Top antivirus server

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Incorrect instructions. Too technical. Not enough information. Not enough pictures. Any additional feedback? Submit feedback. In Kaspersky's favor, it continues to earn top scores and awards for virus and malware detection and endpoint protection from independent testing labs. And it's reasonably priced. In the end, even though no one has ever publicly produced a "smoking gun" linking the company to Russian intrigue, we think any of the options listed above are a safer bet.

And if you are a US government employee or work with the federal government, you'll want to steer clear of Kaspersky internet security products -- and perhaps use one of the antivirus software products mentioned here instead. Picking the best antivirus software for Windows means finding one that keeps your PC safe, doesn't take up a lot of system resources, is easy to use and stays out of the way till you need it.

Here's what to look for. Antivirus software runs virus scans for known viruses and malware, of course, and can offer real-time protection. And it watches for shady websites and suspicious links to keep you out of trouble. It can also offer ransomware protection and monitor unexpected behavior that may be a sign of new and not-yet-identified viruses and malware. You want antivirus software that can successfully identify these unknown online threats without flagging too many false positives.

Light on system resources. You don't want antivirus software that taxes your PC's resources. If after you install the program, websites open slowly, apps download or open sluggishly or file copies take longer than expected, you may want to try another service.

The good news is, all our picks offer a free trial to let you try out the antivirus program, so if your system feels sluggish after installation, you may want to keep looking.

Cost and discounts. Don't just pay the sticker price for antivirus protection. Before you buy, check for discounts on a company's website. Another way to save: The prices we list above are for 10 devices -- if the company offered that package -- but you can trim your cost with antivirus packages if you need to cover three or five devices. You may also find discounts on an app's Amazon page.

To be effective, antivirus software needs to monitor what's going on with your PC, check in with company servers about unusual behavior and should provide sound banking protection. The companies say they anonymize this technical data as much as possible to protect your privacy.

But if you want to know more, the security companies on our list post privacy policies on their websites, so read their privacy statements to learn what the companies do with the information you share. Protection for other platforms. Microsoft is by far the biggest target for viruses and malware.

While the Mac does come under attack via side-loaded apps, it's rare, and if you download apps only from the Mac and iOS app stores and keep your guard up when clicking links and download files, you should be OK without an antivirus app on Apple devices.

CNET editors pick the products and services we write about. When you buy through our links, we may get a commission. Best free Windows antivirus Microsoft Defender. Jump to details. See at Microsoft. See at NortonLifeLock. See at Bitdefender. Supporting you when you need it Enjoy free, industry-leading customer support, in your language.

Customer stories. Marcin J. Make an enquiry Please leave us your contact details so we can provide you with a free trial license and deliver a personalized offer tailored to your company's needs. Thank you, your enquiry has been successfully received. Easy to manage Easily deploy, configure and manage your security software from a single remote console. Simple licensing Mix and match across platforms Windows, Mac, Linux and devices computers, smartphones, tablets and servers.

Requires the exclusions for the operating system files that are mentioned in the following sections. We are aware of the risk of excluding the specific files or folders that are mentioned in this article from scans that are made by your antivirus software. Your system will be safer if you do not exclude any files or folders from scans. When you scan these files, performance and operating system reliability problems may occur because of file locking. Do not exclude any one of these files based on the file name extension.

For example, do not exclude all files that have a. Microsoft has no control over other files that may use the same extensions as the files that are described in this article. This article provides both file names and folders that can be excluded. All the files and folders that are described in this article are protected by default permissions to allow only SYSTEM and administrator access, and they contain only operating system components.

Excluding an entire folder may be simpler but may not provide as much protection as excluding specific files based on file names. This file is located in the following folder:. Note If these files are not excluded, antivirus software may prevent appropriate access to these files, and security databases can become corrupted.

Scanning these files can prevent the files from being used or may prevent a security policy from being applied to the files. These files should not be scanned because antivirus software may not correctly treat them as proprietary database files.

These are the recommended exclusions. There may be other file types that are not included in this article that should be excluded. Because domain controllers provide an important service to clients, the risk of disruption of their activities from malicious code, from malware, or from a virus must be minimized.

Antivirus software is the generally accepted way to reduce the risk of infection. Install and configure antivirus software so that the risk to the domain controller is reduced as much as possible and performance is affected as little as possible.

The following list contains recommendations to help you configure and install antivirus software on a Windows Server domain controller. Warning We recommend that you apply the following specified configuration to a test system to make sure that in your specific environment it does not introduce unexpected factors or compromise the stability of the system. The risk from too much scanning is that files are inappropriately flagged as changed.

This causes too much replication in Active Directory.