Do I really need an Antivirus in 2014?

[Boutchoo]

Greetings everyone, nowadays everyone seems to have at least a Free AV installed on their computers. From my personal experience, I have never encountered any other virus/Trojan since the one I had on my old HP Laptop back in 2009-2010.

- Right now, I am using Avast Pro (365 days subscription) but I feel like I am wasting my money each time because I never get alerts of detected virus and I never visit dark websites (Good guy Chrome warns me and blocks me from accessing it before it's too late).

- I have visited a lot of forums and comparison blogs but I never had a True Single answer for "My" needs. (I can pay for an AV only if the extra features are really worth it)

This is what I mostly do with my Computer:
- I play video games from steam/origin;
- I watch YouTube, go on Facebook/twitter/9gag/forums and emails (gmail + Yahoomail);
- I watch some movies and anime;
- I do my homework and work on it too.

My general knowledge:

• 
  ■ I heard BitDefender is a good choice but the UI is not user-friendly and it's power hungry;
  ■ KasperSky is 50/50, when it works it's good but when it doesn't... well it doesn't at all;
  ■ Avast is annoying and apart from always updating it never seems in action...(good or not?);
  ■ Windows Defender could be a good choice but it doesn't detect a lot of viruses (is it important?);
  ■ I never used McAfee or Norton (you know why ;] );
  ■ I have Microsoft security essentials installed on my Asus Laptop, is it good?;
  ■ Some suggests to use ESET NOD32 Antivirus on a Gaming Rig to avoid extra CPU/RAM usage.

I hope everything is clear! Don't hesitate to leave suggestions and/or correct me if something is wrong or if you notice any grammatical mistakes! (English isn't my native language)

Thank you for reading!

Best Regards,
Boutchoo

SOURCE: Comparative Antivirus 2014 (French with Graphs)

 

[NBSN]

Yes you do need antivirus and anti malware programs on your system, regardless of what site you go to. If you access the internet at all, then you can get a virus. I personally use Norton360 right now...and it is actually pretty good. I paid $10 - $15 for it, but you also have to know how to use it and yes it has its share of issues (such as never let it clean your registry because it will destroy it). AVG is a really good program that has a free version for anti virus (used it before and it works good also). Malwarebytes is the anti malware program I have been using for years and it works good and is free also.

 

[viewtyjoe]

I would amend the question to "Do I really need to pay for an Antivirus in 2014?" with the answer to that being a resounding "No." Almost, if not all, of the best rated AVs are available for free with nothing worse than the occasional "Please upgrade" annoyances. Every few weeks or months, some major site ends up serving viruses through bad ad referrals, and depending on your home network setup, you may be wide open to a number of vectors of attack. The risk is too high to justify not running SOME manner of AV software on your computer, especially given that many good free options exist.

 

[EasyLover]

Better be safe then ending up regretting of not having a AV. Anyhow, really it is your call to make. Mostly people would recommend having AV. You've only mentioned the internet which is of course a probable source of mlawares/trojans etc but you are forgetting the USB/CD/DVD factor all together. I've a strict rule for my PC and never compromise on it, even my wife could not do any thing in this regard. I never allow anyone else's USB to be run on my PC un-attended. Mostly I prefer to do a format of others' USB device and then use it on my PC. This is because I've suffered antivirus attacks mostly thru this media.

Big No to paying extra for some features which are not required. I use Kaspersky (Not 50/50) 2013 version basic edition and left it on auto update. My experience with BitDefender is also very good but Kaspersky is light wieght as compared to BitDefender. By Light Weight I mean it does not use system resources too much.

 

[Boutchoo]

Better be safe then ending up regretting of not having a AV. Anyhow, really it is your call to make. Mostly people would recommend having AV. You've only mentioned the internet which is of course a probable source of mlawares/trojans etc but you are forgetting the USB/CD/DVD factor all together. I've a strict rule for my PC and never compromise on it, even my wife could not do any thing in this regard. I never allow anyone else's USB to be run on my PC un-attended. Mostly I prefer to do a format of others' USB device and then use it on my PC. This is because I've suffered antivirus attacks mostly thru this media.

Big No to paying extra for some features which are not required. I use Kaspersky (Not 50/50) 2013 version basic edition and left it on auto update. My experience with BitDefender is also very good but Kaspersky is light wieght as compared to BitDefender. By Light Weight I mean it does not use system resources too much.

I'll just download and install Microsoft Security essentials, it's easy and integrated in Windows

 

[EasyLover]

Good Luck.