If you can’t find your publisher in the poll then check “Other” and add a post/reply to tell us the publisher/product name. I apologise but the maximum number of poll options is much less than the number of AV publishers.
Differences from the 2018 Windows AV poll are as follows:
One poll instead of four because I now use publishers instead of products which are too many to keep up with, e.g. ESET has at least eleven products, Avast/AVG at least eight, and so on.
Three votes as some users have mentioned using three products.
I could have limited this to online scanners only except there are many useful free offline scanners, e.g. VirusTotal which I’ve chosen to add because it is an AV feature in GlassWire itself.
Each vote is now public so others can see what you have voted for.
Publishers rather than products. I’ve included those with more than 2% global market share The most useful statistics were from sources like https://metadefender.opswat.com/reports/anti-malware-market-share#!/
However, none of the sources were entirely satisfactory because they usually omit Windows Defender and appear to be biased towards the US and English-speaking users. So I included Qihoo 360 as the most obvious example of this.
I removed polls by license type because of the following reasons:
People were confused by the license types. Trialware (paid products with a free trial period) was removed because that confused people. Freeware was removed because, apart from Microsoft and Avast, their products tend to have low market share. Microsoft has the default Windows option which is a magnitude more popular than than the next; and Avast which is nearly a magnitude more popular than any of the rest.
I changed to use the publisher names so distinguishing products by license is no longer practical. I only include the antivirus name in parentheses if that is more commonly used without the publisher’s name.
I used Qihoo 360 (with Bitdefender & Antivir) but it caused blockages at the start of the PC.
I no longer use antivirus now and protect myself by using Rollback Rx and Glasswire,creating an image and scaning the pc from time to time with MalwareBytes. Each download is also scanned on Virus Total.
I’m also interested to know why Malwarebytes is doing so well in the poll? At the moment, half (9/18) voters are using it which is one higher than users of Windows Defender:
Are people paying to use the online scanner or using it as a free offline scanner?
Is it because Malwarebytes is considered to be the best?
P.S. Notes to self:
Given so many Malwarebytes users, it may be worthwhile having poll options options for Malwarebytes as an online and an offline scanner.
Separate out Avast and AVG as there appears to be enough users even though both brands are owned by the same company.
Apart from browsers and email clients, no program or process has access without asking for it.
Also, my use of the net is more or less secure because I visit the same sites for years without having had any problems.
About MalwareBytes, i have a premium license and it was/is considered as the best. I do not exclude other scans from time to time …
I use AVG free as a general passive protection so it keeps check on things trying to run and MalwareBytes as an active scanner for the chance that something odd is happening and I need some day1 protection.
I use both just because they are free.
I’ve used AVG for many years and so far it’s been the best user experience for me and it doesn’t matter if it’s not the best.
I started using MB because people said that it’s good and after testing it for a while it was just as easy to use as AVG so I kept it around.
Haven’t seen any real problems so far. I’m an IT guy so I know how to handle safety, but I also need to use the web freely.
AVG blocks some websites that try to redirect me to scammers or stops new programs from running till it runs a check, but that’s really rare. In general I prefer having it so I don’t have to tiptoe around the web and if anything were to pop in it would probably get caught.
Generally MB only found “unwanted program in installer” stuff on my system, but with people who don’t know what they’re doing I can find a bunch of malware whenever I need to check “why is my system so slow?” problems.
I use Windows Defender, Malwarebytes, and Emsisoft Internet Security because I’m paranoid. I also have a Sophos NGFW on my gateway which is double NAT’d from the internet behind my Sky Router/Firewall.
Well, I prefer to use Avira Antivirus, Mcafee, Kaspersky. These 3 are my favorite antivirus software to use.
But if I have to choose any one from these 3 then I would choose Avira Antivirus 2019. The user interface, security, and professionalism of Avira are up to standards. Well, you can download Avira Antivirus 2019 here -> softwarg_com/avira-antivirus-pro-2019-free-download/ free to get to know how to use and secure your PC from threats.
I use SecureAPlus, with its offline AV (ClamAV) turned off and Windows Defender enabled. I have a lifetime subscription for Malwarebytes Premium, and try it once in a while, but in realtime mode it (still) slows the system far too much and so is kept just for periodic on-demand scans, so am currently running Zemana Antimalware Premium in realtime mode, though, bearing in mind the extended functionality and good reputation of Windows Defender nowadays, ZAM is probably redundant on my system, but at least it gives minimal performance impact; I may well not renew my 3-year subscription for it, for the price is much higher nowadays - but would still use the free version (if there is one by then) for periodic on-demand scans.
I use Windows Firewall Control as my front-end for the Windows Firewall, as it gives me much more control than GW over managing rules and applying other security features of the WF - so, for me GW is specifically an extremely valuable monitoring program rather than a firewall (front end).
You might want add another selection for publisher:
HP Sure Click Security Software; aka Bromium Application Isolation and Chromium Secure Browser SaaS.
I will likely add it if a GlassWire user says they use it. Do you use the HP or Bromium version?
You might have noticed that most GlassWire users don’t use endpoint security products that are mainly marketed for corporate environments. At present, apart from Symantec, Cylance is the only one with a vote here despite having the largest market share for corporate endpoint solutions. That lack of market penetration is one reason for consolidation in the industry, like HP buying Bromium.
A related point is that I intend to keep the brands separate. I combined AVG with Avast which is the owner of AVG. But that was a bad idea because we’re more interested in what users prefer than whether it is multi-branded software with the same developer/owner.
P.S. I just looked at the votes and see that Symantec has only 4% votes. Maybe I should add in the Norton brand which has been re-established.
Three results stand out for me:
Symantec has a high proportion of corporate users.
McAfee has no votes.
The high proportion of Malwarebytes users.
Combining these points, this suggests that GlassWire users in this forum who voted in the poll are mainly consumers with an interest in the security of their systems. So mainly end-users who choose their AV software and not corporate users.
I’m using the version that HP supports for use with their business edition laptops and Windows10 Pro Version (1909);
I tested it with a trial version of Glasswire for the past couple of weeks.
After noticing no major issues, I am now a subscriber using Glasswire Pro.
However, I did have issues with Immunet and Bromium which I tested for only a short time. Finally had to un-install via a system restore point. IMHO It did not seem to like the isolation of the Bromium Secure Browser. Apparently there was no way to successfully perform a definitions update, and kept indicating that the software required initialization.
@Remah I use Malwarebytes because it catches PUPs that Windows Defender misses. I just use the free version, and I only use it if there’s anything amiss with my computer.
I used to use Cylance on my home computer (got it for free because my old job used it), but it never helped me one bit, and it had so many false positives, so I uninstalled it.
Update to my Dec. '19 post here. I gave up using Windows Defender (i.e., in realtime mode), and honestly cannot recommend it to anyone. It may indeed be pretty good for detection, BUT in practical terms I found it to be rather a nightmare.
It slowed down all program launches and, I think, more or less all file accesses, and it was a great relief to have it turned off once more.
When it ‘detected’ or blocked anything (inevitably all false positives), its notifications ALL gave no dialog for allowing / blocking. If I got a notification that something was detected, blocked or quarantined, I had to drill down from the Settings > Updates and Security menus to find out what had been found, and often I couldn’t even find what the supposed ‘threat’ was. Sometimes it did say, but then I had to go to Exclusions to whitelist it. A whole lot of hassle that I could do without. Other AVs give really helpful alert dialogs that allow instant allow / block choices, so why not Defender too?
Quite often its (false positive) ‘block’ actions occurred without any sort of notification or visible record at all, so quite often a new or updated program would persistently fail to run, with no explanation visible anywhere. Such ‘mysterious’ blocks haven’t happened since I disabled Defender’s realtime ‘protection’ (i.e., hindrance).
So, now I’m satisfied with SecureAPlus and its own online-based scanning but still haven’t enabled its offline scanner (ClamAV), as I can still do an on-demand scan with Defender if really necessary.
