Win7 + A Free AV

[StillTrying]

Recommend a free AV for Windoze 7 Pro.
TIA.

[Messtechniker]

Use any free AV. It really doesn't matter which one.
But more importantly keep yourself/other users constantly
informed about ongoing email scams. The problem can be
between your ears. A well configured router firewall is also helpful.
There is no single cure for all.

[Flenser]

I used AVG free for many years.

When AVG notified me that they were going to start collecting some info I switched. I want to make it very clear that I was very happy with their product and that they were up front about the changes in their data collection policy _before_ they changed the product.

I switch to Avira's free AV on my desktop PC and I've been using the windows defender that comes with Win7.

I've been very happy with all these AV tools.

[IanB]

Recommend a free AV for Windoze 7 Pro.
TIA.

Why not Windows Defender that comes with the OS?

[Jeroen3]

Recommend a free AV for Windoze 7 Pro.
TIA.

Why not Windows Defender that comes with the OS?

It will stop receiving updates next January. Third party AV is required if you insists on continuing on Windows 7, together with strict containment plan.

[StillTrying]

I tried Bitdefender. After the 10MB installer runs for a bit it stops and says it needs the latest IE...

After letting Windows Defender download a 90MB update it now gives an error, the help page takes you to solutions for Win8.1 and Win10....

So tried ToysЯus  AVAST.

It only found 1 thing suspicious - something to do with a Chrome/Google updater. You can't copy from the AVAST messages, so I saved a .png screen shot but now can't find it!


Found the 1 suspicious filename in a .txt log.

r1---sn-uigxx03-auol.gvt1.com/edgedl/release2/chrome/AMM_sCHvUQlajwOCqaT9vdU_78.0.3904.70/78.0.3904.70_chrome_installer.exe? FileRepMalware (0)

[IanB]

I tried Bitdefender. After the 10MB installer runs for a bit it stops and says it needs the latest IE...

After letting Windows Defender download a 90MB update it now gives an error, the help page takes you to solutions for Win8.1 and Win10....

So tried ToysЯus  AVAST.

It only found 1 thing suspicious - something to do with a Chrome/Google updater. You can't copy from the AVAST messages, so I saved a .png screen shot but now can't find it!

Sorry, I should have said Microsoft Security Essentials. Windows Defender is not applicable to Windows 7. But as Jeroen said Security Essentials updates will end next year when Windows 7 support ends. Here is the Security Essentials download page:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/14210

If you want to scan a PC today Security Essentials will do it.

There is also the Malicious Software Removal Tool:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/890830/remove-specific-prevalent-malware-with-windows-malicious-software-remo

[StillTrying]

"Windows Defender is not applicable to Windows 7"

The 90MB update was Windose Defender, I took a screen shot, saved it in low quality jpg unfortunately.

[IanB]

"Windows Defender is not applicable to Windows 7"

The 90MB update was Windose Defender, I took a screen shot, saved it in low quality jpg unfortunately.

You can install Windows Defender on Windows 7 but it does not provide full functionality. As I mentioned above you want to download and install Microsoft Security Essentials for Windows 7 if you want full AV protection.

[Jeroen3]

Windows Defender is not realtime protection.
Usually, third party AV scans any file you try to access, before you access it. And when it's not in the database, it attempts to perform some smarts to check what type of code is inside.

Defender only runs database scans once in a while.

[StillTrying]

I'll try Microsoft Security Essentials before Jan, but if I tried it now I'd spend the rest of the night struggling with Windoze updates.

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The 2 sensitive documents are temp file copies of pdfs containing 'Account' and numbers, but they're not bank account numbers so I've not bothered to delete those temp files yet.

The 3 primary folders are Documents, Pictures and Desktop. I tend to make my own folders such as c:\PostedImages so there's nothing in them, I don't know about Desktop, most of the junk is just pdf data sheets.

The basic firewall ignores the fact there's a router firewall as well as Windoze's.

fake websites All of FF's anti-phishing is on.

..so I won't be loosing too much sleep.

[Black Phoenix]

I will not even comment on the "Advance Issues" that the Avast is showing...

Ransomware, isn't what him, Avast, should try to prevent. Even not having that folders vulnerable, when Ransomware attacks it's the all HDD that is encrypted, not some folders... Okay it looks for certain types of files, like .pdf, .zip, .jpg, .jpeg, .doc, .xls, etc. If he can't prevent, how good he is then?

The Firewall, well I don't know any AV suite that considers hardware Firewall or even is able to detect it. Even if you have a problem connecting to the Internet, they will say in the "FAQs" to see if the connection is not being blocked by a firewall. OK I know, some of the EndPoint ones can connect to an hardware firewall if it's running a plugin or is from the same brand (to my mind comes BitDefender and Panda Security).

[StillTrying]

ToysЯus seems to have sent and received quite a bit over the last few hours. 9 kB and 340 kB.

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Edit.
'Fixed' it, there are no 24/7 connections to avast now.

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[StillTrying]

I chose the one on the left. I have to keep turning ToysЯus off most of the time, it slows things down.

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