Norton 360

cdevidal wrote:

janstey58 wrote:
I've tried "free" and had virus issues. Norton all the way!!

I've tried Norton and had issues.
I've tried McAfee and had issues.
I've tried AVG and had issues.
I've tried Avast and had issues.
I've tried Bitdefender and had issues.
Etc.

No packages, free or paid, are 100%.

I used to clean malware professionally and where one package might work well on one type of malware it stinks on another. I once had a customer that I had to use eleven different malware cleaners on their system. (In retrospect, I wish I'd have just wiped their system and started over but sometimes you don't know that going in.)

That said, the free providers are motivated to upsell you to their paid software with more features. There's too much competition out there and they know they won't sell you paid software if the freebies won't clean the system at all. Thus you would expect the free versions to clean malware just as well as the paid versions, and this is precisely what the lab tests show. Paid software doesn't necessarily resist malware any better; It just has better/more features, or is required for business use.

What do I use? I went by PC Magazine's recommendations. I put on Bitdefender Free and Malwarebytes Free. Handles most everything that's out there. I use two because as mentioned, one has gaps that the other plugs, and vice-versa.

We have had similar experiences.
I 'clean' about 4 machines a month for people (for free) and I use two different virus cleaners and 2 different malware cleaners. I use "full enhanced trial stuff' then just un-install them when done and install a free version of each.

No matter what you buy or get none will do it all! So why pay?

A few of them are very intrusive, restrictive and embed themselves so deep you need special techniques to get them out.

Your habits in this open world likely determine the path you need.