Antivirus Software

[FlatAssembler]

So, what do people on this forum think of the antivirus software? Do they actually do more good than harm?
I mean, there are contless documented cases of the software on personal computers and servers ending up useless not because of a malware, but because of a buggy antivirus program. It's quite possible that a computer stops working (it's documented to have happened) because an antivirus software recognizes the updated version of "csrss.exe" file as a virus, or because some hacker manages to compromize the antivirus software itself to get control of a computer. Even the developers in Mozilla admit that a significant part of their time goes into making the new version of Firefox (especially the SpiderMonkey JavaScript engine) compatible with various antivirus software. Is there any study comparing the damage the malware does today with the damage the antivirus programs do?
On my new Linux laptop, I've decided to install the ClamAV antivirus. There are, as far as I know, no documented cases of a Linux machine being bricked by an antivirus software. ClamAV is free and, while it's said to be significantly less effective than the commercial antivirus software for Linux, it's also said that it, unlike other antivirus software, doesn't affect the performances of a system.
It's also said that WINE is the number one program that compromises the security of Linux. Maybe it's a good think I haven't managed to make it run on Oracle Linux. :-)

[zebo-the-fat]

I have been using Eset AV for the last 12 years, never had a virus, never caused me any problems, regular updates, very happy with it.

[Sal]

I have AVG on my Win10 computer. I wouldn't recommend it, but it's free, so. Doesn't hassle me as much as Kaspersky did, so there's that.

[SteelCurtain]

I have a Mac and a box running Mint. So. No AV.

[zebo-the-fat]

I have AVG on my Win10 computer. I wouldn't recommend it, but it's free, so. Doesn't hassle me as much as Kaspersky did, so there's that.

AVG isn't bad, I have had issues with some of my customers who scan documents to a folder on their PC, everything works well until AVG does an update and decides that the scanned document is unsafe and blocks the scan. I can understand how this happens but means we need to revisit the customer and add extra rules to AVG to allow the scans to work.

[bennyboy]

To be honest, I don't really rely on antivirus as much as I used to. This is because the entry points-- browsers, for example, are generally much more secure. And Windows 10 has a reasonably good defense system of its own.

Most importantly, on a good system, a complete reinstall takes like 5-10 minutes, where it used to take an hour or more.

[zebo-the-fat]

To be honest, I don't really rely on antivirus as much as I used to.  This is because the entry points-- browsers, for example, are generally much more secure.  And Windows 10 has a reasonably good defense system of its own.

Most importantly, on a good system, a complete reinstall takes like 5-10 minutes, where it used to take an hour or more.

That's true, Wyndoze 10 and linux mint can both be installed from scratch in under 15 minutes (plus about 3 days for all the wyndoze updates!) then restore your files from backup. (I have stuff backed up on a NAS box and also an offline usb drive in case something nasty gets onto my network )

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Bitdefender and Malwarebytes. I'm covered with no hassles.

[Rev. Rye]

Bitdefender and Malwarebytes. I'm covered with no hassles.

Windows Defender, and Malwarebytes.

Also, I have Macafee WebAdvisor and AdBlock as browser extensions to stop shady programs from infiltrating my computer. And yes, AdBlock counts as antivirus for me because I've had far too many ads redirect me to virus sites for me to ever consider turning it off for my laptop.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

I use Windows defender and AdBockPlus as well.