Preferably with inbuild VPN. Does not need to be free.
For Windows? These days you don’t need any third party antivirus for Windows because the one that is included in the OS (Windows Defender) is more than enough.
I think you are a bit confused because an antivirus does not have any relation to VPNs. Any VPN you use should always be completely separate from the antivirus. If you explain your requirement a bit more maybe we can clear it up.
yes windows. I currently have Mac Afee subscription which i got from friend so i use it but i don’t like the tons of false alarms it produce, and it does have inbuild VPN so i thought it’s the standard now. I used windows defender before and didn’t had any problems. So i guess i would have to rephrase it to just good VPN?
Mullvad is doing ok for me, but it is more privacy oriented
McAfee is useless and arguably malware. If you can find a way of uninstalling it (John McAfee himself recommended shooting your PC, yes the same McAfee) I would do that before anything else.
and it does have inbuild VPN
That is pretty stupid but far from inconcievable. Software companies try to jam “features” into their products nowadays even if it makes no sense, mainly to differentiate the 2024 version of the product from the 2023 one.
My suggestion is to not use any third party antivirus and use a separate VPN. Maybe wait for suggestions from other users. My Windows usage only involves playing pirated games once in a while.
Just buy a VPN subscription if you need one. Proton, Mullvad, Air vpn all look about as good to me unless you do a lot of 🏴☠️ and need port forwarding in which case only the last I think has that.
As to AV, do you have some specific threat or need for one? Do you run a lot of 🏴☠️ software or visit very sketchy places? Or do you just assume you need one because that’s the common attitude?
Windows defender with smart screen on is pretty effective for most people’s threats. That and keeping software up to date to avoid leaving vulnerabilities. Update immediately for things like OS and anything internet facing like web browsers, chat clients, etc. Run an ad blocker as well, that stops a lot of malware. Ublock origin works best on Firefox but it’s better than nothing on Chrome.
If you’re saving a lot of money with arrr type software it’s not the worst thing in the world to have a second opinion scanner to scan downloads before running but if you don’t it’s not necessary for most people. Malwarebytes offers a free on-demand scanner. Kaspersky is also pretty decent if you can get a good deal on it but it’s overkill for most people.
I just assume i need one and have occasional arr moment. Not much real viruses and malware threat. Oh and of course communist posting which can get me in trouble in Poland.
I would recommend trying to get service from one of those providers on sale then in the future if you think it’s wise to hide your communist activities. Only you can decide how dangerous records of access to given websites are for you now and in the near future given the legal and political situation in your country.
Access to lemmygrad is encrypted by HTTPS so they shouldn’t be able to see what your username is or what you’re posting but they would see you accessing it. VPN providers may have sales for whatever holidays are regional to your area otherwise many have sales around Black Friday for the US and/or Christmas/New Years.
I don’t think you necessarily need an AV, that said Kaspersky does have a VPN built into their premium tier offering which I believe admits in its privacy policy that it scrapes your activities to sell to advertisers. I also wouldn’t trust them not to hand over your data to the Polish authorities on request as they are very much cop-lovers there. They make a good AV product, consistently ranked top 1-3 but they’re not comrades.
BUT for most people I would just recommend free options like Windows defender, a second opinion scanner for eye-patch stuff like I recommended (or uploading it to virustotal), and back-ups. Have an external hard drive or flash drive that you don’t leave connected to your computer that you backup everything important to every 3-6 months so on the off-chance something happens you’re covered and this unlike an AV covers your hard drive failing.
I would recommend starting by figuring out why you personally would use a VPN. What specific threats are you facing? What can a VPN help you mitigate? The marketing (“makes you private online”) is mostly nonsense, you just move your implicit trust from your ISP to the VPN provider. For example, when you’re going things online your local government doesn’t like, a VPN may not mitigate that risk.
Install Linux 😁
Honestly I wouldn’t use antivirus software, it is snake oil in my opinion. But if you really think that you need one, then use the standard Windows Antivirus, in think it is called Windows Defender.
For VPN: You can try Mullvad VPN. You can also pay with cash, there is no need to provide any personal information
you proboably do not need an antivirus at all. just focus on security and privacy on other fronts (e.g. your browser, operating system, opsec, the services you use, etc. a good place to start is https://privacyguides.org)
but if you absolutely 100% resolutely require one and have a VERY good reason for using one, then you can use ClamAV.
