1. Guardian Antivirus Free Download
2. Guardian Antivirus Download For Windows 10 64 Bit
3. Best Antivirus For Windows 10

• AVG AntiVirus FREE gives you essential protection for your Windows 10 PC, stopping viruses, spyware and other malware. Fully loaded and compatible with Windows 10, it's antivirus made refreshingly simple. Already got built-in security? It's not enough. An independent test from AV-Comparatives found.
• Guardian Internet Security 2019 offers total protection to secure your PC from online and offline threats. The Security Software is free to download works on Windows XP/Vista/7/8/8.1/10 (32/64-bit).

If you’re thinking of upgrading from Windows 7 or 8 to Windows 10, you can do so with Avira Free Antivirus, which is fully compatible with and optimized for all 3 operating systems. With the industry’s leading detection rates, Avira Free Antivirus protects you from viruses, worms, Trojans.

I am using Avast to protect my computer: you recommended it quite some time ago. I am not entirely convinced it’s worth what I am paying, and it is constantly suggesting, in a variety of less than subtle ways, that I should upgrade. What protection would you now recommend? I am prepared to pay for something that works. Gwilym

It’s complicated. I’ve spent more than 20 years recommending various anti-virus programs as an essential part of any Windows setup. However, Windows has changed, and the threat landscape has changed. I am no longer sure that a third-party AV program is essential, and some of them may be detrimental.

Of course, needs vary. Some people are more accident-prone than others, and some are less sensitive to threats. Some venture into riskier parts of the internet. Some need to protect very valuable information. All these factors should be taken into account.

A risk-aware Windows user can probably survive without any anti-virus software at all. I ran Windows XP for a year to try to prove it. Less knowledgeable users can get their PCs infected no matter how much protection you give them. Software can’t protect people from themselves.

Malware threats

Most of the major AV products started out when many viruses were written by amateurs who were showing off. That’s no longer the case. Today’s malware is written by professionals who are in business to make money. They are less interested in viruses that replicate themselves – their delivery mechanisms are emails and websites. They don’t want to show off: they want their malware to stay hidden.

They are interested in collecting financial information and passwords etc, but there’s also a trend towards ransomware. They know they can blackmail people into paying for something they value – their personal files, financial information, family photos etc – and the arrival of Bitcoin has provided a secure way to collect the cash.

The best defence against ransomware is an offline backup of all your essential data.

Coding and screening

Most of the major AV products started out when Windows and its major browsers were insecure. That’s no longer the case. In 2002, Microsoft cofounder Bill Gates launched the Trustworthy Computing Initiative to make security the company’s highest priority. TCI training and methodologies changed the way Microsoft designed and developed software, and the result has been a dramatic reduction in Windows PC infection rates.

Windows 10 now includes a vast array of security and “threat mitigation” technologies, to the point where the main threats to Windows users come from third-party programs such as Oracle Java and some Adobe software.

There has also been a huge improvement in the security of web browsers, particularly Google’s Chrome and Microsoft’s Edge. Chrome is securely sandboxed, which helps protect the underlying operating system from web-based attacks. Google also runs a “bug bounty” program, which pays researchers up to $100,000 for each exploitable hole they find in Chrome or Android. It paid out more than $3 million last year, making Chrome even more secure.

Further security improvements have come from “safe browsing” systems, which blacklist websites that host malware. Google Safe Browsing is now part of Chrome, Firefox, Vivaldi and Apple’s Safari, while Windows 10 has its own built-in SafeScreen filter. If you are worried about a website, you can check it manually at Google’s website.

The result is that Windows 10 users are not sitting ducks, like Windows XP users, as long as they keep their software up to date. This includes updating browsers and other third-party software, using a free tool such as Flexera’s Personal Software Inspector (PSI), Patch My PC, or Kaspersky Software Updater.

The AV problem

Anti-virus companies started out protecting vulnerable operating system and browser code, but we may have reached the point where vulnerable anti-virus software is doing more harm than good.

Issues that have been debated in back rooms became very public last November when Google Chrome security expert Justin Schuh launched a tweetstorm against renowned Bulgarian AV expert, Vesselin Bontchev. Schuh tweeted: “You misunderstand your own ignorance. AV is my single biggest impediment to shipping a secure browser.”

Sep 19, 2019  Free windows 10.1 update download download software at UpdateStar - Coupon Search Plugin for Firefox, find some of the best discounts and deals around from the best retailers on the net. 10.1 windows update free download. Oct 15, 2015  Windows 10.1 Update Download Free for PC is now available for laptop and computer users. You can update your Windows 10 into windows 10.1 without newly installing in your laptop. Windows 10.1 update free in in low size as you think about it. You just click on download button from given below and use latest windows free. Windows 10 May 2019 Update. The Update Assistant can help you update to the latest version of Windows 10. To get started, click Update now. Sign in to your subscription on the MSDN Portal for MSDN downloads. Visit the Windows Insider site to download Insider Preview builds Visit. Jul 01, 2018  Stop Updates Windows 10 1.10 free download standalone offline installer for Windows 10 32-bit and 64-bit. The application Stop Updates Windows 10 1.10 is a powerful application for preventing Windows 10 to download forceful updates. Windows 10 updates free download - Windows 10, Apple Safari, Live Updates on Tencent QQ for Windows 10, and many more programs.

The gist of Schuh’s many complaints was that AV programs messed up the security of other programs while being written insecurely themselves. He tweeted: “You ignore all security best practice, piling dodgy format parsing and other unsafe code into the kernel. I expect it’s possible to make an AV that isn’t more harm than good, but none of you are even trying.”

In January, former Firefox developer Robert O’Callahan chimed in with a confirmatory blog post, Disable Your Antivirus Software (Except Microsoft’s).

Normally, programmers won’t talk about these problems, because they need the AV supplier’s cooperation when AV cripples or crashes their software. And they can’t tell users to turn off their AV, because they’ll be blamed if something bad happens. That leaves one alternative. As Schuh tweeted a few days later: “Browser makers don’t complain about Microsoft Defender because we have tons of empirical data showing that it’s the only well behaved AV.”

Windows Defender may not do the most good, in protecting you from malware, but it does the least harm.

Security strategy

Stop thinking that malware protection means running an anti-virus program and adopt a layered approach.

First, run Windows 10 with Windows Defender, the SmartScreen filter, cloud-based heuristics and basic telemetry (which is largely security related) all turned on. Do that and you are probably safe enough. All our PCs at home, including my wife’s, are set up this way, and we’ve not had any malware problems after 20 months.

Second, run Windows as a standard user, not as an administrator. (MacOS and Linux users already do this.) Running as a standard user may eliminate 90% of threats.

Third, make sure Windows and all your PC’s software is updated. Most malware exploits security holes that have already been patched, sometimes several years earlier. For maximum security, run Google Chrome or a Chromium-based browser such as Vivaldi.

Fourth, make sure you have good backups of all your personal data. In addition to normal PC backups, I use FreeFileSync to copy my main data folders to an external hard drive every day, and this gets backed up later to a second EHD. Blu-rays are another good option, because they can’t be encrypted by ransomware.

Fifth, run periodic scans to make sure your chosen anti-virus program hasn’t missed anything. Microsoft does this with its MSRT (Malicious Software Removal Tool) before installing major updates, and Kaspersky offers a good alternative. I run spot checks with Malwarebytes Antimalware and Hitman Pro, among others. There are also free online scanners from many AV firms including Bitdefender, Trend Micro, ESET and F-Secure.

Sixth, remember that Windows 10 provides good refresh, reset and recovery options. If those don’t so what you want, be prepared to wipe your hard drive and reinstall Windows 10 from scratch, either from a DVD or a thumb drive. Microsoft provides instructions. Your authentication and preferences are stored online against your Microsoft account, and the Windows Store will reinstall any apps you’ve downloaded, so it’s relatively easy to get back to where you were.

AV Choice

If you are not on Windows 10, if you are accident-prone, or if you have other reasons for wanting better protection, there’s still a place for anti-virus programs. From the current free programs, I recommend Avira or Bitdefender, though both Avast and AVG (which is now owned by Avast) are still acceptable choices. Kaspersky is probably the best paid-for option, but Trend Micro is worth a look.

Try a couple of AV programs to see if you like any special features, the user interface, the impact on performance (eg on web page and file download times), whether it seems to interfere with any other software, the scanning speed and so on. There are at least a dozen decent alternatives, so you don’t have to use one you don’t like.

Have you got another question for Jack? Email it to Ask.Jack@theguardian.com

^{This article contains affiliate links, which means we may earn a small commission if a reader clicks through and makes a purchase. All our journalism is independent and is in no way influenced by any advertiser or commercial initiative. By clicking on an affiliate link, you accept that third-party cookies will be set. More information.}

What’s the cheapest way to get my Windows laptop swept and cleaned out of malware etc? Don

There are two obvious ways to clean a Windows laptop, and both of them are free. The first is to run a number of anti-malware programs to find and remove the bad stuff. The second is to reset it to factory condition.

Most people take the software approach. This can take quite a long time, but you don’t have to re-install all your programs and data.

If you don’t have a lot of programs and data to restore, then a reset could be quicker. In this case, you can either use Windows 10’s built-in reset system or take the nuclear option of reinstalling Windows 10 from scratch. I recommend the nuclear option for bad virus infections and for laptops that only have 32GB of built-in storage. It’s also the best option if you are going to sell a laptop, or give it away.

Of course, it’s better to avoid having the problem. It’s well over a decade since malware affected any of the PCs in our house. That includes my wife’s machines, and she has no interest in becoming a computer expert.

Assuming you run antivirus software and have a firewall turned on, you can generally avoid Windows malware by keeping all your software up to date – which I do – and by not making any silly mistakes. Today, this seems to apply even if the only antivirus software you run is Microsoft’s Windows Defender. Which in my case, it is.

Fear the rootkit

Whichever route you take, start by running one or more programs designed to find rootkits and similar software. Rootkits are designed to avoid detection, sometimes for many years. Rootkit writers try to hide code in places where they can avoid detection. Late last year, ESET antivirus researchers found rootkit code hidden in the Flash memory of a PC’s Serial Peripheral Interface (SPI), where it could survive even if you did a clean reinstallation or changed the hard drive.

This was the first attack of its kind to affect Windows 10, but it could become more common. It’s the kind of approach used to attack IoT (Internet of Things) devices, where recovery involves not only changing the software but updating the firmware.

Users sometimes find out they have a rootkit because something odd – high processor usage or unexplained internet traffic – prompts them to check their firewall logs to find the culprit. Rootkits act mainly as backdoors so that other programs, such as keyloggers and viruses, can be installed from remote servers. This is one way malware can reappear after you’ve removed it.

You can check for rootkits by running the Windows Defender Offline scan. To do this, run the Windows Security app (which used to be the Windows Defender Security Center) and select “Virus and threat protection”. In the section for current threats, click on the words “Scan options”. Click the radio button for the Windows Defender Offline scan and then hit “Scan now”. This will restart your PC.

Guardian Antivirus Free Download

Several companies also offer free rootkit scanners. Try Malwarebytes Anti-Rootkit, which is now being beta-tested, and Sophos’s Rootkit Removal. For more information, see CSO’s: How to identify, prevent and remove rootkits in Windows 10.

Rootkits are scary but relatively rare. I’ve never found one despite decades of trying.

Software cleanups

If you have a PC that has been infected for a while, don’t run one scan and think you’ve solved the problem. A bit of malware that’s become securely embedded may well bring in its friends, who will bring their friends. Some of them will try to hide each other. Remove one malicious program and a second scan – or scanning with a different utility – may find other malicious programs that were previously hidden.

Save and back up your work, and for the best results, keep these three things in mind:

1. No single antivirus program will always find everything. Try two or – if one of them is Windows Defender – preferably more. It’s a bad idea to install more than one antivirus program, but you can run one-off scans with as many as you like. Malwarebytes Anti-Malware and Spybot Free Edition (formerly Spybot Search & Destroy) have often found things other programs have missed. Avast is another good option. ESET has a good free online scanner. Kaspersky’s Virus Removal Tool could be worth a go. Malwarebytes’ (formerly Xplode’s) AdwCleaner targets PUPs (potentially unwanted programs) that some antivirus products leave alone.

2. No single scan will always find everything. Checking every file for every known virus could take hours, and some malware can hide other malware. If an antivirus program finds some malware, restart your PC, run it again and it may find more.

And while it’s useful to run antivirus programs in standard mode, you must run some scans after restarting your PC in Safe Mode with Networking. Safe Mode loads a minimal set of programs and drivers, which makes malware somewhat easier to spot.

3. You may need outside help. Some virus infestations are particularly hard to remove. Happily, you can go to an online forum and get an expert to analyse the problem and walk you through the removal process. In this case, my first choice would be Bleeping Computer. It provides a simple tutorial on removing malware and, if that fails, clear instructions on how to request help. The alternatives include, in alphabetical order, BestTechie, Geeks to Go and Major Geeks.

These forums are run by volunteers so be respectful, follow instructions, and reply promptly.

Do a reset

It should be obvious that a software cleanup could easily take half a day, and in the worst cases, several days. It might be quicker to reset your PC to factory condition. It depends how many programs you would have to re-install, and how well your backups and data are organised. For this very reason, I have all my data archived separately from my system backups.

A backup allows you to recover a device if something goes wrong, such as a disk failure. However, you don’t want to restore a backup that’s riddled with malware. Having a separate archive on an external hard drive means I can access all my data from a different PC, or copy it to a new PC without restoring any infected files.

Either way, make a backup and check that all your files are stored safely off your PC before going any further.

To reset Windows 10, run the Settings (cogwheel) app, select “Update & Security”, go to the Recovery page and look for “Reset this PC”.

The reset offers two options. The first removes all your programs and settings but keeps your personal files. The second removes everything, so it should remove any viruses except, perhaps, rootkits. However, I’d still want to reformat the hard drive to be sure.

Note that the PC manufacturer’s bundled programs and any special drivers – plus digital licenses for some apps and paid-for content – will be deleted along with everything else.

For the nuclear option, download a new copy of Windows 10 from Microsoft, along with the media creation tool. Use this to create a USB thumbdrive (8GB or larger) or a DVD that you can use to install Windows 10. You shouldn’t need a product key because it’s stored online. If your PC is licensed to run Windows 10, it should authenticate automatically.

However, remember that in many cases, you will need DVDs, product keys, log-on details and passwords to reinstall some programs and otherwise get back to where you were.

You must also keep a record of your Windows 10 administrator’s log-in details – usually a Microsoft email address – and password so that the Windows Store can replace apps and update the new installation with your preferences, including wallpapers.

Microsoft offers instructions on how to do a clean installation of Windows 10, but so do many other websites. Read a few examples, such as the ones at Windows Central and Expert Reviews. It’s not hard, but it’s not always as easy as it sounds.

Guardian Antivirus Download For Windows 10 64 Bit

Have you got a question? Email it to Ask.Jack@theguardian.com

Best Antivirus For Windows 10

^{Cisco anyconnect windows client download. This article contains affiliate links, which means we may earn a small commission if a reader clicks through and makes a purchase. All our journalism is independent and is in no way influenced by any advertiser or commercial initiative. By clicking on an affiliate link, you accept that third-party cookies will be set. More information.}