Is MBAM + MSE enough?

When I asked if MBAM Pro is enough on its own I was told that it wasn't and should only be a complement to an AV



But my problem is I have tried every single AV out there and each one has its quircks.



So would MSE + MBAM be a good enough solution?



Mind you I also use Pale Moon + Adblock Plus + Disconnect + LastPass and I don't have a cracks on my computer all the software I have is purchased and licenses legally.



I want to have a light solution that is good enough but won't give me problems



NOD32 = Very heavy since v7 and it has problems that corrupt my Outlook 2010 or 2013 profile that I wouldn't be able to send emails anymore they will just sit there in the Outbox. Only happens when I install NOD32



Bitdefender AV = Very light but has too many FPs for my liking



Kaspersky AV = Does not work well well with Nero Platinum Suite unless I disable it and has many bugs as seeon on their forums



Emsisoft Anti-Malware = The king of false positives, comes in the way ineverything I do! Its behavioral blocker even detects SVP (Smooth Video Project) as a virus



Webroot AV = any AV that doesn't allow the user to exclude certain folders is a big NO in my books. Add to that horrible protection and very high number of false positives, this is one useless AV



Norton AV = Has a well known issue of having two taskbar icons in the taskbar that hasn't been resolved and won't be resolved since symantec say this is just a cosmetic bug and doesn't affect the functionality of your AV! well no thank you i'm not paying for a buggy piece of software (got my refund)



I don't wanna bore you any longer but you see I would rather get infected by a virus than install any of the above AVs as they come in my way, slow down my system, give me headaches when I am a safe user! Imagine how much those people who actually use cracks and such would suffer!

 

MSE + MBAM Pro + KeyScrambler Personal + regular imaging and backup + common sense = about as good and lightweight as it gets

I didn't even use to run KeyScrambler until a few months back and MSE + MBAM Pro was all I had since ditching AVG 3 years ago. Not a single infection since (knock on wood). Of course I image my SSD once every 2 weeks, and keep multiple backups of mission critical data.

 

I never recommend MSE and always recommend MBAM.

Avast + MBAM should be fairly light on the resources, especially on a newer machine.

My $0.02 only...

 

I've settled on Avira Antivirus Pro finally.....believe me I have a license for almost every AV you can imagine and have tested them all.......

After almost giving up and being at loss as it seams no Antivirus is free of bugs these days, I stumbled upon Avira Antivirus which I had stopped using a while back despite it having excellent detection rates and being light for a simple reason; they used to bundle the "Ask Toolbar" into the installer which if a user blindly just clicks NEXT to instal his programs, he would end up with a nasty toolbar which is actually considered spyware by man.

Fast forward to today, seems Avira has been listening to their customers' concerns and removed the bundled Ask Toolbar.

First, I started by checking their rating on AV Comparatives (Real World Tests) and AV-TEST (Click on HOME after clicking on the link to see the results)

Great! Superb detection rates as reported by both AV Comparatives and AV-TEST, and very light as reported by AV-TEST in the system performance category.

So I downloaded the Avira Antivirus Pro Free Trial to test it (You can also download the Avira Antivirus Free Version which is just as good but the only thing it lacks is cloud virus definitions which isn't that big of a deal really since their virus definitions are updated regularly)

The installation finished in a breeze and prompts you at the end if you want to run a quick system scan. First good sign, no false positives detected!

Next, I noticed my computer became immediately faster as opposed to when I had the other AVs installed, that is due to Avira's very light system resource usage and a total of 40 MB only of RAM usage (not that RAM usage is the sole determining factor of how light an AV is but it is worth mentioning).

Then I launch my usual programs like my VPN, utilities, etc. nothing was flagged falsely as a virus so it did not interfere with my daily workflow! Which is exactly what we want from an Antivirus, to protect us but not come in our way when we are using the computer! A lot of Antivirus vendors these days forget that and just rely on improving their virus detection rates while completely ignoring to improve their product!

Another great thing about Avira is that theyr offer a TOLL FREE number that is available 24/7 anywhere in the world. I live in Dubai so I called the Toll Free 800 number they had on their website and was surprised that the call was router to their USA call center free of charge! That just comes to show you how much they care about customer service! No other security company offers that and this is exceptionally remarkable because if you ever run into an issue, they're always there to help and are just a phone call away!

I won't talk about detection rates because the above links I posted for AV Comparatives and AV-TEST show you how well it does when it comes to security! They achieved a 99.7% detection rate beating even Kaspersky's 99.5% score in the March to June 2014 AV-Comparatives Real World Tests

Finally, the long search for a solid Antivirus that offers good protection and doesn't slow down your computer or come in your way with false positives is over!

 

Honestly if you're the type that clicks on every link and email that gets sent your way and hits "yes" without reading the fine print, then no amount of protection will be enough. Conversely if you practice good browsing habits and have some common sense and a "default no" mentality then you'll probably be fine without any AV installed.

I'm just going to quote this well-written post:

Emphasis on the bold part. To add to that, if I do inadvertently introduce malware onto my system, secure erase and then loading a clean image will be far more efficient and thorough than a disinfection. So personally, I see little value in having a "real" AV, much less a paid one.

 

I totally agree with you. no AV is gonna protect a person if he/she was clumsy and clicked on every "Make you PC faster with one click" or what not ads or accepted everything blindly while installing programs without seeing what they're installing. I never do that, and I never have UAC ON, I never got a virus in my life. Would I run without one? No, just want that extra bit of security for that one site which may try to inject something bad into my system or for anything else, you know, just that extra sense of security but without taxation on my system or coming in my way like most other AVs do.