Ask HN: Is the virus/anti-virus story on Windows any better today? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Is the virus/anti-virus story on Windows any better today?

4 pointseatonphil8 comments

The last time I ran a Windows (8) computer was years ago. You "had" to have anti-virus software and most of the anti-virus software was bloatware that only seemed to slow the computer down. Reinstalling the entire operating system every few months was simply a matter of course. I am still amazed by how zippy OS X, Linux, and FreeBSD desktops are compared to the Windows I am used to.

However, I need to be able to run Photoshop so I'm looking into Mac and Windows desktops again. If I wanted to go with a Mac, I'd be dropping at least $1k on a good Mac mini. If I went with Windows, I could simply reinstall Windows on my FreeBSD desktop ($100 for the Windows license). But I'm very wary of going back to the days of the bloatware that you "needed" to install to protect you from... worse bloatware?

Is Windows still like this? Or has the state of virus/bloatware-protection improved?

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I setup a Windows 10 computer the other day. When I was done with the initial configuration I opened control panel to add more local users. I'm clicking on the button to add a new user, and guess what happens; The modal window to create a new local user actually shows a loading bar, because apparently it's connecting to some online server. To make things worse, that server was unavailable for some reason so I actually couldn't add local users... "please try again later", ffs.

I got around the problem by using the tool "lusrmgr.msc", but still. God knows what else is going on.

Windows now feels free to take over your computer to advertise its other products to you, when it pleases - it has become a virus, too. Not the worst virus, but a virus.

You can remove all those live tiles from the start menu. Cortana and those Office installers can be disabled easily. With a simple registry hack you can even remove OneDrive from the file explorer.

It would be better if you didn't have to do those things, but it's not that bad.

Not easily, not just once. It is in fact easier to endure the viral behavior, which is part of the design.

I come from 10 years using macs and gave a shot a Windows 10 for a couple of weeks.

Windows 10 comes with Windows Defender which is more than enough if you are one of those rare persons with common sense.

If you only need to use Adobe software (or any other industry specific) Windows 10 is good. You can chose your own hardware, and personally I've found it to be stable and fast. No need to get an overpriced and decrepit Mac Mini.

I wouldn't use it as a general use machine though. I've found that the Windows ecosystem is plagued with old win32 XP era software.

Its much better, than in the XP/Vista days. I havent had a virus in the last ~6 years. W10 has a built in antivirus, that works well. I cant tell much about it, since it never had a chance to catch a virus. The only thing I know that its totally hassle free, I've never seen a popup or anything else annoying from it.

Just make sure you dont do dumb things: dont blindly click next on installers, dont run executables from shady sites. Keep your PC and browser up to date (again, they do this totally automatically.)

And don't install Chrome extensions because Windows antivirus doesn't block Chrome malware, and Google doesn't remove extensions that were sold and updated with malware.

I didn't install an anti-virus since Windows 7.

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