The Anti-Virus Tier List

I recently visited a customer with a "slow laptop". They had AVG, Avast, Norton and McAfee all installed at the same time! How that thing ever booted up is beyond me.

The best line “if your computer gets infected every time, there is a problem between the chair and the keyboard”. That is priceless. 😂

I received a free ESET license from work, and it seems to be good so far, but the assisted learning mode sure causes a lot of popups. We use it in our office and it killed an attempted ransomware attack that had brute forced a domain admin password dead in its tracks, so I definitely rate it highly.

"You should not really trust any tier list...." Procedes to make tier list. Well played Sir. Well played.

Glad to see other people calling out Norton and McAfee for the dumpster fires they are. It's insane how many people still don't realize just how bad those programs have gotten.

I can vouch the McAfee one. I once worked at a hospital that had them loaded everywhere and it turned i7 6th gen laptops to Celeron Ds.

As IT enthusiast for ~20 years (not working in business for 15 - now only fixing PCs / laptops for people on the side occasionally) - I completely agree with this list and all the tips and insights provided. Really great worth recommending video for people who maybe don't know much about this stuff. Funny how this popped up as suggestion on the side of watching astrophysics video :) Also internet with current OS versions is relatively safe space if you don't register and visit fishy websites and don't open attachments from unknown emails. The biggest risks for modern day user are data breaches and leaks on all the service websites hundreds of millions are using - like multiple google breaches, all sorts of social network data breeches, etc, where they leak your passwords and other data. Hell even leaking email address is bad thing because you land on spam lists which are also used by malware senders, scammers, and what not. And all this danger is not on client side nor out of his fault.

Been using Malwarebytes for years and it detects a lot while their scans seem to be going strong too. I often use the manual scan of individual files through both Malwarebytes and Windows Antivirus.

Removing Norton and McAfee completely without a trace from your computer tends to be harder than getting rid of some of the most troublesome viruses

Honestly, the info on why not to trust influencers who get kickbacks is more critical than the tier list.

I remember hearing a news story years ago about Kaspersky unearthing a highly secretive government intelligence operation because it's detection was soo thorough

My experience back in the early 2000s, norton was dependable, but years later ended up being a nigtmare. It became so heavy, slowing down the pc a lot, and corrupting the os when you uninstall it.

Having worked in tech support, the words "the problem is between the chair and the keyboard" rang so true. Some people just don't know what they're doing and blindly click on anything. I have a hard time dealing with parents and in-laws who constantly find themselves with issues.

Working tech support back in the day, I distinctly remember commenting on how the Norton Suite trial would essentially start behaving like malware as soon as the trial period was over. Computers would display all the typical symptoms of being infected to the point that they seemed near unusable. Then, they would magically come back to life as soon as you uninstalled it. Really, the only worthwhile piece of software from Norton is their removal tool.

hard to believe that ive used nothing but Kaspersky since 2007. I still remember when it was version 7. Part of the reason was because I managed to buy a tonne of leftover stock from a store that was going out of business and found a load of them still chilling at the back of the warehouse that had totally been forgotten. One of the greatest things about Kaspersky is keys from older versions will still activate for newer versions. There was a few years where they wouldnt allow this to happen but i think they rolled it back.

Thanks for the great video! I have one suggestion: if I understood correctly that your latest experience with the F-Secure one is from 2016, I'd recommend you give it another go in 2024 :) The detection rate (and the whole package) has developed quite a bit.

You forgot the most important security software: ad blockers Honestly, I only use AdBlock on Arch Linux and stay away from downloading suspicious files

As a user of ESET for the last 8 years, having him nudge between A and S tier back and forth is a win for me

Long time Trend user and have to say.. as long as they don't turn it off to access something that got a warning from trend.. have not had any systems get infected. And, once configured and folks told to click the do-not-show-again when offered the password manager.. it runs without dragging down the system and does the job without distraction. I like that it will give I think it's a weekly summary of trackers and bits it's blocked or dealt with for you and that's not too bad. I've usually been really happy it'd just dealt with things embedded in websites etc and didn't bother me about having to do so. Anyway, like the vid and your thoughts.. with my personal reservations re dumpstering Trend since I feel like they really are staying on-target and focused on their main business model.. Thanks for a good down to brass tacks video.. appreciate it.

I've been a pirate for more than a decade and ESET has never failed to protect me from dangerous sites.