Originally Posted by pigoo3 If you install antivirus (which is unnecessary).you will actually slow your computer down (anti-virus programs., 03:49 AM #1. I was wondering what the best antivirus for Mac is as far as preventative.

Rubenking The Best Antivirus Protection of 2018 Antivirus software is critical for every PC. Without it, you risk losing your personal information, your files, and even the cash from your bank account. We've tested more than 40 utilities to help you pick the best antivirus protection for your computers. Malware, Spyware, and Adware Protection As of this writing, the mid-term elections haven't yet happened.

When they do, you may or may not be pleased with the results. If you're not happy, your thoughts may turn to the possibility that hackers hit government sites with DDoS attacks, or even launched malware attacks on voting machines to change the outcome.

Alas, there's nothing you can do on your own to fend off that sort of attack, except perhaps to vote in tech-savvy election officials. But you can do your bit to keep your own backyard clean by installing a powerful and keeping it fully up to date. We've torture-tested than 40 antivirus tools, so we can recommend the best ones for your consideration.

We call it antivirus, but in truth it's unlikely you'll get hit with an actual computer virus. Malware these days is about making money, and there's no easy way to cash in on spreading a virus. Ransomware and data-stealing Trojans are much more common, as are bots that let the bot-herder rent out your computer for nefarious purposes.

Modern antivirus utilities handle Trojans, rootkits, spyware, adware, ransomware, and more. PCMag has reviewed more than 40 different commercial antivirus utilities, and that's not even counting the many. Out of that extensive field we've named five Editors' Choice products. Several other commercial antivirus utilities proved effective enough to earn an excellent four-star rating. We eliminated two special-purpose products that aren't really like the rest: The Kure and VoodooSoft VoodooShield. That leaves the ten excellent products you see above. If, one of these products should do the job.

All of them are traditional, full-scale, antivirus tools, with the ability to scan files for malware on access, on demand, or on schedule. These commercial products offer protection beyond the antivirus built into Windows 10; the best free antivirus utilities also offer more. However, is looking a bit better lately, with some very good scores from independent testing labs. In our hands-on tests, it showed a marked improvement since our previous review, enough to finally bring it up to three stars. Listen to the Labs We take the results reported by independent antivirus testing labs very seriously.

The simple fact that a particular vendor's product shows up in the results is a vote of confidence, of sorts. It means the lab considered the product significant, and the vendor felt the cost of testing was worthwhile. Of course, getting good scores in the tests is also important. We follow four labs that regularly release detailed reports:,,,.

We also note whether vendors have contracted with ICSA Labs and West Coast labs for certification. We've devised a system for aggregating their results to yield a rating from 0 to 10. We Test Malware, Spyware, and Adware Defenses. We also subject every product to our own hands-on test of malware protection, in part to get a feeling for how the product works. Depending on how thoroughly the product prevents malware installation, it can earn up to 10 points for malware protection. Our malware protection test necessarily uses the same set of samples for months.

To check a product's handling of brand-new malware, we test each product using 100 extremely new malware-hosting URLs supplied by, noting what percentage of them it blocked. Products get equal credit for preventing all access to the malicious URL and for wiping out the malware during download. Some products earn absolutely stellar ratings from the independent labs, yet don't fare as well in our hands-on tests. In such cases, we defer to the labs, as they bring significantly greater resources to their testing. Want to know more? You can dig in for a detailed description of. Multilayered Malware Protection Antivirus products distinguish themselves by going beyond the basics of on-demand scanning and real-time.