Best antivirus software for Windows (2021 edition)

Speaker 1: So you're interested in getting the best antivirus for your window system. That's great. Let's get into it first. We'll tell you what you should look for in an antivirus program. Then we'll give you our recommendations. If you wanna skip to the recommendations, go to this time code right here. When I say antivirus program, I don't mean that in the literal sense, they talking about anti malware programs. However, the term antivirus is one, a lot of people still use instead of anti malware. So we're gonna use antivirus. Okay, [00:00:30] cool. When you're looking for a good antivirus program, you should be looking for the following features. Number one, malware protection. What is malware? Well it's milit software malware malware includes viruses as well as spyware, adware and ransomware spyware gathers data. Adware blasts you with ads and ransomware is malware that won't let go of your computer or data until you pay a ransom. Speaker 1: You don't wanna be dealing with any kind of malware. [00:01:00] That should be the job of your or antivirus software. Number two, a good antivirus program, monitors your downloads. That means as you download things from whatever site the program is in the background, checking in very basic terms, a piece of malware usually cannot just run itself on your computer. It requires you to run it and give it permissions. Once ran all heck can break loose. If the antivirus program is doing its job, it will look into the contents of your downloads [00:01:30] to make sure you're not opening yourself up to danger. Number three, it should check your system activity for malicious software. Let's explain this by example, you notice your system is running slower and slower, but you, and tell why you take a look at your task bar. You don't see anything that would cause the slowdown. Speaker 1: You go into the task manager and you see a bunch of different processes that you don't recognize. Maybe one of these processes is malware. Now you need to go through each one to make sure each process is not malware. [00:02:00] A good antivirus program will be doing this monitoring for you. It will check what's running. If something is strange or is known malware, you'll be alerted and walk through how to handle it. Number four, your antivirus should be looking for suspicious behavior. This is similar to number three. Let me explain it with another example. You're working in Microsoft word, have nothing else running that you know of, and your computer seems to be up floating or downloading a lot of data that probably should not be happening and could be caused by malware. Talking to the [00:02:30] internet. Your antivirus program should catch this for you onto the recommendations as chosen by CNET editors. Speaker 1: The best free windows antivirus is Microsoft defender. If you have windows 10, you already have this bundled in. Not only that, but it's already running by default. Microsoft defender is updated frequently. So make sure you keep windows 10 updated. Why am I telling you about a piece of software that's bundled in with windows? That's because in the olden days, [00:03:00] windows did not ship with antivirus protection at all. You had to get a third party solution. Those were some weird days. People, if you want free, but not Microsoft check out bit defender, antivirus free edition. Remember all that monitoring stuff I was talking about before it can slow down performance because your system is constantly checking itself out bit defender says its software will protect you without slowing down your machine. You get real time detection, virus, scanning, and malware removal [00:03:30] for free. If you feel like doling out some money, check out Norton 360 with LifeLock select this costs $150 per year for five devices. Speaker 1: At the time of this recording, Norton 360 goes beyond just malware protection for your annual payment, you get 100 gigs of cloud storage, a password manager, access to a VPN parental controls and more. This is more of an overall security suite. Then there's Malwarebytes. This is the best piece of soft, where if [00:04:00] you're trying to clean up an already infected machine, you can download it for free and test it out. The free addition of malware bites works when you run it, you will not be getting real time protection, though, if you want that, there's a premium service that costs around $40 per year or one device. Keep in mind that when it comes to malware, new threats, pop up all the time, keep your systems and antivirus software up to date. If you can make sure your downloads are from safe and reputable places, don't just open any [00:04:30] file that gets sent to you. And always, always look both ways before you cross the street. That's just sound advice. I'm Maya, Zach tire. I'll see you online. This is how you feel when you have antivirus protection. This is how you feel when you don't have antivirus protection. Is it safes? It's not safe. It's not safe. Is it safe? What's happening.