Do you trust any malware, security programs?

[SteveSS]

I'm old so I don't know who to trust for these programs. I just know my laptop has progressively gotten really slow. I know some programs say they're free but I also know they can load all kinds of things I don't want.

Does anyone have a good experience with these?

 

[Dave6T4]

I use Micro Trend. You have to pay for it, but I have had no problems.

 

[YY1]

Malware bytes has been working for most issues for about 2 decades.

Have you gone to control panel and researched/deleted any installed progrms you don't recognize?

Have you disabled microsoft onedrive if you don't use that cloud storage?
How about google "drive" if you don't use that cloud storage?
Both those programs eat system resources like candy, bogging your disk, and both are potentially copying all your files to the cloud. Possibly without you realizing it.

Just FYI- the last win10 update and win11...bear with me here...

seem to overtax a traditional "spinny" hard drive to the point they degrade and become extremely slow.

it took me several months to figure this out but...

Replacing the old school drive with a $33 SSD (solid state drive) put at least half a dozen and counting of the 3-5 year old laptops (we have about 36) back in service, resurrected from being literally too slow to use.

 

[cr8crshr]

Pc Matic is my go-to software. I have had them for 5 years now and no problems. I paid 150.00 when I signed up for 5 machines for a lifetime. I do have 5 machines throughout the house and I never have any issues. US-made and produced for individual users, businesses, and the government. I don't believe they offer the deal I got anymore, but a yearly amount at 50.00 ain't all that bad either. Check them out...cr8crshr/Bill

 

[AR67GTX]

From advertisements I would try PC Magic, an advertised US company. They sound good. I just rely on my IPad for security and no issues so far (knock, knock on wood).

 

[Michael_]

If you are using windows 10/11 it already comes with built in anti virus „windows defender“. You Should Not have to Pay for a Third party software.

The downside of windows defender is that you cannot disable it. One of the many reasons i finally replaced windows with linux on ALL of my devices this year. Something i would have Never even considered doing before the Release of windows 8.