Well behaved anti virus for windows

[Myfordman]

I have a relatively old laptop dell latitude d531 that has been running like a dog recently.
It uses win7 pro. Now unsupported so I went throught the process of changing to win 10 pro only to find that the graphics wont support win10 properly and draws circles as oval (wider than taller) no good for designing anything as it looks wrong!
So reverted back to win 7 and in the process deleted AVG and find that this was the cause of the machines lethargy.

Can anyone recommend an alternative AV programme to give me some protection that does not have a huge overhead under win 7 pro

Quick heads up before you reply to save your time and mine.
No I don't want to buy a newer machine
No I don't want a mac
No I don't want to change to linux,

Thanks Guys!

 

[MikeG.]

Avast. I find it unobtrusive and effective.

 

[lurker]

Avast for me too

 

[FatmanG]

3rd vote goes for Avast

 

[Myfordman]

Thanks for the votes for Avast. I was interested to read that Avast have acquired AVG or at least got some connection between them. Lets hope Avast predominates in any cooperation.

 

[thetyreman]

+1 also using avast the free version.

 

[sunnybob]

You should have windows defender. Use it and update it.
Pay attention to white lists, they are full of companies that have paid microsoft to let all their cccrraapp through. I always empty whitelists.

I had a lot of trouble on my vista machine by using second and even third layers of protection.

Windows defender, and adaware ad blocker solves any problems.

 

[Myfordman]

Several review sites say Windows defender should be the last thing to use for some reason, maybe for the whitelist issue you mention.
I also got the impression that it was an anti-malware programme not AV but I could be wrong.

 

[sunnybob]

click the options on defender, If youre going on sayso you are going to be surprised.

White lists are very well hidden by microsoft. they make a lot of money allowing companies to bypass the protection. All well and good, but how good is the security of those companies?
A hacker breaks into a white listed company and the world is their oyster.

 

[Lons]

Another for Avast, I've used the free version for several years and along with malwarebytes it's done all I need, still running Win 7 pro as well.

 

[Irish Rover]

Nothing wrong with AVG and these days it shares components and back end engine with Avast!

Download and run the AVG removal tool to make sure you uninstall it fully, then try a fresh install.

https://www.avg.com/en-gb/avg-remover

 

[user22161]

Seems I'm the odd one out, we have four W7 pcs, all running Microsoft Security Essentials and it seems to protect them well. On the most used one, this desktop, I also run Malwarebytes Free about one a week and occasionally C Cleaner.

 

[SammyQ]

Malwarebytes for protection, c£17 renewal this year, multiple machines, then CC cleaner once a week to prune the cache etc.