is avast finally stable enough on win 8 that I can give it a shot?
what about AVG? any improvements from the sloth like behavior that prompted me to switch away 2 years ago?
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please, limit the discussion to these three products.
I use Microsoft Security Essentials on my windows 7 boxes myself and it's fine. With 8, if I were using it, I would continue to use the built in and would consider myself adequately protected. My wife's Vista laptop has run Avast for years without any issues.
I ran MSE while I was using Windows 7 - still have it on my wife's Windows 7 install - and was happy enough with it to use the built-in AV solution on Windows 8.
I know you only asked for these 3 AV programs but I have been using Vipre for several years and the update to Windows 8 is free I recommend you try the 30 day free trial.
I test AV at a large Fortune 10 company and we use Symantec Endpoint Protection at work and almost all of us use Microsoft Security Essentials on Win7 and the built-in Windows Defender on Windows 8. I also use MalWareBytes at home. I cannot recommend any other products based upon our testing, that's really all I can say... My .02 worth...
Security needs are also dependent on the user of the PC. Give your PC to a teenager, and no matter what is installed for protection, said teenager will infect it. Be careful out there people!
Any 3rd party AV software on W8 (for home use) is a complete and utter waste of time these days.
Windows defender (silly name because it reminds people of the basically useless worth of Windows defender on W7) is actually a totally re-vamped version of MSE (Microsoft security essentials) which is built into the windows kernel itself and also provides good real time protection too.
Windows updates also update the AV database almost daily -- you don't have to wait for the usual development cycle of a 3rd party supplier -- first being notified that a new threat has appeared, development of a counter measure and then finally shipping out the update to users. A big company like Ms will have a team (at least one) working on this sort of stuff 24 hrs a day 7 days a week and I trust the developer of the OS (Ms) to protect its own kernel better than a 3rd party supplier who by necessity will have to reverse engineer the kernel code or use eminently hackable published Windows API hooks.
Also most 3rd party AV will switch off Windows defender -- this is rather like getting on to a plane where the pilot says we are now testing our OWN air traffic control system so we'll switch off any input from Ground Air traffic control stations including the tower at the airport and do our own thing - and ignore any other traffic. I certainly wouldn't want to be on THAT flight. !!
Security is implemented TOTALLY Differently in W8 --forget ANYTHING you learned about security for W7 -- the methods used in that OS are totally not valid any more -- you do NOT NEED ANY 3rd party product for Windows 8 -- and no amount of statistics taken over a decent period will show that you DO need a 3rd party product.
In any case even if you do read the stats and it says A was better than B -- this is all in the past and a bit like Monday morning Quarterbacking to use an American Football term. A new threat to your computer could arise AT ANY INSTANT so those past stats are 100% irrelevant.
The only case for 3rd party security these days when running W8 is if you have to protect large company wide networs - especially if they span international boundaries -- but I don't yet know of any large company who is even THINKING of running W8 -- most are still transitioning from XP to W7.
Save your money and buy an SSD instead -- much much better value for money. --The Free 3rd party apps anyway are totally pointless for W8 and all they want to do is usually entice you to "Go Pro" I.e PAY.