[James Burnham]

Every program I download lately is bundled with a trial of an AV. That makes me wonder, why do AV need that promotion method? Is the market so saturated that they can't even get trial installs by themselves?

[Crimin4L]

I cannot stand AV anymore, Literally 5 minutes ago McAfee was bout to install with Adobe Flash player and it got me tight. They changed it where you gotta select without McAfee at the download page and not in the install page

[Mr. Robot]

A lot of the time people bundle AV with their software to made it seem more legitimate while other times they are often used as a referral scheme. Those who end up extending/purchasing a license from an installation brought on from a third party = cash for the third party.

[James Burnham]

I cannot stand AV anymore, Literally 5 minutes ago McAfee was bout to install with Adobe Flash player and it got me tight. They changed it where you gotta select without McAfee at the download page and not in the install page

Yes! McAffee, Avast are the 2 antivirus that I see bundled most of the times.

A lot of the time people bundle AV with their software to made it seem more legitimate while other times they are often used as a referral scheme. Those who end up extending/purchasing a license from an installation brought on from a third party = cash for the third party.

Ah, yes that makes more sense now. But why does everyone bundles with McAffee and Avast? Are these the only 2 that allow bundling?

[AnonFawkes]

See the answer to viruses is application whitelisting, to only allow the programs to work the way you want, and to only allow the programs you choose to run.

Sorta like how Android is.

Or Linux.

I think the most secure setup is Qubes-Whonix.
Second most would be Linux with firewall, only using basic apps like sandboxed browser, sandboxed Tor, Firewall, VPN.


Antiviruses exist due to the open nature of Windows machines , running anything as administrator.

Windows has gotten much more secure with latest Windows 10, AMSI, SmartScreen, Defender, Anti Ransomware protection.

[A +]

When I was a kid Norton and Mcafee were the go tos. Then Spybot Search & Destroy hit the market for free. Then MBAM which most people recommend to friends etc. I think they somewhat swept the AV industry off its feet.

[SIM-3684208]

Its hard, look up the owner of McAfee story, its truly amazing