in-depth defense is better.
Not to mention that hilariously enough, AVG is literally selling user data now, which is what antivirus is supposed to protect against in the first place.
Depends what you're doing. If you like to play with a lot of risky torrents, then Windows Defender may not suffice. I also don't think Windows Defender does a great job at protecting you against infected removable media either. Avira seems to be pretty good at all of that and light weight.
For risky websites, a combination of Chrome, WOT, ublock origin, HTTPS Everywhere and Sandboxie and/or Malwarebytes Anti-Exploit (zero-day protection) should suffice.
Using a Standard (non-Admin) Windows account and being up to date goes without saying.
if you don't, and you don't do webbrowsing from inside windows then I can't imagine the need for anti-virus.
90% of attacks are trojan horses (fake/embedded pirated software usually) and the remaining 9.9% is browser attacks.
I doubt anyone is defeating your firewall/NAT box to get a direct connection to your windows machine, and even if they did they'd have to find a service they can exploit.
What are you using to run the VM? I've always had issues integrating the host and guest VM nicely in Windows - getting copy-paste working properly, resizing the window, etc.
How is this the same as having to run anti-virus software because the system's (i.e., Windows's) security model is broken?
> jailbreak iOS
Not sure why iOS is even relevant to my comment, since it isn't built on Linux (or even Unix).
> Security starts with the user.
This is true; a user who is bound and determined to hose their system can do it no matter what protections are in place.
But that's irrelevant to the point under discussion, which is how people who do not want to hose their system can keep it secure. On Windows, you have to run anti-virus software (and even the protection that provides is not foolproof), because the system's security model is broken. On Linux, the system's security model is functional to begin with, since unlike Windows, the system was designed that way from the ground up. So you don't need to run anti-virus software, and hence you don't have to worry about what information that software, which has a privileged position on your system, might be sending to others.
> Windows security is pretty good when running as a normal user and having UAC turned on on its full level and binaries validation.
Do you still need to run anti-virus software in this configuration?
> UNIX does have a better security model configuration out of the box, but is just as unsafe for the regular users that just dump stuff into their PCs
Again, I agree, if a user wants to hose their system, Unix won't prevent them. But anti-virus software won't prevent them either.
My point is, what about the user that doesn't want to hose their system? On Linux, it's very simple: use your package manager to install software, and don't run anything that wasn't installed that way.
Not a given. Where I work, most of the reports I get from security admins regarding compromised hosts (found to be port-scanning, attacking other hosts, etc.) are for Ubuntu systems. You still have to secure any services you're running and take basic common-sense precautions.
And any malware maker and his dog know to bypass it before creating his new malware. How many stories have you heard of Windows Defender stopping ransomware? That's right - ZERO.
With AV you could be infected for months without ever knowing. All it takes is to get infected by anything that hasn't made it into the (often out of date anyway) definitions.
The old school Unix method works very well: Keep a list of all changes made from the base install, then periodically swap the disk out for a blank one, follow your documentation and restore non-executable user data from backup. Also has the benefit of regularly validating your documentation and testing your backups, and allows easy rollback by following the same process for major OS updates or hardware upgrades.
Why did you switch from Bitdefender? I'm forced to "sysadmin" my family's Windows systems ... and last I looked, Bitdefender seemed to do a good job. Was I wrong to recommend?
I'm not sure where to go from here.