Support Solved Thinking of Switching Security Programs

I currently have AVG Basic, the free version, though it appears you can no longer download it (as of I don't know how long ago), but I've still been getting updates (e.g., summer update, 2015 update, etc.) for the basic, free version since I installed it when it was still available for free.

Anyway, I was thinking of switching to Microsoft Security Essentials since my mom has it; that way if we both have the same security program and something goes wrong, we can help each other out. AVG Basic hasn't let me down and even blocked inline frames on a few occasions on Final Fantasy Shrine Forums during one of their hacks and after effects. Combined with my computer's built-in firewall, I've never had any viruses. Worst AVG picks up, which is marked as medium, is tracking cookies, but those aren't really a "threat."

What are your thoughts? Should I switch to Microsoft Security Essentials?

 

The best free antivirus is Avast.

 

If you've "never gotten a virus" which is incredibly doubtful, then it doesn't really matter what you use as you don't seem to use the internet for reasons that could potentially bring about viruses. You could do what Misty suggested and use Avast, but like I said if you have NEVER gotten a virus then it won't really matter what you use.

 

That have gotten through, anyway, and I know what viruses are like, haha! We used to get them frequently on our old Dell, having to reformat it once to get rid of a nasty Trojan we got until we finally got security good enough to stop them.

I may or may not have some malware, though, since I don't have scanners for that, but it's relatively harmless from what I read other than annoying popups, which could take you to harmful sites if clicked, but I don't get those thanks to Adblock Plus.

Thanks for the advice, guys!

 

Use this for malware.

You should be more concerned about malware than anything else, in my opinion.

 

@Princess ♥, here are the results, which will be quarantined, but just wanted to show you them first. Considering I've never run it before, I think 37 potential threats isn't too bad at all. Most of them, if not all, are from things I installed by accident when installing other programs (because I forgot to uncheck the "Download X program with this" and so on, and those are probably relatively harmless.

Babylon and Conduit Search I deleted, for example, but it looks like not everything was removed.



So a weekly scan would probably be sufficient. Doesn't need to be daily like AVG.

 

Weekly is fine, and since malware is kind of a big deal 37 is kind of bad. Sort of. If everything is taken care of however, I wouldn't be too concerned.

 

Well, it's been there all of this time, so it couldn't have been that bad.

Not to say malware isn't bad, but I meant more that out of the 100,000~ approximately scanned objects, only 37 were potential threats, which is about 0.037%. And I knew what most of them were from.

In general, it could have been worse.

 

It's not about the number, more so what it is capable of doing.

 

That's probably what I read about, then. If I'm remembering the article correctly, most malware is harmless, but it also depends on where you go. If it's really sketchy sites, which I don't go to, there are likely more and bigger risks.