MSE or Alternative - advice needed!

[Carol W.]

I am responsible for three computers (2 on Win 7, 1 on Win 10) for a nonprofit organization. I have had MSE installed on these computers for years. I guess we've been lucky because we've had no serious issues so far. I also run Malwarebytes weekly and remove all identified malware.

We recently received an email from our parent organization warning us against using "free" anti-virus.

Pay for top-quality anti-virus.

I have to take this with a grain of salt because I know the source (but I digress). In the spirit of doing "due diligence", I'm checking out possible alternatives to MSE. One possibility is McAfee which would be supplied by our ISP, Cox Communications. We get five free licenses which would be fine.

One of the Win 7 computers is heavily used by novice users. There's literally no telling what they'll click. In this sometimes scary world, I'm frankly concerned about a ransom-ware attack. If I don't put on something more protective than MSE, I probably would be responsible for whatever the fallout would be (BTW, I'm a volunteer for this organization although it feels like a full-time job). The other Win 7 computer has Quick Books installed. All the organization's financial info is in QB. The third computer (which recently upgraded itself to Win 10 - another long story) contains software that controls the locks on all the doors to the building. I should add that all three computers are protected with Carbonite backup.

I'm asking for guidance on this issue from the gurus on this site. Leave MSE on the three computers or upgrade? If upgrade, what is the best security suite?

You guys have never steered me in the wrong direction. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[John Gray]

The last AV Comparatives tests seemed fairly happy with MSE.

I can't see an obvious reason to pay for an antivirus product, when many of the free ones are pretty good.
Personally, I would avoid McAfee like the plague!

You seem to have user problems greater than would be completely protected against by an antivirus product!
Perhaps Malwarebytes Premium would be useful?

[HansV]

I have been using Microsoft Security Essentials (on Windows 7) and its equivalent Windows Defender (on Windows 8.1 and 10) for many years now, and it hasn't ever let me down. I run additional scans with other products such as Malwarebytes Anti-Malware from time to time, and they never find anything, so I assume that means that MSE/Windows Defender hasn't let anything bad slip through.

Like John, I have tended to avoid McAfee, but I have to admit that this is based on experiences in the past; I haven't encountered it recently so my dislike might well be unjustified now. I see that it gets very good reviews nowadays.
Others with good reviews are Kaspersky, Symantec, Bitdefender and Webroot.

But I don't think it's really necessary to replace MSE with a commercial anti-virus program.

[DaveA]

I agree with the others, we have dropped using any "Paid" AV product, since MSE does what it is designed to do.

[StuartR]

Yet another "I agree" post. Microsoft Security Essentials should be sufficient, especially if you use Malwarebytes every week to do a manual scan.

[Jim Cone]

Re: antivirus

The view from PC mag on free AV... http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2388652,00.asp
If you get infected, whatever you picked will have been the wrong choice,

[Carol W.]

Thanks, guys, for your replies.

If you get infected, whatever you picked will have been the wrong choice,

How true .

[DaveA]

Even if you pay for it!

[Carol W.]

I'm giving serious thought to John Gray's suggestion (Thanks, John) of upgrading to the paid Malwarebytes to proactively prevent infection. I would leave MSE installed. Based on our novice user population, I think the paid Malwarebytes might be a good solution.

I'm consulting with my colleagues about this option.

To be continued . . .

[rgrosz78]

I'm giving serious thought to John Gray's suggestion (Thanks, John) of upgrading to the paid Malwarebytes to proactively prevent infection. I would leave MSE installed. Based on our novice user population, I think the paid Malwarebytes might be a good solution.

I know a few people who tend to get infected. A few of them changed to use the paid version of Malwarebytes, and it has worked well.

[Carol W.]

Thanks Rick. My committee has to approve this expenditure despite the fact that it's a minor one. We're meeting tomorrow and I expect that it will be approved. I had the 14 day free trial on one of the computers. No adverse effects were experienced.