Antivirus Bitdefender Advice?

I was thinking of buying "proper" antivirus software instead of using the free ones. I currently use Zonealarm on my W10 PC.
Bitdefender gets glowing reports on the PC review sites , and Bitdefender AV Plus 2018 is on sale for £12.50 , then approx £20 per year after this. There is a strange option on the site , it offers to install and setup the software for £29.99!! What horrors can be envisaged installing this if they charge so much. I thought it would be click install and then select a few options on protection.

Bitdefender Antivirus Plus 2018 - Best Antivirus for Windows

 

Hi,

Always a lot of comment about the best free or paid for AV etc.

When you say you use Zonealarm, its that just the Firewall or their full Internet AV suite ?

Seems a close call between Norton, Kaspersky and BitDefender, but they all only have about 5-6% each of the market share.

I, and many others have used the inbuilt Windows Firewall and Avast free AV and thats kept me clean for some years.

However I am not up to speed with the mobile phone security, so when someone wanted to buy me a pressy, I suggested the Norton package for 5 devices including tablets and phones.
We bought it from Argos for just £22.99 which avoids getting caught up with these installation services and automatic renewals; you just buy another one from Argos or similar next year, whoevers offering the best price.

Have to say Norton installed very easily and runs quietly.

However if you follow your banks request and use Trusteer Rapport, seems it does not work very well with those paid for suites.

One thing , before installing any suite like that, do make a full system backup image to a USB hard drive , with something like the free Macrium Reflect program, so if anything goes wrong you can restore back to how you were.
Hopefully you are already doing that so you can avoid any of these ransomware problems etc..?

 

Thanks @ricky101 , I have eventually made a system backup image to an external drive , Been meaning to do this for 25 years ! Windows 10 has an inbuilt app for doing this , its hidden away but this article helps you find it. It took about 40 minutes.
How to create and restore an image backup in Windows 10
I am just using the Zonealarm free firewall plus Malwarebytes . I think I'll keep using these , but disconnect my USB drive and only connect it at file backup time

 

Hi,

Have not used windows backup routine, think its because in the old days it was said to be not that reliable, though probably is today in W10.

I've used Macrium Refelect ( a British made program would you believe !) for many years and have often restored such images for various reasons and its worked fine.
As with any backup program, always make more than one backup, preferably to different devices, eg one image on a USB drive another on drive D if you have one or similar .
I typically make a backup once a month so things will always be up to date.

If you want to follow a good uk forum for clear info on such things have a look here, Web User and Computer Active are fortnightly mags and make easy reading for non hi tech / nerdy folk.
Web User Forums

Macrium Software | Your Image is Everything

Am no expert on AV but assuming you are using the free version of MWB then think you are not properly protected, unless you also have Windows Defender running as well ?

Avast free AV is considered by many trials and tests to be the next best thing to paid for suites and can recommend it, though do pay attention if installing it to uncheck the boxes for installing extra things like Chrome.

hth

 

@ricky101 , I have ordered a USB stick to use as an emergency start up and secondary back up. So my files will be on the USB disc , USB stick and Google drive . My photos will only be on the drive. So hopefully I have some back up insurance now !