what is the best antivirus software on windows 7?

anon125 · 2017-11-04T19:34:16.000Z

tried avast - blank screen
had AVG till it stopped working and their support did not convince me it will be fixed.

have a win 7/64 laptop for internet only.
forums, news weather and email.
used for 3 hours a day max.
there is nothing private on this laptop.
that is done on one that seldom connects to the internet

thanks all

Pondus · 2017-11-04T19:58:59.000Z

In case you dont know avast and AVG = https://blog.avast.com/avast-and-avg-become-one

system · 2017-11-04T20:44:21.000Z

anon125 post:1:

tried avast - blank screen
had AVG till it stopped working and their support did not convince me it will be fixed.

have a win 7/64 laptop for internet only.
forums, news weather and email.
used for 3 hours a day max.
there is nothing private on this laptop.
that is done on one that seldom connects to the internet

thanks all

I would say MSE 4.10.209 is enough and trouble free (and free)

Cluster-Lizard2014 · 2017-11-04T23:55:50.000Z

Even if you’re seriously thinking of going that basic and proven less safe route then MSE is certainly not the choice to make.

It stopped being automatically updated, I think, in April and that has to be done manually now. MS also make finding the download page for those MSE definition updates and Windows Defender (the recommended option for Win7) suspiciously difficult too.

There are still appropriate circumstances and good reasons for using MSE but as a first choice AV it is not recommended. Defender has a very similar GUI and is said to provide better protection but quite frankly I think you’d be much better off installing an older version of AVAST (using an offline installer of course) if the current one is proving problematic for use with Win7.

system · 2017-11-05T10:45:59.000Z

Cluster-Lizard2014 post:4:

It stopped being automatically updated, I think,

Well, think twice!

MSE updates automatically at least 3-4 time a day , and has a detection rate of 100% (according to the latest AV Comparatives) [ https://chart.av-comparatives.org/chart1.php] , while Avast! has only 99.4%

In addition MSE doesn’t advertise anything, and minimal impact / conflict with your system.

Pondus · 2017-11-05T10:58:39.000Z

MSE updates automatically at least 3-4 time a day , and has a detection rate of 100%

99,7% and 0,3% user dependent

Cluster-Lizard2014 · 2017-11-05T14:03:02.000Z

Well MSE won’t update the definitions automatically when using Win7 Pro’s XP Mode on a VM of that I’m sure. It does not update automatically and when you try to manually update from the GUI it stalls about 25% into the download reporting simply that the definition couldn’t be updated.

I would post a pic of the message screen if my definitions weren’t already up to date.

A year ago it was working fine both automatic update and if you manually enabled the update but sometime earlier this year, April, if I recall correctly, that stopped working. Since then I’ve had to manually update via a download from the MS web site.

I did think that this was probably just Windows XP left being further, unhelpfully, sidelined (which now seems proven to be the case) but I was told on another forum that it was actually the MSE automatic server support that had been stopped. I assumed that meant across the board not just for XP.

Further confusion occurred when I later tried to update MSE itself on the VM and it wouldn’t install the newer version. I hadn’t noticed the changelog indicated it now didn’t support XP.

However none of this was a reason to suppose MS would stop the definitions for MSE being automatically or manually updated via the GUI whatever the OS being used. But, apparently, that is what MS may well have done.

I’d actually be interested to know if anyone using XP either in the same way on a VM or as the prime OS has had a different experience and MSE is still updating automatically.

Whatever the case, I’d still suggest an older version of AVAST would be a better bet as the primary AV if the current version is not to your taste or causes problems specifically with Win7.

bob3160 · 2017-11-05T14:12:17.000Z

@Cluster,
The topic is about Windows 7. MS stopped supporting XP a long time ago.
I personally think this topic has nothing to do with Avast and should be posted on a Non
AV related forum.

Pondus · 2017-11-05T14:37:22.000Z

I personally think this topic has nothing to do with Avast and [b]should be posted on a Non AV related forum. [/b]

None AV or none avast ??? topic is about AV

Non-Avast security products >> https://forum.avast.com/index.php?board=88.0

bob3160 · 2017-11-05T22:35:44.000Z

Pondus post:9:

I personally think this topic has nothing to do with Avast and [b]should be posted on a Non AV related forum. [/b]
None AV or none avast ??? topic is about AV
Non-Avast security products >> https://forum.avast.com/index.php?board=88.0

Non AV related board. All AV related boards have favorites.
I like Avast that’s why I’m on this forum.

Cluster-Lizard2014 · 2017-11-06T13:00:15.000Z

That’s why I contributed to this thread too as my main purpose was to recommend using an older version of AVAST and only if there was an insurmountable problem using the most recent AVAST version with Win7. Is there?

That seems to me to a better solution and more appropriate one for this forum rather than to suggest using MSE or even, the supposedly better performing, Defender.

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