Antivirus software is a necessary tool in today’s online world. Attacks are only becoming more sophisticated, especially with aid of AI. Even the tech-savvy and cautious can drop their guard at wrong time or get tricked into exposing themselves to malware, spyware, or ransomware. Antivirus protection is an essential backup against such threats. 

Most systems come with security software baked into the OS, but for some folks, an upgrade can help demystify and simplify online security. To help you choose a good suite, we’ve identified products that offer excellent protection, worthwhile features, and minimal performance impact on your PC.

Why you should trust us: PCWorld has been deep in the trenches of testing computer hardware, software, and services since 1983—including security suites. For antivirus apps, we continually evaluate popular or noteworthy software. We consider the user experience, strength of protection against threats (online and offline), and how well it addresses the ever-expanding types of attacks. Our guide on how we test antivirus software at PCWorld gives the full details of our review process, but for the results of our work, read on.

Update June 28, 2024: We’ve recently reviewed Malwarebytes Premium Security, a streamlined suite best suited for newbies. You can also read about a new double-whammy of a scam, as well as why you should still be paying attention to data breaches.

Best antivirus of 2024 reviewed and ranked

Norton 360 Deluxe – Best antivirus for PC overall

Pros

• Strong antivirus protection
• Wide protection against major online threats
• Simple, straightforward features

Cons

• Performance impact on some PCs
• User interface would benefit from consolidation
• Upselling of additional services

Why we picked Norton 360 Deluxe

An ideal antivirus suite packs in a little of everything needed for security without costing a ton—and that’s why our pick for the best antivirus software of 2024 is still Norton 360 Deluxe. Despite its slightly awkward interface, this software’s wide protection and affordable pricing is ideal for most users.

This plan has just about everything most PC users need, without extra bloat. For antivirus performance, Norton offers strong online protection, while having minimal impact on system resources if you don’t often download or copy large amounts of files. Additionally, you get malicious link and attachment screening, dark web and privacy monitoring, and webcam safeguards. Norton also tosses in 50GB of storage for cloud backups, access to Norton’s password manager and VPN, parental controls, and PC utilities that include the ability to monitor for outdated software. And those major extras—the password manager, VPN, and parental controls—have easy, simple interfaces, without feeling stripped to the bone.

Overall, Norton is an excellent option for those looking to consolidate their online security protections into a single software interface. It has a couple of quirks (namely a dual user interface that can mildly slow navigation), but its strengths far outshine its weaknesses, especially when it packs in so much value. You’ll pay $50 for the first year for 5 devices, and $120 per year thereafter.

Who should use Norton 360 Deluxe

Norton 360 Deluxe works for everyone—it consolidates all the biggest protections you need online into one package, including parental controls. If you have trouble keeping up with security experts’ recommendations (or haven’t yet gotten around to following all of them), this suite centralizes and simplifies it all.

Read our full Norton 360 Deluxe review

Avast One – Best overall runner-up

Pros

• Good new design
• Well priced
• Excellent performance

Cons

• Smart scan requires too much user intervention
• Avast asks to install Google Chrome

Why we picked Avast One

Avast not only offers solid protection, but a simple, friendly interface. Combine that together with useful extra features and multi-device coverage, and you have a winning combo in Avast One.

In addition to top-ranked antivirus protection, it offers safeguards against remote webcam takeovers, malicious websites, and trackers. The Avast One plan also includes dark web monitoring, a VPN with up to 5GB of bandwidth per week, and protections for saved passwords to a browser. You get utilities to help you keep your PC’s drivers up to date, clean up your PC, and optimize your apps, too.

These features may sound standard, and to be fair, many of them can be found in rival software. But Avast makes staying on top of security dead simple, whether you’re a novice or a security veteran. Its default settings require little input to keep your PC protected, and if you want to dig in further or tinker, you still have that option, too.

So what keeps Avast out of the top spot, when its software outperforms Norton’s? The amount of features for its price. Norton’s performance isn’t perfect, but it’s about as good for online protection, which is where it counts. And the two software plans cost about the same—Avast One is $51 for 5 devices (or $70 for up to 30 devices) during the first year. The cost rises to $110 and $150, respectively, per year afterward. In the end, the more well-rounded subscription wins out.

Who should use Avast One

You’re someone who has a password manager already set up, don’t need parental controls, and prioritize the highest marks in threat detection tests. Avast One lacks the first two features, and takes top marks for catching both online and offline risks.

Read our full Avast One review

AVG Internet Security – Best budget antivirus suite

Pros

• Top-rated antivirus protection
• Expanded protection against malicious websites and remote attacks
• Clean, straightforward interface

Cons

• Some PCs may experience a performance hit during heavier workloads
• Several features are a bit rudimentary

Why we picked AVG Internet Security

AVG is best known for its excellent free antivirus software, but there’s good reason to upgrade. AVG Internet Security not only offers more comprehensive protection, but also easy management of those tools. That can be valuable if you find keeping up with online threats too overwhelming or time consuming.

The Internet Security plan builds upon the free version’s top-ranked protection against malware and web, email, and network threats. It also guards the passwords saved to your browsers; webcam takeovers; unknown access to files with sensitive data; malicious redirects for websites you’re trying to visit (aka DNS hijacking); and Windows Remote Desktop attacks. Dark web monitoring is included as well. And the app has minimal impact on system resources when monitoring your system in the background, though full scans can hit budget or older systems harder.

Despite its small annoyances (like ads for additional paid features), AVG Internet Security is reliable antivirus software with a user friendly interface—and at just $60 during the first year for 10 devices, it’s affordable, too. In fact, it’s solid enough to earn a recommendation despite how strong the free version is on its own.

Who should use AVG Internet Security

You need deeper control and more expansive protection from your antivirus software, but you don’t want to pay extra for features you don’t want. AVG Internet Security expands just enough on the company’s free antivirus to make it worthwhile, even though it lacks elements like parental controls, VPN, and a password manager.

Read our full AVG Internet Security review

Avira Prime – Best antivirus for beginners

Pros

• Strong security with a reasonable subscription price
• Well designed and user-friendly
• Offers a host of features in the areas of security, privacy, and performance

Cons

• No subscription option for fewer than five devices
• Simplicity of app feels slightly at odds with the depth of the PC tools

Best Prices Today: $59.99 at Avira Operations GmbH

Why we picked Avira Prime

Avira Prime is one of the best choices for those seeking more help with managing their PC, thanks to its simple, clear interface and feature lineup. In addition to to solid antivirus protection, it offers a password manager, unlimited VPN, and a boatload of PC utilities that (among other things) can keep apps up to date, securely delete files, and back up data.

The one major feature missing from Avira Prime is a set of parental controls. You can’t use it to filter web content or monitor device usage. It also can hit older and budget PCs hard when full scans are running, if you’ve added or changed large amounts of files. But typically, it only minimally affects system performance when left to run in the background, so most people won’t notice Avira running.

For those who want the comprehensive simplicity that this security suite offers, you’ll pay $60 for the first year, and then $105 for every year after. That first-year cost is slightly higher than our overall top pick, but if you prefer more newbie-friendly software, it’s worth the extra ten bucks.

Who should use Avira Prime

Avira Prime will likely feel best to users who want a simple antivirus suite, broad online protections, and robust PC utilities—and also want to use those latter tools for more confident management of their computer. Not every utility is a winner, but the overall set can help you identify and understand the more technical aspects of Windows and system upkeep. Parents will need to look elsewhere for controls that let them monitor and limit their kids’ PC use, however.

Read our full Avira Prime review

McAfee Total Protection – Best for privacy

Pros

• Good protection
• Nice features like file shredder and home network analyzer

Cons

• Mixed impact on performance
• New app design is a little scattered

Best Prices Today: $89.99 at McAfee

Why we picked McAfee Total Protection

McAfee has been around a long time—and the company continues to hunt down current threats to PCs, with solid results. These days, dangers extend beyond just malware to identity and privacy issues, and McAfee Total Protection addresses these just as much as it does ransomware and phishing sites.

That ID protection makes it stand out against competitors, especially if you pay to scale up the service. The plan we tested included dark web scanning for multiple pieces of personal information (email address, phone number, social security number, passport, driver’s license, date of birth, tax ID, credit card, usernames, and more). The app also offers to help change your password for online accounts, when applicable. VPN access is included as well.

Mid-tier and budget machines can see impact on system resources when running McAfee scans. When we ran a full scan during a variety of common tasks (web browsing, document editing, etc), we noticed some dips in performance. You can mitigate this effect by timing scans for off hours, however.

Currently, McAfee Total Protection is available through third-party sellers (McAfee has turned its attention to its slightly newer McAfee+ plans on its website). We like this version still because of how deeply affordable it is—for example, a license on PCWorld’s own software site is just $19 per year, which covers up to ten devices for one year.

Who should use McAfee Total Protection

Your personal information can be used against you online—and with data breaches so painfully common these days, it can be a relief to have help in tracking who has your info. For anyone who doesn’t have as much time to handle that work themselves, or even keep track of a separate service, McAfee can serve as a central spot for managing all your online security concerns.

Read our full McAfee Total Protection review

Panda Dome Complete – Most feature-rich offering

Pros

• Very easy-to-understand mobile-like interface
• Contains some basic smart home network monitoring
• Month-to-month pricing option

Cons

• Good performance results but currently limited in third-party testing

Best Prices Today: $30.10 at Panda Security

Why we picked Panda Dome Complete

All deluxe antivirus suites offer extra tools as part of their package, but Panda Dome Complete particularly stands out. It also has one of the most striking interfaces we’ve seen. Similar to Microsoft’s Bing homepage, Panda Dome features a beautiful background photo, with the interface elements placed on top of it.

A whole raft of utilities come with this suite, including a virtual keyboard, advanced virus removal, an update manager for your Windows apps, a disk defragmenter, hard drive cleaner, and startup apps manager. You also get Wi-Fi protection (which lets you see what devices are connected to your network), a password manager, parental controls, and a VPN that offers 150 megabytes of bandwidth per day.

In addition to offering reliable antivirus protection, Panda had the most minimal impact on system performance during our benchmarks. So minor, in fact, that in the real-world it worked out to no difference.

As one of the most feature-rich offerings, Panda Dome Complete also one of the most expensive, too. You can purchase a subscription for $64.50 during the first year ($86 per year afterward), but that’s covers just one device. Fortunately, it only costs a little more to upgrade to a three device plan ($72 for the first year, $96 per year afterward) or five device plan ($79 for the first year, $105 per year afterward).

Who should use Panda Dome Complete

Panda Dome Complete puts a ton of features right at your fingertips—an ideal interface for those who want to dive into everything straight away. If you hate buried or oversimplified menus, you’ll feel right at home with this software.

Read our full Panda Dome Complete review

Windows Security – Best free antivirus

Pros

• Built into Windows 10 and 11
• Settings are easy to review and customize
• Integrates with other security aspects of Windows

Cons

• Tends toward false positives, especially with SmartScreen
• Lacks the advanced features found in third-party products

Why we picked Windows Security

Windows’ built-in security suite is an excellent free antivirus option—as we discovered in our roundup of the best free antivirus—even if its protection isn’t quite as strong as third-party rivals when your PC is offline. It bundles together Defender, which monitors for viruses and malware; Firewall, which blocks malicious incoming traffic and suspicious outgoing traffic; ransomware protections (including controlled access to folders, as well as data recovery via OneDrive integration); app restrictions; and even basic parental controls.

The most important of these protections are automatically enabled in Windows—you don’t have to lift a finger to get real-time antivirus scanning or network protection. You will have to manually switch on some features, though, including ransomware folder controls and file recovery.

You can find more features in other antivirus suites, like online privacy tools, a VPN, and encrypted cloud backups. But this free protection comes preinstalled on Windows machines and does a good job of keeping you protected from most threats.

Who should use Windows Security

You’re looking for lightweight, unobtrusive antivirus protection—and don’t mind configuring it, nor managing separate security tools to make sure you’re properly protected online. To get the most out of it, you must tinker with Windows Security’s settings. (You can learn more in our video on How to use Windows Security.) You also have to figure out your own online privacy tools, VPN, password manager, and encrypted cloud backup.

Read our full Windows Security review

Intego Mac Internet Security X9 – Best Mac antivirus

Pros

• Two-way firewall
• Good performance

Cons

• Mac-specific (no Windows / Android protection)

Why we picked Intego X9

As the headline reveals, the focus of this roundup is the best antivirus for Windows PCs, but many PC enthusiasts are the de facto IT for friends and family. If you want to help an associate or loved one achieve strong antivirus protection for an Apple machine, our colleagues at Macworld recommend Intego’s Mac Internet Security X9.

In the suite are two utilities. The better known one is VirusBarrier, which spots and eliminates malware threats, and gets strong ratings for its protective abilities. It comes paired with NetBarrier, a two-way firewall that watches for suspicious traffic going to or from your Mac. For the price of this suite, NetBarrier’s inclusion isn’t common, but definitely welcome.

As part of its protection, VirusBarrier X9 scans for threats on your Mac’s internal storage drive (including any downloaded email and compressed archives), as well as connected disks and iOS devices. The app quarantines suspicious files, which you can then mark as trusted, leave in quarantine, or try to have repaired.

Overall, Intego’s Mac Internet Security X9 offers good compatibility with macOS while looking like a real Mac program, too. It costs just $25 (or £20.00) for the first year using this special Macworld link. If you need additional tools, like a backup utility, speed optimizer for your Mac, or parental controls, you can upgrade to the Mac Premium Bundle X9 for $40 for the first year (£23.99).

Who should use Intego X9

Intego VirusBarrier not only offers good compatibility with macOS, but it also looks like a real Mac program, too—making it an ideal match for anyone looking for an effective app that blends in seamlessly.

Recent antivirus reviews

• Malwarebytes Premium Security: Technology newbies will like this antivirus software’s simplicity, but you can get more bang for your buck elsewhere.
• Norton Antivirus Plus: Its one-device limitation is tight, but this simplified antivirus suite is affordable and offers more features than similar rivals. If you can work comfortably with its quirks and potentially heavy performance effect, it can be ideal software for digital minimalists.
• Trend Micro Maximum Security: Even when you can count on Trend Micro Maximum Security to work, this beginner-friendly antivirus suite feels underbaked. You can find much stronger malware protection, along with a more robust set of features, in rival software—and often at a lower price.
• Avast One: This upgrade on Avast’s free security suite adds protection against identity and privacy threats, along with PC tools, all while still keeping its polished interface. And in AV-Test and AV-Comparatives’ latest benchmark data, it generally led the competition in blocking online and offline threats.
• AVG Internet Security: This modest suite provides top-notch threat protection in a clean, straightforward interface — all while charging less than rivals. Like Avast (with which it shares an antivirus engine), it generally leads the competition in blocking online and offline threats, as seen in benchmarks performed by AV-Test and AV-Comparatives.
• Norton 360 Deluxe: Norton 360 Deluxe has a wide array of protections spanning antivirus, password management, VPN access, automated cloud backups, and dark web monitoring. It can hit PC performance a bit harder on older or budget systems, but its overall value and solid results in AV-Test and AV-Comparatives’ benchmarks make it worthwhile.
• McAfee Total Protection: You can rely on McAfee Total Protection for blocking online threats and its easy-to-use VPN, but not its password manager. The app can also notably affect system performance on mid-range and budget PCs. Currently, the competition outdoes this entry-level offering.

How to choose the best antivirus software

There are three basic requirements that an antivirus suite should meet:

• High-detection rate for malware and other threats
• Low impact on system resources
• An easy-to-use interface

That’s not all to consider, however. A lot has changed since the early days of antivirus software. These days, many security suites come with extras such as a backup service for your most essential files, Android and iOS apps for mobile security, a more advanced firewall, family protection (read: child restriction) features, and the right to use the program on multiple PCs. Access to a VPN and a password manager have become more common, too. Whether you need those extras depends on how much you’re willing to spend and your personal situation.

If you’re looking to go beyond the basics, our baseline recommendation is to find a suite that comes with a firewall, supports enough devices to cover what you own, and (if you don’t already have separate services set up) access to a password manager and VPN. Not sure if you need all that? Our guides on security suite features, password managers, and VPNs can help you decide.

How we test antivirus software

Our approach to testing antivirus software is multi-pronged—we look not just at how well the suite catches malware and other threats (though that’s certainly a top factor), but other elements as well.

First, we take a look at the interface to determine how easy or complicated it is. Does the interface make it easy to get at essential tools like PC scans and password managers, for example, or is everything buried under multiple clicks? Are there elements that look like they should be clickable but aren’t? Are alerts interactive or purely informational, and do they make sense in context?

We also examine the features on offer. Every good antivirus suite should have the basics like scanning and real-time protection, but many vendors offer elements that go beyond basic security like password managers or firewalls. We try to discern whether any of these extra features are particularly useful, or just frills that look nice but don’t serve a practical purpose.

To test the suite’s demand on system resources, we run three benchmarks. The first is PCMark 10’s Extended test, which simulates a variety of workloads including editing spreadsheets, browsing the web, running video chat, and light gaming. 

PCWorld

PCWorld

PCWorld

We run the benchmark before the security suite is installed. Then we install the software, have it run a full scan on our Windows 11 test machine, and start a second run of the benchmark at the same time. Then we compare the overall scores to see if the decline between the two benchmark runs is significant.

We repeat the same process using UL Procyon, which simulates document editing in Microsoft Office apps—e.g., Word, Excel, PowerPoint. Then, as the harshest stress test, we use Handbrake to transcode a video before and after installing the antivirus software. On many home PCs, this encoding task utilizes 100 percent of the CPU. We then compare transcoding times to see if there’s any significant decline.

Our test machine is an Acer Aspire 3 15 with an AMD Ryzen 5 7520U, 8GB RAM, and a 512GB SSD. Each security suite is tested on a clean install of Windows 10 Home.

As for the antivirus suite’s detection capabilities, we rely on the opinions of security researchers dedicated to this task. We take into consideration reports from outlets such as AV Comparatives and AV Test.

We also take pricing into account and what you get for it. 

When possible, we review security suites using a free trial to get a sense of what consumers see when they first try out a new product.

Still have questions about our review process? You can get even more details (and the philosophy behind why we test as we do) in our full explanation about our antivirus testing practices.

Best Prices Today: Malwarebytes Premium

Malwarebytes was once a crucial piece of software—a necessary supplement for your main antivirus scanner. You couldn’t always count on just one program to catch everything, and Malwarebytes rose to prominence as a reliable secondary tool.

But the world has changed since 2010. Now if you run multiple antivirus apps, you could open yourself up to software conflicts or increased risk for system vulnerabilities. One single program is the way to go—and if you’re a newbie to security and prefer a dead simple app, then Malwarebytes’ streamlined, elegant approach can fit the bill.

How much does Malwarebytes Premium Security cost?

As a simple suite, Malwarebytes Premium Security costs $60 per year. New subscribers can sign up for a two-year package to save $9 ($111 total). Unlike most other antivirus vendors, Malwarebytes bills in monthly installments over a 12-month term, rather than charging the total cost upfront. 

For its consumer products, the company offers a 14-day trial, and a 60-day money back guarantee.

Single-device plan (3 devices)

• $60 per year (billed monthly over a 12-month term)

Malwarebytes’ plan allows you to spread your device allotment over those running Windows, macOS, Android, iOS, and even ChromeOS.

PCWorld

PCWorld

PCWorld

If you want to cover more gear, or save a little more cash, you can get licenses for Malwarebytes through third-parties like Amazon and the PCWorld Software store with more flexible terms and at lower rates. However, such plans currently don’t include VPN service, which Malwarebytes added to the subscriptions it sells directly.

What does Malwarebytes Premium Security include?

When you step up from Malwarebytes’ free version to a paid subscription, real-time monitoring for malware, email, web, and select network threats becomes active. (The free plan only scans if you initiate a manual check.) Overall, you’re protected against viruses, ransomware, and other malware, as well as other common attacks like phishing attempts, zero-day exploits on the web and over email, and suspicious apps.

Choosing Malwarebytes Premium Security adds on access to the company’s VPN, which Malwarebytes advertises as a no-log service. As premium upgrades go, this one is simplistic—you don’t get parental controls, a password manager, additional defenses like protected folders, or PC utilities, as you do with a rival like AVG. The company seems to weigh its VPN service as equally valuable to a collection of such antivirus features.

Key features of Malwarebytes Premium Security

Installation and user interface

After you install the app, you’ll see the main dashboard. The interface is incredibly streamlined, with just two tabs on the left navbar—Dashboard and Settings. You can choose between Light, Dark, or matching Windows’ mode.

PCWorld

PCWorld

PCWorld

Accordingly, you’ll send almost all your time on the Dashboard view, which is divided into three segments. In the larger one, you’ll see a couple of sections blocked out. At the upper left is Security, with Scanner, Detection History, and Real-Time Protection as the three options and their settings:

• Scanner lets you run a quick, full, or custom scan, as well as jump directly to related settings. You can also access the scheduled scans to review what’s already set up and create new ones. 
• Detection History shows quarantined items, the history of events (like detected viruses), and your allow list—items that you’ve approved as safe after initially being flagged by Malwarebytes. 
• Real-Time Protection is not so much a feature, but an explanation for how Malwarebytes and how it safeguards your PC continuously.

Directly underneath the security section is one for the VPN. It puts the major controls at your fingertips, letting you quickly activate the service and change the location. You can also jump into related settings.

Along the right side is a rating for your PC’s protection level—Malwarebyte’s assessment of how close you are to utilizing the app fully. You can also check on other devices associated with your account.

PCWorld

PCWorld

PCWorld

Generally, the interface is clean and simple, as are the settings for the app and its features. The only area where you can dig in deeper are the antivirus protection settings—but as Malwarebytes rightly warns, nearly all users are better off leaving the defaults as they are.

One tip: Once the software is installed, head to Settings > Notifications, scroll down to the bottom, and turn off marketing notifications.

Virus, malware, and threat protection

Real-time protection

Malwarebytes Premium Security constantly keeps an eye out for a variety of threats. When you’re opening or adding files, using apps, or browsing the web, it’ll block viruses, ransomware, and other malware like rootkits, along with phishing attempts.

Unlike other rivals, Malwarebytes doesn’t offer a firewall. That job is left to Windows. It also doesn’t offer additional protections against dangers like DNS hijacking and webcam takeovers. As for identity protection, like dark web monitoring and insurance coverage, you must upgrade to the company’s Complete Protection plan, which costs twice as much per year.

PCWorld

PCWorld

PCWorld

If you want to adjust your real-time scanning settings, you can change what the app screens for and how stringent it is with its filters, as well as how it handles suspicious files. Malwarebytes allows you dig surprisingly deep, though only experts should get into the weeds. The overwhelming majority of users should keep the defaults as they are.

Scheduled and manual scans

At installation, Malwarebytes Premium Security automatically creates a scheduled scan for once per week. It runs whenever your system is idle, which the app calls a “smart scan.” You can edit this default or create additional scheduled scans.

For manual scans, Malwarebytes offers three types. The default is a threat scan, which checks commonly targeted areas of your PC, including things running in memory and at startup, as well as registry changes. Files stored on your PC are also looked over. 

PCWorld

PCWorld

PCWorld

To fire up a quick or custom scan, you must choose Advanced Scan from the three-dot menu for the Scanner on the dashboard. Custom scans let you tweak a handful of settings related to file types and areas of your PC, as well as how to handle potentially unwanted programs and modifications to your system.

Additional features

Browser extension

Malwarebytes offers a Browser Guard extension for Chrome, Firefox, and Edge, but despite being available as a separate free download, it’s still considered a component of the Premium Security suite. After installation, it runs quietly in the background, protecting your browser from malware and scams (including credit card skimming), as well as serving as an adblocker.

VPN

Malwarebytes keeps its controls for its VPN simple rather than restrictive. Firing up the service is quick and fast, as is choosing a location for a server—and Malwarebytes lets you choose a handful of cities within countries outside of the US, more similar to a dedicated VPN.

PCWorld

PCWorld

PCWorld

You can choose servers in Albania, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, Indonesia, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, UK, Ukraine, USA.

This country list isn’t as large as with some VPN services, but as mentioned above, you can generally choose between two to four cities per country. The exception is the United States, which has 18 cities available, coast to coast.

Speeds held stable when using the VPN during light testing. For US server speeds, Los Angeles (within the same state as PCWorld’s San Francisco location) showed a decrease of about 5 to 7 percent, while New York saw a roughly 26 percent drop.

Customer support

From within the app, you can jump to Malwarebytes’ user guide, support pages, and support tool. You can also use an AI chatbot for answers to your questions, or if you’re signed into your Malwarebytes account, to contact customer support—you’ll get funneled to your choice of email or live chat.

Updates and maintenance 

Updates for the app and virus definitions happen automatically in the background, but you can also trigger a check manually. You’ll need to click on the person icon in the upper right of the app window, then choose About Malwarebytes and click on the Check for updates button.

PCWorld

PCWorld

PCWorld

Performance

While Malwarebytes participates in some independent benchmarking of its software, it has no current results from AV-Test and AV-Comparatives, two major organizations that test how well antivirus suites can catch threats.

Instead, the company points the curious toward AVLabs’s testing data. During the May 2024 advanced in-the-wild test, Malwarebytes caught all 521 samples—though its detection rate was split between 78.32 percent pre-launch and 21.38 percent post-launch of the samples (that is, before the malware samples could activate versus after). In comparison, rivals Bitdefender and McAfee caught nearly all the samples before they could execute, with 97.98 percent and 99.3 percent pre-launch detection, respectively.

When asked about its participation in independent benchmarks, a representative from Malwarebytes said the company “focuses on third-party testing that is most closely aligned with the needs of customers” and that it works “with the third-party testers that are most relevant to what our customers encounter in today’s threat landscape.”

PCWorld / AVLab

PCWorld / AVLab

PCWorld / AVLab

During hardware performance tests on our budget Acer Aspire 3 test laptop, Malwarebytes lived up to its claims of light impact on PC resources. When left idle in the background, it had virtually no effect on typical tasks, as shown by PCMark 10’s extended benchmark. That test simulates video chatting, web browsing, gaming, image and document editing in free apps like GIMP and LibreOffice, and the like. 

If you work instead on Microsoft Office documents, our UL Procyon tests showed a minimal impact on results, with a less than 3 percent difference. Similarly, our Handbrake encoding test only dipped by about 4 percent.

Even running a threat scan continuously during our benchmarks didn’t disturb these numbers much—PCMark 10 slipped by about 7 percent, Procyon by about 14 percent, and Handbrake by about 19 percent. Given how rival antivirus engines from rivals like McAfee and Norton are far greedier about system resources, Malwarebytes does distinguish itself in this regard.

Conclusion

If you dislike complicated interfaces, Malwarebytes Premium Security can be a good fit as an alternative to Windows Security—so long as you don’t mind not getting as much bang for your buck. The app is attractive and clean in its layout, and the settings are clear and straightforward. However, more seasoned security vets may have reason to hesitate on pulling the trigger, due to the relatively low amount of independent testing data available about software performance.

Avoiding data breaches is all but impossible these days. You can’t control a company’s data security policies—you can only filter what information you share with them and mitigate the potential fallout. But don’t assume that once your personal info is on the dark web, it’s over and done. Unfortunately, we all still need to stay informed about the latest data breaches and leaks. 

Why? They keep you from falling for opportunistic scams.

Further reading: Best password managers 2024: Protect your online accounts

Let’s say you were affected by one of the latest breaches—perhaps as one of the potentially 500,000 Ticketmaster users or unknown number of Tile owners. But you don’t pay attention to the news, so when you get an email saying your credit card transaction failed for your ticket purchase (or a recall is in effect for your Tile device with serial number ending in XXXX), you click the link. 

What happens next could be one of a few bad outcomes. Perhaps you get subjected to drive-by malware. Or maybe you end up sharing or indirectly revealing more personal details an attacker needed to commit identity theft.

If you paid attention to the latest security reports, however, you might be more suspicious of messages related to Ticketmaster, Tile, or any other recent data leak. You’d be more likely to avoid clicking directly on links and you’d lean on your good security practices like accessing an official website directly. Scams rely on people reacting first and then thinking about the situation later on (if at all). If you’re already aware that someone could try to exploit your trust, you’ll be more careful about giving it.

OUr TOP Antivirus Pick

Norton 360 Deluxe

Read our review

Of course, a lot of us are busy and don’t have time to keep up with security news. You can lean on services to keep you appraised—in addition to regularly browsing technology websites (hello), you can subscribe to Have I Been Pwned as well as lean on any subscriptions you have (like a good paid antivirus suite, Microsoft 365, or Google One) that offer dark web monitoring. If you end up relying on a service, I’ve found it helpful to use more than one since the notifications don’t always cover the same breaches.

And yes, having to be so vigilant is a little depressing. Almost hard to remember that once upon a time, during the early days of the Internet, people would openly share their personal details with full trust in others’ goodness.

You could once count on privacy as given. Even when PCs first became widespread in homes, they could serve as tools for this purpose. You could anonymously answer your most embarrassing questions using a digital encyclopedia or early online database.

But as internet usage rose, control over our personal information began to plummet. Now we’ve reached a stage where no one has complete say in the details shared about us—and more and more, tech products and services don’t just spill the beans, but they’re also digging deeper into our lives.

Further reading: Best VPN services 2024: Top picks for speed, price, privacy, and more

Take Microsoft Recall—a new feature with the potential to save hours of headache. When active, Windows captures screenshots of everything you do, then leans on AI to comb through that data when you want to find the recipe you looked at last week, or a message your coworker sent a few months ago. Essentially your PC surveils you, but for your benefit. And as announced, Microsoft Recall was on by default (for compatible PCs) and stored the data in a way that could’ve still allowed hackers to see all your activity if your system gets compromised. (Make sure you’re always running an active antivirus, folks.)

After fierce blowback, Microsoft quickly retooled Recall. The company set it to be off by default, required Windows Hello for use, and switched to decrypting the files only when accessed (aka just-in-time decryption). The speed of response was commendable, but also suggested Recall could have been announced in this incarnation from the start.

Microsoft

Microsoft

Microsoft

And so I’ve wanted to know why that didn’t happen—especially given how AirTags showed the dangerous ways that tracking technology can be used. Microsoft had the opportunity to learn from Apple’s slow reaction to the use of AirTags for stalking and then layer in the extensive knowledge it already has about online threats and data security. It chose not to.

Thirty years ago, the buoyant optimism of technology made sense. The world was less interconnected; access to the internet was new. Innovation could focus on the best-case scenarios. Much like small towns where front doors can be left unlocked, you could release fresh features with little concern that someone was going to exploit them.

Times have changed. I know the big tech companies are aware, as I’ve spoken to several recently about security. I’ve also talked with them about their efforts to broaden the voices at their tables and include more viewpoints. But inclusion isn’t just identity, but a diversity of experiences too. And either the design teams are lacking wide perspective or it’s being overridden, and that’s a shame.

Tempering optimism with realism doesn’t make for a weaker product. It broadens the appeal. Personally, I’m much more likely to try Microsoft Recall in its current form (whenever it launches, anyway). If a company takes clear steps to show they truly understand all the nefarious ways a technology can be used and have added in protections, I’m far more likely to try it.

Sometimes, it feels like the internet is now a sprawling metropolis—a place where you not only have to lock your front door, but sometimes add an iron gate in front of it (and perhaps over your bottom-floor windows, too). Any tech product or service that even touches on that connectivity is like a car that gets you around. But the people selling those cars don’t seem to listen when city folk tell them to empty their interiors before parking. Instead, they just add a steering wheel lock and are surprised when no one wants a car with broken glass.

Further reading: Windows includes built-in ransomware protections. Here’s how to turn it on

In 2017, Russia-based Kaspersky Antivirus Software was deemed an unacceptable risk to US national security, thus fully barred from use by federal agencies in 2018. Then, in 2022, Kaspersky earned a spot on the US Federal Communications Commission’s blacklist.

But while federal subsidies could no longer be spent on Kaspersky, individuals and private businesses were still free to buy licenses. This will soon change with an upcoming US ban on Kaspersky’s products.

Announced Thursday by the Bureau of Industry and Security (a branch of the Department of Commerce), the prohibition applies to antivirus and other cybersecurity software developed and distributed by Kaspersky and its affiliates. The Biden administration cited high potential for interference from the Russian government in Kaspersky’s operations as the reason for its decision—the first of its kind.

The ban will roll out in two phases: starting on July 20 at 12:00am ET, Kaspersky can no longer sell its products to new US persons or agree to integrate its software into third-party products (like white-labeled services); then, on September 29 at 12:00am ET, all reselling, existing integrations, and licensing must cease. Virus definition and app updates will end, as will operation of the Kaspersky Security Network within the US and on devices belonging to US residents and citizens.

This window gives consumers and businesses time to transition to new software—and there are no legal penalties for continuing to use Kaspersky while you hunt for a replacement.

OUr Current Top Pick for Best Antivirus

Norton 360 Deluxe

Read our review

If you’re currently a Kaspersky user, you should switch to an alternative before that September cutoff date—don’t leave your PC and other devices unprotected from new threats. If you’ve been using the free version of Kaspersky, one easy fallback is Windows Security, the built-in antivirus, malware, and network protections offered by Microsoft with both Windows 10 and 11. For more premium options, check our recommendations of the best antivirus software, where you’ll find apps comparable to the Kaspersky product you’re currently using.

For a fuller rundown of the US government’s investigation of Kaspersky, you can check out the Bureau of Industry and Security’s dedicated site. Among the other details given, it explains the reasons for why Kaspersky is now considered a high security risk.

The biggest reasons include the possibility of the Russian government compelling Kaspersky into releasing sensitive data about its US customers, using Kaspersky as a vehicle to plant malware on devices owned by US persons, and spreading malicious code through white-label software to unsuspecting end users.

There’s even a link to the documentation that meticulously lays out the government’s actions, including its communication with Kaspersky about its analysis. (That could sound like the equivalent of paint drying, but you may find the BIS teardown of Kaspersky’s proposed mitigations an interesting read.)

You should definitely be using a password manager. Data breaches are happening more frequently, and that flood of stolen info has made cracking passwords even easier. And it’s not just the “password12345” variety that is at risk—passwords that use variations on a single password or substituting numbers for letters are also vulnerable. Even if you’re using unique, random passwords, storing them in a document or spreadsheet is not truly keeping them safe and secure.

While paid password managers offer nice extras, a free password manager still protects you from the risks of using weak passwords (or worse, using the same one everywhere). Instead of remembering all of your passwords, you just have to remember one password to access a single, secure place where all of the rest are stored.

And because free password managers come in different flavors and styles, you should be able to find one that fits your needs. Even Google’s password manager, built into Chrome and Android, can work as a no-cost option with a nifty Windows tie-in. Plus, if you find that the free versions aren’t enough, down the road you can always upgrade to a paid service as your needs grow.

Not sure what features you’ll need? Generally, you want a service that offers password generation, autoform filling, two-factor authentication, and the ability to move between different devices -and- device types. For more info, you can read our explanation of what you need to know about password managers.

Update June 19, 2024: Been tired of getting heckled for using Apple’s built-in password manager, due to its lack of robust features? That’s about to change, with Apple poised to soon release a free standalone Passwords app that should compete with offerings from Bitwarden, LastPass, and other dedicated password managers. You can read more about the new app on our sister site, Macworld.

Bitwarden – Best free password manager for most people

Pros

• Free plan offers unlimited vault entries and device syncing
• Paid plan is 70% cheaper (or more!) than rival services
• Supports two-factor authentication
• Send feature allows you to securely share notes and files with others

Cons

• Has occasional trouble capturing and filling credentials on websites
• Requires more manual setup than many paid password managers

Best Prices Today: Free at Bitwarden

Like several other services, Bitwarden offers a free tier and a paid tier—but its free tier packs in so many features that most individuals won’t need more. You can access the service across an unlimited amount of devices and a multitude of device types, enable basic TOTP two-factor authentication, and fill your vault with as many passwords as you’d like. The free personal plan also allows privacy-minded users to avoid the company’s cloud hosting and instead self-host. And in recent months, Bitwarden has added security features that let you generate random user names and email aliases (via integration with email masking services) in addition to random passwords.

Rivals dole out far less to their free users, and it’s particularly rare for them to grant unrestricted movement between multiple device types. (LastPass and Dashlane begin charging as soon as you want to leave the confines of a single device.) Most competitors are also not open-source like Bitwarden, which prevents their communities from being able to hunt for hidden backdoors or security holes.

The free personal plan even now includes real-time password sharing with one other account—perfect for couples or people otherwise closely linked. This feature allows unlimited password sharing between the two users, thus allowing both individuals to safely access current passwords for shared accounts.

Bitwarden’s other advantage is that should your needs expand down the road, the transition to a paid plan won’t cost much. A premium personal plan is just $10 per year (compared to $36-plus per year for rivals), and a family plan is $40 per year for up to six users (compared to $48-plus per year for rivals). And moving up to a paid tier does come with concrete benefits: support for more sophisticated forms of two-factor authentication, evaluations of your passwords’ health (e.g., strength, public exposure, etc.), encrypted file storage, and emergency access for trusted individuals.

Finally, if you decide to move elsewhere one day, Bitwarden allows you to export your passwords—with the option to do so as an encrypted file. But with such a generous and thorough set of features, you’ll likely not want to go elsewhere.

Read our full Bitwarden review

KeePass – Best free password manager for DIYers

Pros

• Free to use
• Highly customizable
• Provides full user control of data

Cons

• Requires a higher degree of technical proficiency than modern password managers
• Dated interface
• Core program lacks auto capture and replay and other basic password management features

Best Prices Today: Free at KeePass

KeePass may not look like much, as our review points out, but under the hood this desktop-application-based password manager has all the features the privacy- and security-minded could want, provided you don’t mind rolling up your sleeves a bit.

You return full control over who accesses your password vault—the program and its encrypted database file(s) are stored locally on your computer by default, unlike a cloud service, where you have to trust that servers are set up correctly and that the employees are trustworthy. Moreover, you don’t even have to install it on your system, but can run it via a portable .exe application kept on a USB stick.

KeePass is also an open-source program, which means that the community can always vet it for any hidden backdoors or just plain old security-crippling bugs. And you can enable two-factor authentication through the use of key files (which augments your master password), plus lock the database file to the Windows account that created it, too.

You’re not restricted to a Windows desktop system, either—because the program is open source, you can find community-created ports of KeePass for MacOS, Linux, Android, and iOS, as well as a boatload of plugins that let you customize it to your taste. With plugins, you can re-create most of the features you’d find in paid cloud-based services, like checking to see if any of your passwords have been found as part of a data dump.

You can also get creative with how you store your database file—for remote access, you can put it on a home server, or if you’re comfortable, a cloud service of your own choosing. (Perhaps you’re more comfortable with how Google safeguards its accounts than a dedicated password manager service, for example.) And should you ever decide to hang up your hat as a DIY password manager administrator, KeePass allows for easy exports of your passwords.

Read our full KeePass review

KeePassXC – Best free password manager for easy offline use

Pros

• Full control over login data
• Simple, straightforward interface
• Native support for browser extensions
• Free to use

Cons

• Very basic browser extension functionality
• Setting adjustments are necessary to get the most out of the app

So an online password manager makes you nervous. Or you instead prefer to have 100 percent control over your passwords. You could use KeePass, but that program can be…a little intense.

A great middle ground is KeePassXC, a streamlined alternative of the official KeePass app. It boasts a more modern interface, and is much more newbie-friendly. It also has a few features you’d expect from an online manager, like a browser extension.

Despite its simplified interface, you’ll still find many of KeePass’s best attributes in KeePassXC. It’s equally open source and free, for starters. Its file format is also the same as KeePass (and generally visa versa), so switching between the two programs is easy. You can download it for Windows, Linux, or macOS as well. And the app stores its encrypted database files on your device by default, so you have full control over your passwords. You can keep them offline, or upload to the cloud if you wish.

Using KeePassXC is a cinch. It’s hard to get overwhelmed by it—you can only create one type of entry in a database: Just logins, and you only get five fields to fill out within each entry. Set up of two-factor TOTP tokens, attaching files, and adding custom text fields is also supported, but that’s it. And unlike the official KeePass app, KeePassXC doesn’t support plugins.

You will still need to apply a little elbow grease to get the most of this app—for example, password sharing isn’t enabled out of the box. But good documentation makes light work of configuring the app. Generally, with KeePassXC, what you see is what you get, and that’s exactly the appeal of this offline password manager. Even leaving it (by exporting all your passwords) is an easily found option in the menu.

Read our full KeePassXC review

Best free password manager for simplicity: Google, Apple, or Firefox

• Website: Google Password Manager, iCloud Keychain, Firefox Password Manager
• Devices: Varies
• Open source: No
• Two-factor authentication (2FA): Yes

Password managers within mobile operating systems and major browsers have come a long way. Just a few years ago, we wouldn’t have advised using them at all, but now they’ve shored up their security and features to become a viable (though basic) option.

But basic isn’t bad—when it comes to password managers, the best service is the one that you’ll use. For some people, using a dedicated password manager can be too much to keep track of. In those cases, leaning on Google, Apple, or even Firefox can help upgrade your password security with little extra effort necessary. Their built-in password management tools can do the heavy lifting of creating and remembering unique random passwords across the web, and you won’t need to switch to a different app to make it work.

Of course, you will lock yourself into those ecosystems by doing so, but if you live your whole life within those waters already, you won’t be bothered by that fact. Google probably will appeal to most people, as Chrome is ubiquitous, but those who worry about data privacy can instead turn to Firefox and its pledge to not sell your data. Apple also shares Firefox’s commitment to privacy, but it’s the hardest platform to leave, as the company doesn’t provide an easy method to export passwords. We advise choosing Google or Firefox for the widest reach across devices, and Apple if you own both MacOS and iOS devices (and don’t plan to leave). Microsoft’s password manager in Edge can also be worth a look for people deeply enmeshed in the Windows ecosystem.

Committing to Apple and iCloud Keychain? Follow these tips on how to set it up and make the most of it.

The one primary downside to using your Google, Apple, or Firefox account to store passwords is that they’re not as tightly safeguarded as with a third-party service. Even if you secure your account with two-factor authentication (and you absolutely should if you’re storing passwords in it!), Google, Apple, or Firefox tend to be more lax about accessing passwords from a device that’s logged in. Often they don’t ask for reauthentication to use a stored password unless you specifically set it up, unlike most dedicated password managers—and that can be a security hazard on a shared device.

Free vs. paid password managers

Why bother with a paid password manager if you can use a free one? Paid services provide premium features that enable more control over your passwords and how you secure them. For example, you’ll often gain access to password sharing (handy if your household members all need to know the Netflix password), support for YubiKey and other more “advanced” forms of 2FA authenticators, and alerts that tell you if your password turned up in a data dump. Some paid services even have a signature feature that makes them stand out from competitors—for example, 1Password has a “travel vault” feature that hides some passwords when you’re traveling, as an extra security measure when you might encounter aggressive airport screening or simply lose access to your devices due to theft or lost baggage.

Our favorite Password manager

Dashlane

Read our review

Best Prices Today: $4.99 at Dashlane

If you need these kinds of features, check out our list of the best paid password managers to see which ones offer the best bang for your buck.

Humans are terrible at passwords. Simply put, we suck at creating them, we can never remember them, and we share them way too freely. Indeed, the very thing that can ensure our online security has become our biggest obstacle to it. And if you think you have good reasons not to use a password manager, here is why you’re wrong.

The best password managers relieve you of the burden of two of these problems—having to create and then memorize unique, complex logins on your own. Sharing your passwords is on you. Plus, these applications protect your passwords by encrypting your login info in a virtual vault—either locally or in the cloud—only allowing access with a single master password. So, if you’re looking to step up your security game, a password manager is one of the best ways to do it. And sure, web browsers are starting to offer password management features, but they’re not yet good enough. 

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All of our top picks for password mangers support a variety of operating systems such as Windows, Mac OS, Android, and iOS, as well as the major browsers. And all will let you sync your data across multiple devices, though you may have to pay extra for that privilege. Once you’ve found the right password manager for your needs, head over to our guide on mastering your password manager to make sure you’re getting the most from your software.

Update June 14, 2024: Invested deeply in Apple’s ecosystem? Its password management is about to get a major upgrade, as per a recent announcement at WWDC. You can read more about the Passwords app on our sister site, Macworld.

Dashlane – Best password manager overall

Pros

• Analyzes and rates the strength of your passwords
• Supports auto-filling web forms with personal profiles
• VPN and Dark Web scanning available with paid plan

Cons

• Expensive premium tiers
• Free plan limited to one device

Best Prices Today: $4.99 at Dashlane

Dashlane has always been a close contender with LastPass, so after the latter’s big data breach, it’s great to know that users still have Dashlane. A full-service password manager, Dashlane offers easy access to your logins, secure notes, payment data, and other information, all through its elegantly designed web portal or via one of its browser extensions for Firefox, Chrome, Edge, Opera, or Safari. Most importantly, its password game is strong, making it easy to generate and store complex, unique passwords and safely keep sensitive payment and personal data at your fingertips. With autofill deployed, Dashlane doesn’t just ensure you use best password practices, but that doing so is practically effortless.

Dashlane is free for a single device, but if you want syncing across multiple devices you’ll need a paid plan: The Advanced plan costs $33 annually or $2.75 per month, and adds dark web monitoring, to alert you whether your personal data is being used nefariously. The Premium account subscription costs $59.88 per year or $4.99 per month and includes all the features of the previous tiers and adds a VPN. The Friends and Family plan extends Premium plans to up to 10 accounts for $89.88 per year or $7.49 per month. These prices are a little higher than some of the competitors (indeed, that was one of LastPass’s small advantages), but Dashlane offers a premium product and has provided a reliable service for years.

Read our full Dashlane review

Keeper – Most security-minded

Pros

• Exceptionally strong security
• Seamless exprience across platforms
• Easy-to-use web interface

Cons

• Users may find some security features inconvenient
• Free version more limited than competitors’

Best Prices Today: $17.49 at Keeper Security

It’s a consumer’s market when it comes to password managers. While we have our clear favorite above, Keeper is a very strong contender in its own right. It emphasizes security more so than many other password managers. For instance, it eschews an automatic password update feature as even this process would require temporary access to your credentials.

While Keeper’s security-above-all-else mindset makes it one of the best, in the past it has come at the expense of things some consumers prize such as ease-of-use and aesthetics. To its credit, Keeper seems to recognize this and has taken strides to continuously update its interface to be more modern and user-friendly. While security-minded users stand to get the most out of Keeper’s robust features set, even the everyday user will be safer for using it.

Read our full Keeper review

LogMeOnce – Best for alternate login methods

Pros

• No need to remember a complex master password
• Robust security features
• Easy-to-use web interface

Cons

• Paid plans required to share more than a few passwords and files
• Number of features can be overhwelming

Best Prices Today: Free at LogMeOnce

While most password managers require a master password to access your password vault, LogMeOnce relieves you of having to remember even that. It uniquely offers the option of a PIN, biometric, or photo login to access your vault. This feature gives LogMeOnce a unique edge over other password managers.

Other than this distinctive feature, LogMeOnce operates similarly to its peers. It allows you to store and sync passwords and credit cards across your devices with end-to-end encryption. It also includes other features such as dark-web and cyberthreat monitoring, but these will come at a bit of an additional cost. Its unique features make LogMeOnce one of the most convenient password managers we’ve tested.

Read our full LogMeOnce review

Bitwarden – Best free password manager

Pros

• Free plan offers unlimited vault entries and device syncing
• Paid plan is 70% cheaper (or more!) than rival services
• Supports two-factor authentication
• Send feature allows you to securely share notes and files with others

Cons

• Has occasional trouble capturing and filling credentials on websites
• Requires more manual setup than many paid password managers

Best Prices Today: Free at Bitwarden

Bitwarden continues to offer a generous free plan that makes it a great option for users on a budget. It doesn’t charge you a penny to save unlimited vault items or sync your vault across all of your devices. This is a refreshing change from other password managers that place heavy restrictions on free users.

While it may lack some of the advanced features offered by the paid services and its no-frills interface isn’t the most user friendly, you can’t argue against Bitwarden’s price—it allows you to upgrade your security for free after all. It also offers an ultra-affordable paid tier with more advance features, but its free tier includes so much that you might not need anything else.

Free password managers come in all sorts of different flavors. Check out our roundup of best free password managers for more information.

Read our full Bitwarden review

KeePass – Best password manager for total control

Pros

• Free to use
• Highly customizable
• Provides full user control of data

Cons

• Requires a higher degree of technical proficiency than modern password managers
• Dated interface
• Core program lacks auto capture and replay and other basic password management features

Best Prices Today: Free at KeePass

KeePass is the password manager for those who like to control and tweak everything. It’s an open-source program, and lacks the sort of polished, comprehensive UI other password managers offer, and thus may put off the average user. But tech-savvy tinkerers will love all of the customizable settings. It is functionally a very solid program on its own, but to truly realize its potential you will need to have some technical proficiency to take advantage of add-ons. Another big plus for the security-minded, is that KeePass doesn’t store your data on the cloud. Everything is stored locally, so you don’t have to worry about the security protocols of an online service (ahem, LastPass) to keep your personal data safe. A savvy user will make the file accessible to other devices by using a private cloud account. If you relish the idea of a highly customized, DIY password manager that is free and unconstrained by a third-party’s policies and practices this is the product for you—and if you end up finding it too overwhelming, a simpler alternative like KeePassXC may fit the bill just as nicely.

Read our full KeePass review

IronVest – Best for masking

Pros

• Manages login credentials
• Hides email addresses and credit card numbers
• Blocks trackers

Cons

• Requires paid subscription to unlock advanced features
• Some features still in beta

Best Prices Today: Free at IronVest

While most password managers focus solely on passwords, IronVest sets out to not only safely store your passwords, but make your entire online experience more secure. IronVest offers an intuitive and straightforward way to keep your passwords, identity, credit cards, email addresses, and other sensitive information protected while shopping online. Still a relatively new company, IronVest impressed with its ability to obfuscate personally identifiable information and block trackers in addition to just being solid password management software. It does this by masking your information when shopping. When you enter your email address, credit card, or other information on a site, IronVest creates and submits a masked version to the vendor so that they never see your actual information. It’s a neat feature that helps IronVest stand out from the competition.

Some features of the service are still in beta, so you can expect minor tweaks and changes before the full release. Even though the application is still in its infancy, the feature set is solid and trustworthy. Besides, it’s currently free to test out, so it costs nothing to give this unique and innovative service a try.

Read our full IronVest review

What to look for in a password manager

At their most basic, password managers capture your username and password—usually via a browser plugin—when you log in to a website, and then automatically fill in your credentials when you return to that site. They store all your passwords in an encrypted database, often referred to as a “vault,” which you protect with a single master password.

Of course, most password managers do much more than this and many extend protection beyond your login credentials to other types of personal data. We narrowed it down to a few essential features that we looked for and you should too:

Password generation

You’ve been reminded ad nauseam that the strongest passwords are long, random strings of characters, and that you should use a different one for each site you access. That’s a tall order. This is what makes password generation—the ability to create complex passwords out of letters, numbers, and special characters—an indispensable feature of any good password manager. The best password managers will also be able to analyze your existing passwords for weaknesses and upgrade them with a click.

Autofill and auto-login

Most password managers can autofill your login credentials whenever you visit a site and even log you in automatically. Thus, the master password is the only one you ever have to enter. This is controversial, though, as browser autofill has long been a security concern, so the best managers will also let you toggle off this feature if you feel the risk outweighs the convenience.

Secure sharing

Sometimes you need to share a password with a family member or coworker. A password manager should let you do so without compromising your security.

Two-factor authentication

To an enterprising cybercriminal, your password manager’s master password is as hackable as any other password. Increasingly, password managers support multi-factor authentication—using a second method such as a PIN, a fingerprint, or another “trusted device” for additional verification—to mitigate this risk. Choose one that does.

Protection for other personal data

Because of how frequently we use them online, credit card and bank account numbers, our addresses, and other personal data can be securely stored in many password managers and available to autofill into web forms when we’re shopping or registering an account.

No online security measure is 100 percent foolproof, but most security experts agree that password managers are still the safest way for people to manage their myriad logins, and we agree that the benefits far outweigh the risks. Just choose your password manager carefully after researching all the options starting with this guide.

Editor’s note: Because online services are often iterative, gaining new features and performance improvements over time, our reviews are subject to change in order to accurately reflect the current state of the services.

Your PC is capable of running not one, but two Windows apps designed to protect you and your system against online threats: Windows Security and Microsoft Defender.

Telling them apart can be tricky, though. Thanks to a few name changes, what’s old sounds new and what’s new sounds old. If you haven’t kept up with the updates, it may not be clear which one you want — or if you actually prefer to run both. 

To help you decide, I’ve broken down what each app does. Let’s dig in.

What is Windows Security?

PCWorld

PCWorld

PCWorld

Previously known as Windows Defender, Windows Security is the most current name for the app that ties Microsoft’s basic antivirus and network protections together. Similar to third-party antivirus software, you get a unified interface to make changes to the app and access manual scans. Separate tabs break out various settings:

• Virus & threat protection: From this tab, you can run manual scans (Quick, Full, Custom, or Offline), change how your system screens for threats, and set up more stringent ransomware defenses.
• Account protection: Guard the Microsoft account tied to your PC, as well as strengthen Windows’ login process.
• Firewall & network protection: Refine your settings in order to tailor screening of incoming and outgoing traffic.
• App & browser control: Adjust how Windows screens apps for suspicious behavior, and if Edge runs in an isolated, sandboxed environment.
• Device security: Get information about your PC’s deeper security protections in Windows — core virtualization, security processor (TPM), and secure boot.
• Device performance & health: See a quick overview of the general “health” of your PC with regard to software issues or storage drive issues.
• Family options: Filter viewable content for users on the PC, as well as see breakdowns of device usage. You can manage your family group through the web portal.

^{Click on the arrows (desktop) or swipe (mobile) to see each tab in the Windows Security app.}

What is Microsoft Defender?

PCWorld

PCWorld

PCWorld

Confusingly, the Microsoft Defender app shares its name with the antivirus engine powering Windows Security’s malware protection — but they’re not directly tied. Instead, the Defender app offers additional defenses against online threats for Microsoft 365 Personal or Family subscribers. It works equally with either Windows Security (including the Microsoft Defender Antivirus engine) or third-party antivirus software.

• Privacy protection: You can funnel your online traffic through Microsoft’s encrypted VPN service whenever you’re on a network connection, like public Wi-Fi you don’t trust. You get up to 50GB of data per month.
• Identity theft monitoring: Through a partnership with Experian, Microsoft Defender will alert you to data breaches and any fraudulent activity on your credit reports. The service also provides up to $1 million in restoration costs and $100,000 in lost funds if you are a victim of identity theft.
• Device protection: You can watch to see if your devices (up to four) or those linked through your Microsoft Family Group have any suspicious activity occurring and be notified through this app. Notifications will be sent through Windows’ notification system, and you can also view them through the Defender app.

^{Click on the arrows (desktop) or swipe (mobile) to see the different sections of the Microsoft Defender app.}

Windows Security vs. Microsoft Defender

Windows Security and Microsoft Defender are complimentary apps, rather than competing. 

Windows Security defends against online threats, including ransomware, and it’s included for free with a Windows license. (Heads-up: If you ever see a popup notification telling you to call a phone number or pay to renew, you’ve either visited a compromised website or your PC has been directly compromised — time to run an antivirus scan ASAP.)

Microsoft Defender then rounds out those protections by letting you shield your online activity from other users on the same network, keeping you informed of data leaks and credit fraud, and monitoring your devices for vulnerabilities. 

Should you use Microsoft Defender?

Alaina Yee / Foundry

Alaina Yee / Foundry

Alaina Yee / Foundry

If you’re already a Microsoft 365 subscriber, having both Windows Security and Microsoft Defender set up and active is comparable to a very simple third-party antivirus suite subscription — and you don’t have to pay extra.

However, if you’re not yet a paid Microsoft 365 user, want additional integrated features (like a password manager), or prefer a different interface, independent antivirus software will be a better fit for your needs. You can check out our top recommendations in our best antivirus software roundup, which covers all types of plans.

Online security used to be simple. All you needed was a good password, and in the early days, you didn’t need a ton of numbers, letters, and special characters to achieve that goal. No need for antivirus software to verify you were logging into legitimate sites, either. Privacy also wasn’t quite as fragile as it is today. Your email wasn’t constantly being lost to yet another data breach.

But as hackers and criminals get more sophisticated, so have recommendations for best security practices. Currently experts recommend the use of unique, random passwords (and the more characters, the better), plus two-factor authentication as a strong baseline. But you can go further—and companies on the frontlines of cybersecurity are trying to make that easier. 

the best ANTIVIRUS SUITE

Norton 360 Deluxe

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One such step is called masked email. (You may also hear it referred to as email masks or email masking.) It formalizes a long-available feature known as email aliases as a privacy and security measure. A randomized email address is created to hide (aka mask) your true email address for an online account. Any correspondence sent to the masked email address gets forwarded to your actual inbox. The sender doesn’t know about the email’s final destination. They’ll only find out if you accidentally reply to a message as your main account.

The benefits are twofold. You get better privacy, because the more you use different masked email addresses (ideally, one per online account), the more you limit the potential fallout of the information leaking in a data breach. That email address won’t work on other websites as a login ID or for a password reset. Nor can someone take over the address like with an actual account. It’s just a forwarding address, and a disposable one at that.

Masked email vs email aliases

PCWorld

PCWorld

PCWorld

If you already filter your incoming email and/or guard against spam by using email aliases, masked email may sound like an empty marketing term for a familiar feature. But there is a slight difference—email masking is a narrower use of email aliases, with a particular style in how the aliases are created.

With masked email, the focus is on auto-generated random, unique identifiers. Think 4k9xkeo@emailservice.com or even siftflask.3242@emailservice.com. You don’t need to come up with your own aliases, thus streamlining their use. The suggested aliases also completely obscure your email address, which inserting periods into your username (e.g., random.username@gmail.com) or adding a plus sign and an extra phrase (e.g. randomusername+alias@gmail.com) don’t achieve. You should also get streamlined controls to block incoming mail or disable the forwarding address if it gets flooded with unwanted email.

The result is a faster, easier way to maintain anonymity in your contact info—and for sites that default to email addresses as usernames, your login info too. With the added benefit of integration with some browsers and password managers, email masking saves time and reduces the hassles of the DIY route.

Ways you can start using masked email

PCWorld

PCWorld

PCWorld

Two common ways to get email masking is through an email provider or a dedicated service. Email providers offer the feature as an integrated part of the service. Access will likely cost you a little bit, though. Only a few providers offer masked email, typically bundled into paid plans (e.g., Apple iCloud+, Fastmail, ProtonMail). That said, ProtonMail does offer a limited amount of masks for free, and prices otherwise start as low as $0.99 USD per month (iCloud+).

a password manager that supports email masking

1Password

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Dedicated services can be used with any site, main email address, browser, password manager, etc. You create an account using the email address you want to receive the forwarded email, and then create masks through the web interface or a browser extension. Some services also offer premium plans that allow sending and replying from an email mask, support larger file attachments, and generate email masks for multiple email addresses. All email masks are managed through the service, which is less convenient than with an email provider. You won’t have a single repository for your direct and forwarded email.

To really simplify the incorporation of email masking into your daily flow, choose a service that integrates with a password manager. Once you connect your email account or masking service, you’ll be able to create the email masks directly within the password manager. It eliminates the need to copy and paste the new forwarding address when saving login info. Right now, 1Password has a partnership with Fastmail, and Bitwarden has relationships with Fastmail, SimpleLogin, Addy.io, DuckDuckGo, Forward Email, and Firefox Relay. Apple users can use the company’s Hide My Email feature; email masks automatically save to iCloud Keychain if you actively use the latter.

Alternatively, you can pick a password manager like NordPass that directly handles email mask generation.

Free email masking services

PCWorld

PCWorld

PCWorld

While getting masked email through an email provider usually costs money, dedicated services usually offer a free plan. They’re more limited in scope but still a great start.

Addy.io allows you to create unlimited “standard” email masks. These are based on your Addy.io username, however—so if you want more privacy, you can then use one of your 10 free shared domain email masks. You can send and reply from your aliases, too. The catch: You’re limited to 10MB (yes, megabytes) of bandwidth per month. The company estimates that to be roughly 140 emails max. (Start adding in attachments and that drops very, very fast.)

SimpleLogin offers 10 free forwarding addresses. There are no bandwidth limitations, and forwarded emails can be up to 25MB each. The service also allows you to reply to email from an alias, too.

Firefox Relay lets you create just 5 free forwarding addresses, with a 10MB size limit per email and no bandwidth limitations. It’s the most stripped down of the freebie tiers, but it makes the list for a couple of reasons: It works across devices (and browsers—there’s a Chrome extension, too), and upgrading to the paid tier with unlimited addresses and the ability to send email from aliases is just $12 per year. (If you’re intensely focused on privacy, consider quitting Chrome and switching to Firefox while you’re at it.)

PCWorld

PCWorld

PCWorld

Apple users also have an alternative option called Sign in with Apple. For apps and websites that allow you to sign in with your Apple ID, you get access to a limited form of Hide My Email, the company’s email masking service. Apple will generate a random forwarding email that will pass messages from the site or app to your Apple ID’s linked email address. Unlike with the version of Hide My Email that comes with iCloud+, you can’t change the generated aliases or create ones independently. Also, as a general security note, signing in with this method can carry risk, since anyone with access to your Apple account could also then access linked services and apps, too.

P.S.—Unique user IDs help online privacy and security, too

The general concept behind masked email can be applied to creating user IDs, too. For sites that ask you to create a dedicated username (e.g., randomuser1), going with a new identifier each time makes it harder for people to track you across the web. Unauthorized access to your other accounts is less likely, too, when your username and password are different for every site and app. And you can combine masked email with a unique user ID so that you’re really hard to trace—useful when signing into sites that have yet to implement passkeys, a more secure alternative to passwords. (Or when, in the name of saving your future bacon, you still keep a username/password combo as secondary method of logging into an account with passkeys enabled.)

Sounds complicated? This is why a password manager is so handy. It lets you continually level up your security with very little mental burden, especially if you pick one with support for email masking and passkey storage. Choose a paid password manager or a free one—either will make life easy.

Antivirus makers stuff a ton of features into their most touted-plans, but not everyone needs those extra bells and whistles. Maybe all you seek is the basics for online protection in a single software package—and for just one device.

Norton Antivirus Plus is one slimmed down option that hits those notes exactly, with malware protection and a password manager as the standout features. As an affordable entry-level suite, you can skip the extraneous pieces of more expensive plans without sacrificing what you really need. The only caveat: You can acclimate to Norton’s quirks, including an app with two different interfaces.

What does Norton Antivirus Plus include?

Though its name lacks the reference, Norton Antivirus Plus is part of Norton’s 360 lineup—albeit as the most stripped down version, both in features and number of devices supported. Its primary focus is on direct threats to your online security, with the antivirus engine protecting you against malware and the firewall blocking network threats. The app screens for dangerous links and attachments as well.

This subscription also offers 2GB of cloud backup storage, access to Norton’s password manager, and PC utilities that include the ability to clear temporary files and monitor for outdated software.

Norton / PCWorld

Norton / PCWorld

Norton / PCWorld

How much does Norton Antivirus Plus cost?

If you buy through Norton, the Norton Antivirus Plus plan costs $30 for the first year, and then increases to $60 thereafter. You can try the software for 30 days before committing, though you’ll have to put down a credit card. Subscriptions also come with a 60-day money-back guarantee. Be aware that Norton automatically enrolls you into auto-renewal at sign-up.

Norton Antivirus Plus (1 device)

• $30 for the first year
• $60 per year thereafter

Norton Antivirus Plus supports PC, macOS, Android, and iOS, but this plan limits you to just one device.

You can save even more on Norton Antivirus Plus if you purchase your license through third-party retailers like Amazon or even PCWorld’s own software store—generally the price hovers around 75 percent off the normal price, and sometimes with extra bonus months.

Key features of Norton Antivirus Plus

Installation and user interface

After purchasing a subscription to Norton Antivirus Plus, you’ll get access to the installation file, which automatically downloads.

After installation, the My Norton window will be the first thing you see—it’s one of two interfaces you’ll interact with. It has a contemporary look and serves as a springboard to the most important features. You can start scans, update the app and its virus definitions, jump over to the password manager, manage your cloud backups, and fire up the secure browser. You can also run the software updater, as well as dig into a few program settings. (Tip: Turn off notifications for “Special offers” in the settings while rooting around.)

Generally, this view is simple and straightforward, with one exception. You get no back button while navigating through submenus (like in settings).

For a deeper dive into the program, you must switch to the Classic view by clicking on the Open button within the Device Security part of My Norton. A second window with a more outdated vibe will appear. Selecting any four of the tiles (Security, Internet Security, Backup, and Performance) reveals the full lineup of features related to that topic. The fifth tile takes you back to the My Norton view.

PCWorld

PCWorld

PCWorld

Also within the Classic view are the feature settings (like behavior of antivirus scans). You can adjust how antivirus scans, the firewall, and backups behave, as well as the protections for email and apps, and a several app settings.

This dual interface setup can be confusing initially—but it becomes less of a problem the more you use the program.

Virus, malware, and threat protection

Real-time protection

Norton Antivirus Plus protects your PC in real time by scanning new or changed files, watching for unusual app behavior, and screening for malicious scripts, attachments, and links in downloads and local email. Additional defenses (like protected folders, if you have a particular concern about ransomware) are only available on higher plans—though these days, ransomware is less of a concern for most individuals.

To avoid phishing sites and other malicious pages (including ones that cause your PC to automatically download sketchy files) while browsing, you must first install the Norton Safe Web extension. It blocks dangerous sites and provides visual indicators for how trustworthy a link is.

Scheduled and manual scans

By default, Norton Antivirus Plus will run a full scan of your PC once per month. Scheduling can be very precise—if you want to run one every 13 hours, it’s possible. You can also set a schedule for the other default scan types (Quick Scan, Drive Scan, Folder Scan, File Scan), as well as for any custom scans you’ve created.

PCWorld

PCWorld

PCWorld

For manual scans, you can choose Scan Options from the Device Security dropdown menu in the My Norton view, or click on Scans in the Classic view. Norton includes the option to scan for hard-to-find threats, as well as get diagnostic reports and recommendations on which of your files should be examined.

Advanced users may find scan settings too simplified—for example, the full scan only allows you to change if it looks within compressed files, scans network drives, removes infected folders automatically, and wipes low risk and tracking cookie files. The other default scans have even fewer settings. You also can’t choose to check over all files, even if unchanged.

Browser extensions

Rare is the PC that isn’t continuously connected to the internet. Since web browser use is a daily occurrence for most everyone, Norton includes several browser extensions to boost online safety: Norton Home Page, Norton Safe Search, and Norton Safe Web.

Norton Home Page switches your default to Norton’s own start page, while Norton Safe Search changes your default to Norton’s search engine. Meanwhile, Norton Safe Web scans links results for malicious content and also adds a visual badge to Google and Bing results showing if it’s safe to click (green is good, red is dangerous). Of this set, Norton Safe Web is the most useful—most people already have their own preferred home page and search engine.

PCWorld

PCWorld

PCWorld

A fourth browser extension, Norton Password Manager, lets you manage your passwords. While not strictly necessary (you can access the service through the website), it’s the most polished of all available extensions and easy to use.

Cloud backup

Having backups of your most important files is a wise move—even if you’re not afraid of ransomware locking you out, premature storage drive death or a lost device always loom as dangers. Norton attempts to help on this front by allowing you to save copies of your documents to its servers.

By default, cloud backups will upload all but email and video files in your Windows document folders (i.e., Documents, Pictures, Music, etc). You can add or exclude file types, as well as specific files and folders. Norton also allows the creation of different backup rules (called a “Backup Set”), which is handy since you can only save to one location per backup set.

PCWorld

PCWorld

PCWorld

Note that for the Norton Antivirus Plus plan, you don’t get much included storage—just 2GB. That won’t be enough to back up music or a even a moderate photo collection, but should adequately cover your important text-based documents.

You can also create backups that save to a local drive—but in my experience, this option is buggy. On more than one computer, Norton would claim it had saved files to an external drive, but the files wouldn’t actually appear. You’re better off setting up your own system for local backups.

Password manager

Though simple, Norton’s password manager is good—a pleasant contrast to services that feel too stripped down. Setup is straightforward, with Norton prompting you to create a separate vault password, then to download a recovery key. (If you forget your vault password, you’ll need this key to recover the account.)

This double login system (once with your standard Norton credentials, then your vault password) would normally be a pain, but using passwordless authentication through the Norton Password Manager mobile app nips that in the bud. It’s seamless, if fractionally slow with authentication approval requests. You can access your vault through the website, a browser extension, or the mobile app.

PCWorld

PCWorld

PCWorld

Note that for the browser extension, you can’t set the clipboard to automatically clear a copied password after a certain time. That’s a feature usually offered by rival password managers.

PC utilities

Norton includes a handful of PC tools in its antivirus suite, which replicate existing Windows features, sometimes in a more limited way.

Optimize Disk is one such example. It’s Norton’s version of the Windows Optimize Drives utility, but more limited—it only defragments hard disk drives. Windows’ native tool is the better call, since it handles both HDDs and SSDs with the appropriate protocols. (Solid-state drives don’t benefit from traditional defragmentation.)

File Cleanup wipes temporary files in Windows, including any unwanted Internet Explorer files. (If the latter is applicable to you, it’s time to upgrade your operating system.) Again, you’re better off using the native Windows utility for this task.

PCWorld

PCWorld

PCWorld

Startup Manager controls which apps launch automatically when Windows starts up—but you can easily manage this in Windows by typing startup apps in Windows search.

Graphs is the only interesting one of the lot, showing a history of system use (installations, downloads, optimization, virus detections, quick scans, and alerts). If you like to know exactly what your system is doing in the background, this overview makes those details easily accessible.

For these four tools, you must dig into Norton’s Classic view to find them. An additional tool lives in the My Norton view—Software Updater keeps track of out of date apps and lets you update them directly from the interface. (Our recommendation: Use the utility as a notification system, and then manually update yourself, to avoid potential software issues down the road.) Overall, Norton’s inclusion of these features is a nice thought, but not what sells the suite.

Secure browser

If you’re wary of Chrome, Norton Antivirus Plus includes an alternative called Norton Secure Browser. It’s also based on the same Chromium code as Google’s browser, but with a more curated experience.

Norton Secure Browser drops onto your PC preconfigured with the Norton Privacy Guard (which blocks trackers and some ads, but not sponsored search results), Norton Password Manager, and Coupons add-ons already installed. You can only uninstall the Password Manager and Coupon extensions.

PCWorld

PCWorld

PCWorld

If you want to add more add-ons, Norton offers a pared-down storefront—but you can get more by scrolling all the way to the bottom for a link to the Chrome Web Store (or just hop on Google or Bing search). That’ll allow you to install stronger ad-blocking add-ons like uBlock Origin, if you want more comprehensive screening.

Customer support

Help with Norton Antivirus Plus is available within the app, both from the My Norton and Classic views. Of the two, the Classic view is easier to navigate, but the My Norton view puts the answers to commonly asked problems right upfront.

You can also look up information on Norton’s support pages and community forums, and get technical support through chat, social media, and phone assistance. The in-app help and support pages are a good place to start, while the forums and company support are better options for troubleshooting.

Updates and maintenance

Norton automatically updates the virus definitions and app version, but the LiveUpdate feature within the app also lets you manually check for pending updates. It looks for any changes to the antivirus protection, Norton app, and process protection.

If you need to find the version of your Norton app, you can access it through Help > About in the Classic view.

Performance

Norton generally performs well in tests performed by leading security research institutes—for online protection, at least. It caught 100 percent of the threats in AV-Test’s zero-day attack and malware tests for January and February 2024 (the most current as of this article’s last update). None of the 15,362 samples for recently widespread and prevalent malware or 278 samples of zero-day attacks (including threats spread through the web and email) were able to slip past.

In AV-Comparatives’ real-world protection test for February through March 2024, Norton spotted 99.2 percent of the 246 test cases, with 9 false positives. (Rival ESET had zero false positives, while AVG and Avast posted five.) The samples were a mix of exploits (like drive-by downloads), malicious web addresses, and URLs linking directly to malware. Effectively, Norton will protect against dangerous websites, but its sensitivity can end up blocking legitimate websites or downloads.

AV-Comparatives / PCWorld

AV-Comparatives / PCWorld

AV-Comparatives / PCWorld

When facing AV-Comparatives’ March 2024 malware protection test and its 10,053 samples, Norton scored a 81.8 percent offline detection rate, 98.9 percent online detection rate, and a 99.97 percent online protection rate, with 26 false positives. Of these results, the online protection score matters most, since it represents how well antivirus software stops threats that reside on your PC—and Norton’s is among the top on the chart.

That said, Norton’s offline detection score shows how much the program relies on an internet connection for that protection. Without the company’s servers bolstering its screening abilities, the app isn’t as sharp at identifying threats. It trails almost 15 percent behind its best competition in catching malware locally. That uneven performance means you must wait for malware to get up to mischief before it gets blocked and wiped. Meanwhile, rival Bitdefender posts a 96.1 percent offline detection rate, while still also offering a 96.1 percent online detection rate, 99.92 percent online protection rate, and just eight false alarms.

Norton did not participate in AV-Comparatives’ November 2023 Advanced Threat Protection Test, which evaluates a security suite’s resistance to more sophisticated, targeted attack methods like malicious scripts and fileless attacks.

AV-Comparatives / PCWorld

AV-Comparatives / PCWorld

AV-Comparatives / PCWorld

As for PC performance, Norton Antivirus Plus can have a notable effect on common tasks—if running full scans while you’re active on the computer. The impact is softer during everyday activities, as shown by our PCMark 10 test. This benchmark simulates web browsing, video chatting, gaming, and file editing in open-souce programs like GIMP and LibreOffice. When idle in the background, watching for real-time threats, Norton Antivirus Plus had virtually no impact on PCMark 10’s test scores. But when a full scan ran simultaneously throughout the benchmark, the results decreased by about 6 percent.

That performance drop increased during our UL Procyon benchmark, which simulates document editing in Microsoft Office apps like Excel, Word, and PowerPoint. Benchmark results fell about 6 percent at idle, and almost 10 percent during a full scan. That difference swelled for our Handbrake encoding test, with a 11 percent decrease on idle and a sizable 22 percent tumble during a full scan.

However, these numbers don’t reflect how Norton typically handles full scans. After an initial full scan, subsequent ones only examine new or changed, which speeds up the scan time and reduces the hit to system resources. And by default, full scans are scheduled for off-hours.

Still, if you’re often copying to or changing files on your PC, Norton’s affect on system performance is something to consider—especially if you use a mid-range or budget computer.

Should you buy Norton Antivirus Plus?

As an entry-level software suite, Norton Antivirus Plus is an affordable, reliable option for those who don’t mind its dual set of interfaces. Its one-device limitation can be tight in an era where most people own at least a computer and a smartphone, but it’s cheaper than similar rival plans while offering more features. If you don’t need extra devices or features — smartphones are very secure even without third-party antivirus protection these days — this can be an ideal antivirus solution.

Like rival case vendors, Fractal Design arrived at Computex 2024 with several notable products in tow, two of which should make small form factor fans happy. But fans of the Raspberry Pi—arguably the smallest form factor—only got a teaser of what could be, in the form of the ittiest, bittiest Fractal Design North.

Yes, that’s right: Fractal created a Raspberry Pi case in the style of its popular wood-trimmed North line for its tradeshow suite. This micro enclosure is a far cut above the more typical acrylic cases for the ultra-affordable single-board computer. While some are fun or cute (like the retro Nintendo console-themed ones), none look like they belong in a sleek home.

Currently, Fractal Design has no formal plans to produce a North Micro, though members of the press (not just me, ahem) already have begun encouraging the idea. If it’s a cost issue, let me be the first to say I’ve bought decor priced higher than what this RPi case probably would go for. (Maybe the same as the Raspberry Pi board itself, maybe even more.) This is about aesthetics, and trust me, the decorative pieces I own aren’t remotely as practical.

Speaking of elevating your living room vibe, Fractal Design’s actual case reveals hit extremely polished notes. The Fractal Mood sports a fabric layer over its metal mesh panels, allowing it to blend in with your speaker setup, while the Fractal Era 2 updates the original’s top panel to a slatted wood piece for better airflow. Neither would look out of place within a chic entertainment system. The Mood becomes available on June 18th for $150 in dark and light colorways, and the Era 2 will release in Q3 2024 for $200 in silver, charcoal gray, and midnight blue.

Meanwhile, the unofficial Fractal North Micro has no release date—yet. But perhaps with enough positive feedback over X (Twitter), Instagram, and Facebook, Fractal Design will make it available for purchase.

You know what to do.

Ever completely stop for a moment, struck breathless by beauty? The Phanteks Evolv X2, newly announced at Computex 2024, sparks that kind of reaction. (My mug literally paused in mid-air when I saw it.) Its shape may be like other tower cases, but its looks are altogether something else.

Though boxy and rectangular, the Phanteks Evolv X2 carries slender lines, sports a chimney layout, and comes graced with tasteful accents. It looks distinctive and fresh—and very welcome. These days, most standard tower cases are utilitarian, with air intake from the front, exhaust out the top and back, and perhaps the option to also intake from the bottom. Meanwhile glass aquarium enclosures tend to go wide with dual-chamber interiors.

The Evolve X2 blends the best aspects of each style, keeping the narrower proportions of a traditional tower by only venting air from bottom to top, while putting glass windows on all sides. It then adds striking metallic aluminum trim within the interior, while also recessing the mounts for the bottom fans and top radiator so their bulk is hidden. All together, it’s so very pretty.

Should this understated and classy vibe fail to catch your attention, Phanteks is launching other new cases as well. The NV5MKII and NV9MKII mirror popular looks while supporting back-connect motherboards, and the Eclipse G400A carries forward a more typical angular, gamery aesthetic. There’s also the Eclipse G400N, which shows off sleeved cable routing behind the motherboard.

But if you’re completely enthralled by the Evolv X2, you won’t have too long to wait for it—the expect launch is in Q4 of this year, for a price of $150 USD. In the meantime, you can get a closer look through YouTube coverage on channels like GGF Events and Gear Seekers.

Montech may not be as prominent as Lian Li, Phanteks, or Corsair, but it’s known for fashionable budget PC cases. The company is also apparently not one to shy away from controversial design choices. Just look at the Computex 2024 announcement of the Montech HS01 Mini, a small form factor case trimmed in leather.

Yes, that’s correct. Rather than going with wood (the current “it” material) for accents, the HS01 Mini sports bold diagonal swaths of leather along its sides. Additionally, a thin strip highlights the front ports, while a charming strap forms a carrying handle.

Without that handle, the less charitable might have gotten away with mocking comments about this case’s looks (I can hear the references to cows and sheer ugliness already). But the carrying strap gives the HS01 Mini the air of practical haute couture.

And sensible it is, as surprisingly large hardware can fit inside the diminutive interior. The HS01 Mini accommodates a top-mounted 360 radiator, both regular and back-connect micro-ATX motherboards, and apparently GPUs up to four slots in width (!). You can also choose three different positions for the power supply. When this SFF chassis launches in Q2 of 2025 (sigh) for a estimated price of $95.90, you’ll be able to choose between white and black colors. The black colorway might end up even more chic than the white version—a little more understated hi-fi vibes.

At least, I think so. And any of my friends who might tell me otherwise if I end up with an HS01 Mini are welcome to find my front door and show themselves out.

Asus’s most electrifying product at Computex isn’t its AI laptops, though those certainly are part of this year’s hot new tech. No, it’s the ROG Mjolnir Portable Gaming UPS, a confusingly named but clearly awesome portable power station described by the company as “designed for both indoor gaming and outdoor activities.”

(Uninterrupted power supplies typically run only off of AC power and aren’t meant to go outdoors, while portable power stations have more options for charging and can be hauled around.)

Why you’d want to cart this work of practical art outdoors is a mystery to this city dweller, but perhaps there’s wisdom in making the most of an investment. This take on Thor’s hammer certainly isn’t going to come cheap. Asus packs in a 768Wh lithium-ion phosphate battery with a 10ms switchover time, along with four AC outlets, two USB-A ports, and two USB-C ports. USB-C Fast Charging is supported, with charging up to 100W for power delivery, as is Qi 2.0 MagSafe-compatible wireless charging. And should you need it, you can recharge the whole unit via solar energy. 

Asus claims this portable power station can keep you gaming on a PC with an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4080 for up to an hour. You can monitor how much juice is left through the unit’s LCD display.

Asus

Asus

Asus

For the cherry on top (and honestly, the best part about the ROG Mjolnir), the hammer handle is a magnetic flashlight. I’m not too embarrassed to say this is the reason why I pitched this story to my editor, much less why I already love the idea of this thing. Pricing hasn’t been announced yet, but given its specs and similar (boring) power stations, it’ll likely run $600 to $800—so getting that much more utility out of it is fun.

(Though it does make one wonder how easily portable this thing will be. But again, this city dweller isn’t going to mind too much.)

No release date has been announced yet—Asus only has it listed as “coming soon” on its website. But all good things come to those who wait.

Whether you hate or love the sleek, minimalist vibe, NZXT is known for its aesthetics. At Computex 2024, the company held true to form with two announcements in particular—one for a new style of RGB fan, and another for a revamp of one of its popular cases.

The NZXT F240 RGB Core, F280 RGB Core, and F360 RGB Core are single-frame fans, which incorporate two 120mm, two 140mm, or three 120mm fans (respectively) as a lone unit. Like modular or daisy chained fans, just one cable is needed to connect for lighting and power signals, if you also use the coming NZXT Control Hub. (Otherwise you’ll use a splitter cable to use the 5V ARGB and fan headers on a compatible motherboard.) However, you can’t break them apart into individual fans for building flexibility.

This design isn’t a fresh concept (Cooler Master’s been producing a similar type of fan for years), but the expansion into fans with cleaner cabling is. That’s good news for NZXT enthusiasts—since NZXT doesn’t participate in open RGB standards, you previously had to choose between standard RGB fans with individual cables, or going outside the ecosystem and dealing with multiple pieces of software to control your RGB hardware.

NZXT describes these fans as balanced for both high airflow and high static pressure, so you can position them anywhere in a case without further thought.

NZXT / Unsplash (Annie Spratt)

NZXT / Unsplash (Annie Spratt)

NZXT / Unsplash (Annie Spratt)

Speaking of cases—the H7 Flow will soon sport a retooled layout that lets you add up to three 120mm bottom-mounted fans. NZXT achieves this tweak with a now-vertically oriented power supply. It also includes three 120mm fans installed at the front, rather than two. If you’d like to combo a new F-Series Core fan with this refreshed H7 Flow, an RGB variant will be available with the F360 RGB Core preinstalled.

Basically, between the mesh front panel and these changes, you can try to make your (imperfect) wind tunnel dreams come true. 

The NZXT F240 RGB Core will sell for $45, the F280 for $50, and the F360 for $70 when they launch this month. If you want to use them with the upcoming NZXT Control Hub, you must wait until Q3 2024. That accessory will cost $50.

As for the H7 Flow, the standard version is available now on the NZXT website for $130. The RGB Core model launches later this month for $150.

For more Computex 2024 hardware coverage, be sure to keep an eye on PCWorld all week. Lian Li has also already fired off news about fresh fans and cases, and more reveals from other companies are sure to follow.

Computer case trends come and go, but wood-trimmed chassis have stuck around for a bit—and will for a little longer, if Lian Li has anything to say about it. Not longer content to be outshone by Fractal Design, Lian Li unveiled the Lancool 217 at Computex 2024, a unique ATX tower featuring subtle wood accents.

As shown, the case gives the vibe of classic high-fi gear, without overtly veering into a mid-century modern look. (Nothing wrong with that—but the Fractal Design North doesn’t blend seamlessly into every home’s aesthetic.) That’s not the case’s only standout feature, either. It comes equipped with two massive 170mm fans preinstalled at the front, ready to move some serious air.

If this understated look isn’t your thing, Lian Li also revealed two other cases. The Lancool 207, which the company describes as a micro-ATX case that fits ATX motherboards, makes the most of its size by allowing those ATX mobos to dip into the space normally reserved for the power supply and cable management. Meanwhile, the O11 Vision Compact lightly downsizes the original aquarium-style case to the O11 Dynamic’s proportions, albeit slightly wider to better accommodate graphics cards and airflow.

Both the Lancool 217 and the O11 Vision Compact will support back-connect motherboards.

For those not interested in a new case, Lian Li also announced two accessory updates that should cause RGB fans to perk up. (I did.) The company’s cable-clutter-killing modular PC fans are getting a third iteration, this time with a focus on controller upgrades. Lian Li says to expect wireless support, and for the units to extend their control to include multiple Unifan generations and other Lian Li products. (That last bit is welcome, since it will further reduce clutter and headache when building with all Lian Li accessories.) 

Lian Li is also embedding SignalRGB into a beta version of its L-Connect 3 software, allowing for more unified control of RGB hardware and peripherals, including products from closed systems like Corsair and NZXT.

Of course, this isn’t the only hot news out of Computex 2024—plenty hit during the show’s opening wave of press conferences. AMD announced Ryzen 9000 CPUs and continued support for its AM4 platform; Nvidia is launching an AI gaming assistant; and Arm gave us a peek behind the Copilot+ curtain. This seems a year ripe for juicy announcements—stay tuned throughout the week!

Don’t let your favorite music and movies go to waste as you play them through your laptop’s built-in sound system. Your audio can come out sounding weak and lifeless with even the best laptop speakers. External PC speakers — along with a good set of headphones — are essential for getting the best fidelity from your media files.

Luckily, you don’t need to buy a complete 7.1 surround sound system to make up for it. For less than $100, you can find some affordable speakers that provide quality audio. It’s true that at this price point you will need to make a few compromises, but the best budget computer speakers can still offer a satisfying listening experience while saving you money, and that’s what we call a win-win.

Why should you trust us? Because our PC speaker reviewers have tried most of the budget speaker models on the market, so they know the ones that stand out from those that don’t quite hit the mark. Our testing criteria is also as thorough as it gets. To test each speaker, we set it up in a typical environment — on a desk in a home office — and play a variety of audio tracks while pushing a speaker system’s sound capabilities to the limit. We consider everything from how practical the design is, to the audio fidelity. We also compare and contrast models to make recommendations based on our findings.

To get insight into our extensive testing process, you can read our article “How we test PC Speakers at PCWorld.”

Creative Pebble – Best overall budget speakers

Pros

• Extremely affordable
• Excellent audio quality
• Space-saving design

Cons

• No Bluetooth connectivity for mobile devices

Best Prices Today: $17.64 at Amazon$19.99 at Creative Labs

Why we like the Creative Pebble

We wouldn’t have thought a set of $20 speakers could impress us much, let alone turn out to be our favorite. But Creative Pebble’s simple USB-powered 2.0 system defies all odds, producing richer, more immersive audio than you commonly find in speakers at twice the price — and twice the size. Though we wish these offered Bluetooth connectivity for mobile devices, the Pebble is still a top-notch choice.

Who should buy the Creative Pebble

If you’re strapped for cash and still want decent audio, then the Creative Pebble is a no-brainer. You just need to have a USB-A port and a 3.5mm audio jack handy in your PC. You’ll also need to be cool with the fact that your speakers will be tethered, so you’ll need to unplug them if you want to move your rig.

Read our full Creative Pebble review

Sound BlasterX Kratos S3 – Best budget 2.1 system

Pros

• Wooden construction enables natural, warm sound
• Small footprint
• Deep, rich bass

Cons

• No extra audio inputs for mobile devices

Best Prices Today: $59.99 at Amazon

Why we like the Sound BlasterX Kratos S3

Though the Sound BlasterX Kratos S3 is marketed for gaming, we like how its wooden construction enables warm, natural sound and beefy bass for all of our media. At just $80 it’s an inexpensive entry point into 2.1 speaker systems, without taking much space at all.

Who should buy the Sound BlasterX Kratos S3

If you like a warm, resonant sound and punchy bass in your games or other media — the kind of sound you often get with a larger 5.1 multi-channel system — but have limited space, then the Sound BlasterX Kratos S3 will suit you to a tee.

Read our full Sound BlasterX Kratos S3 review

Creative Pebble Pro – Best speakers for multiple devices

Pros

• Clear, detailed audio
• Can get very loud
• No distortion at high volume
• Noise cancellation through Creative’s software

Cons

• Volume adjustments are more minimal at higher volumes

Best Prices Today: $49.99 at Amazon$56.99 at Lenovo

Why we like the Creative Pebble Pro

Imagine our top overall pick, and then soup it up with more features — namely, much more connectivity and sweet RGB lighting. If you have multiple devices (plus a headset and microphone), these speakers let you centralize everything. You can connect devices via USB, a 3.5mm aux cable, and Bluetooth, and there are jacks for a 3.5mm headset and a dedicated 3.5mm microphone, too. It’s a great upgrade option if you want the Pebble’s great sound but want just one set of speakers for your gear.

Who should buy the Creative Pebble Pro

Anyone who wants the versatility of being able to use their speakers with more than just their PC — so a smartphone, tablet, or other device. These speakers are also ideal if you use a 3.5mm microphone and like the idea of using the Creative Pebble Pro’s software to do things like muting or unmuting your calls or filtering out unwanted noise.

Read our full Creative Pebble Pro review

Monoprice DT-3BT – Best premium Bluetooth option

Pros

• Clean audio
• TRS, RCA, and Bluetooth connectivity
• Capable of very loud volume
• Easy access to aux input and headset output jacks

Cons

• Audio will sound a little hollow to some ears
• Audio distortion at higher volumes

Best Prices Today: $99.99 at Amazon

Why we like the Monoprice DT-3BT

For years, Monoprice has sold affordable, quality tech gear without fanfare or frills. It continues this tradition with its 50-watt DT-3BT desktop speakers, which sport clear audio and support the most common kinds of connections. There’s of course Bluetooth 5.0 for clean, wire-free setups, but TRS and RCA jacks are available, too. Combined with the understated appearance and tidy $100 price tag, they’re an excellent option for speakers with good sound and simple setup straight out of the box.

Who should buy the Monoprice DT-3BT

If you like to hear layered elements in your music, then you’ll really like the Monoprice DT-3BT’s emphasis on higher and lower tones. These speakers also project sound very well, so choose them if you like to fill up your living room with the sound of your tunes or media.

Read our full Monoprice DT-3BT review

Logitech Z207 2.0 Stereo Computer Speakers – Best multi-source option

Pros

• Impressive audio quality
• Allows you to switch between three connected devices
• Easy setup and operation

Cons

• Larger than many other desktop speakers
• No audio controls other than volume

Best Prices Today: $59.39 at Amazon$59.99 at Lenovo

Why we like the Logitech Z207 2.0 Stereo Computer Speakers

These speakers support both a wired connection via a 3.5mm audio jack and wireless connections via Bluetooth. They produce an impressive sound that’s clear and defined, with a surprisingly impressive bass considering they don’t have a subwoofer. At 9.5 x 3.5 x 4.9 inches (HWD), they’re on the larger size, and thus aren’t the most discreet speakers, but they deliver good performance.

Who should buy the Logitech Z207 2.0 Stereo Computer Speakers

The best feature of the Logitech Z207 2.0 Stereo Computer Speakers is that they can support three simultaneous connections at once. So, if you’re a multi-device user and like the idea of switching between different audio sources, these speakers are ideal.

Read our full Logitech Z207 2.0 Stereo Computer Speakers review

Cyber Acoustics CA-2890 Speaker Bar – Best space-saving option

Pros

• Clip mount keeps it off your desk
• Clear, distortion-free audio
• Can get very loud

Cons

• No bass
• Weak stereo audio

Best Prices Today: $24.99 at Amazon

Why we like the Cyber Acoustics CA-2890 Speaker Bar

This basic speaker bar may be outclassed by other extremely affordable rivals in some ways, but it has a feature that keeps it in the running — you can clip it to a monitor. That gets this speaker off your desk, a plus for anyone that loves minimalism. Add in clear audio reproduction, and lack of distortion at high volume, and those seeking a good compact option can forgive it for its lack of bass and proper stereo output.

Who should buy the Cyber Acoustics CA-2890 Speaker Bar

Anyone super tight for desk space or who just likes a clean, uncluttered place to plant their PC. If that’s you, then you’ll love the speaker’s clip-on functionality that will win you back some much-needed real estate.

Read our full Cyber Acoustics CA-2890 Speaker Bar review

AmazonBasics USB-Powered Computer Speakers with Dynamic Sound – Best dirt-cheap option

Pros

• Well-rounded sound
• Plug-and-play setup
• Low price

Cons

• Can’t turn off accent lighting

Best Prices Today: $15.99 at Amazon

Why we like the AmazonBasics USB-Powered Computer Speakers with Dynamic Sound

These AmazonBasics USB-powered computer speakers get you well-rounded audio for a rock-bottom price. They’re easy to use with simple plug and play USB connectivity. They also feature attractive glowing blue LED accent lights below each speaker’s bottom radiator.

Who should buy the AmazonBasics USB-Powered Computer Speakers with Dynamic Sound

If your budget consists of just loose change and your goal is simply to release the sound from your PC without it sounding terrible, then these speakers will do nicely.

Read our full AmazonBasics USB-Powered Computer Speakers with Dynamic Sound review

Creative Pebble X Plus – Best for less than $150

Pros

• Compact design
• Good sound quality for the money
• RGB effects, if interested
• Support for many audio sources

Cons

• Fixed, short cables
• Limited control from mobile
• No software for Mac

Why we like the Creative Pebble X Plus

With USB, Bluetooth, and 3.5mm auxiliary input, the Creative Pebble X Plus offers more than just plug-and-play speaker functionality. Indeed, you can connect it up wirelessly to your phone or wire it up to create a complete audio solution for your bedroom, dorm room, or home office. Two speakers and a woofer draw a peak 60 watts of power to comfortably fill a room with sound. They produce a clear soundstage with good level of detail in the mids and treble range. A plastic film under the woofer was a small quirk that softened the bass in our playtesting, but removing it fixed that issue.

The device makes a stylish presence on a desktop or near a PC. The two speakers, which are shaped like spheres measure a compact 5.48 inches, while the cube-shaped woofer is only slightly larger at 6.24 inches. The speakers also sport RGB lighting, which you can personalize in Creative’s companion app.

Who should buy the Creative Pebble X Plus

Anyone who wants a complete audio solution for their bedroom, dorm room or home office. These speakers may be compact, but they sound great, feature both wired and wireless connectivity options, and are also powerful enough to fill up a room. Plus, the RGB lighting will liven up your personal space.

Read our full Creative Pebble X Plus review

In the days of tech yore, antivirus software was just that. You installed the application and let it scan your system for malware.

But as protecting your PC became more complicated, vendors slowly morphed their offerings into full suites. Nowadays, a firewall and other safeguards like a browser extension, password manager, and VPN get dropped onto your system. You might even get a handful of utilities focused on optimizing your computer, rather than defending it.

To help you figure out what components are most important — as well as necessary for your situation — we’ve broken down the most common elements of today’s antivirus software.

Antivirus

At the heart of every antivirus plan is the engine that detects threats to your PC. These days, modern antivirus software both anticipates and roots out the presence of viruses and other malware, including ransomware. 

Blocking malware before it even hits your computer is a key defense against situations like your PC being commandeered for botnet attacks, having your data stolen, and getting locked out of your documents and folders. It also can stop creepy behavior like being spied on through your webcam or having everything you do recorded (including what you type).

An antivirus engine does this by screening the websites you visit, as well as the email and apps on your PC, for phishing links and potential malicious downloads. Phishing attempts usually try to steal your passwords, credit card details, or other personal information by pretending to be a legitimate site and then capturing whatever data you input.

Ed Hardie

Ed Hardie

Ed Hardie

The other half of the protection comes from the antivirus engine’s ability to detect and then eliminate malware that does land on your PC. Typically, this monitoring happens in at least two forms: Real-time scanning watches for changed or new files, as well as unusual behavior from apps and Windows itself. Scheduled scans (especially if they’re full system scans) dig into your PC to make sure nothing was missed by the real-time scanning.

Antivirus apps and virus definitions get continual updates as new malware appears in the wild. So long as you buy a subscription from a reputable company (like those reviewed by leading security organizations AV-Test and AV-Comparatives), you’ll be kept up to date for your whole term. That applies even if you bought a plan labeled as 2024 and the year crosses over into 2025.

The plan you buy will dictate how many devices are covered — usually subscriptions support macOS, Android, and iOS gear in addition to Windows PCs. On rare occasion, Chromebooks are supported as well.

Firewall

Traffic doesn’t just go to your computer, but from it, too — and depending on the app, that data may contain info you don’t want to fall into the wrong hands. A malicious app can spy on what you’re doing, and then transmit that to a would-be hacker. A good firewall blocks those attempts automatically.

A reliable firewall also closes networking ports on your PC, so that unknown parties can’t connect and find a way into your home network. Think of it like a house where shutting the external doors causes them to blend into the walls, making it difficult to discern. However, if a door is left open, someone could walk in and then take what they want, set up cameras to spy on you, or change your phone settings to forward all text messages to them, among other things. A firewall is a bit like a guard that always stays alert, making sure no one can get in.

Browser extensions

The most common add-on to your browser (be it Edge, Chrome, or Firefox) is one designed for online protection. Usually, it’ll at least add extra icons to search results to warn you away from suspicious sites. The better ones also block trackers and ads to defend your privacy and help you avoid malvertising — that is, malware spread through compromised ad networks.

PCWorld

PCWorld

PCWorld

Other extensions help tie your browser into components of the overall antivirus suite, making their use seamless. Most often you’ll see one for a password manager get installed, so that you can capture, create, and use entries in your vault.

On occasion, you’ll see antivirus suites that offer plugins for shopping coupons and deals. These are not related to security at all, and can actually conflict with keeping your privacy.

Password manager 

These days online security extends beyond simply defending your PC against malware. That’s why today’s software also blocks phishing websites, which generally try to capture sensitive information (like your login info) by pretending to be a legitimate site. If your credentials get stolen, you could end up with problems ranging from unwanted credit card purchases all the way to full-blown identity theft. 

By using a password manager, you can prevent the simplest form of account hacking — credential stuffing. A bad actor takes usernames and passwords leaked through data breaches, then tries them across the web to see what else can be accessed with that same login info. Since some people reuse their passwords, attackers can breach a whole new set of accounts easily. 

PCWorld

PCWorld

PCWorld

Password managers let you generate strong, unique credentials, which thwarts this kind of hack. They also take away the burden of trying to remember dozens (if not hundreds) of secure passwords. And with data leaks and breaches so commonplace nowadays, these services make changing your password far simpler and faster, too.

Not sure if you need a password manager included with your antivirus software? Our guide can help you make that decision.

VPN

At first glance, a virtual private network may seem more in the realm of privacy protection — or circumventing geolocation restrictions. But privacy now often overlaps with security, especially if you find yourself on a public network. And that’s the primary utility of VPN services provided through an antivirus software plan.

A VPN acts as secure tunnel for data passing between your PC and the websites you visit. Because it’s encrypted, nobody snooping on the same network will be able to tell what servers you’re actually in contact with. They can only see that your PC is communicating with the VPN. So on a public network, anyone scoping out potential targets ends up with less info about your activity.

PCWorld

PCWorld

PCWorld

Of course, you must trust a VPN if you use one, because it ends up seeing all of your traffic. Typically, a reliable antivirus maker should meet this requirement — at least from a security perspective. Currently, AES 256-bit encryption is the standard. Don’t settle for less.

Also investigate the privacy policies — like how logs are kept (if they are). Be aware too that VPNs provided with antivirus plans don’t provide as much anonymity as independent services. You typically can’t pay anonymously, for example. For more details, our VPN guide has the full rundown.

If you’re not sure if you need a VPN as part of your antivirus suite, our rundown can help you answer that question.

Dark web monitoring

An unfortunate reality is that websites get hacked, and that number continues to increase. Some weeks you’ll see near-daily news about ransomware, data breaches, and related occurrences.

The more sites you’ve used, the more likely your username and password have been stolen, and so too your real name, physical address, email address, phone number, birth date, social security number (if you live in the U.S.), and other such details. This info about you usually ends up on the dark web — a part of the internet where people share and sell illicit information, whether that’s stolen data or hacking tools.

PCWorld

PCWorld

PCWorld

Free tools exist to get alerts about data breaches and leaks (like Troy Hunt’s Have I Been Pwned site), but they don’t always catch everything. For dark web monitoring, your best offense is a wide defense. Antivirus software can be another set of metaphorical eyes helping keep watch. Most basic paid subscriptions will at least keep tabs on the email address associated with your account. Stepped up plans monitor more than one email address, along with credit card info, bank info, and personal details. (How much you share is up to you, based on your comfort with the antivirus company’s ability to keep those details safe.)

Good dark web monitoring will alert you quickly once new info surfaces — which helps you immediately change your password, enact a credit freeze, or take other protective measures based on what details leaked.

Cloud backups

With the prevalence of ransomware, a good backup system is a paramount part of defending your PC. Having a current backup of your files means no one can truly hold your PC hostage. They can encrypt your files and keep you from accessing them — but the backup lets you restore the lost files.

Usually, you’re on your own to do this, and properly at that, which involves the 3-2-1 method (three copies of the data, at least two different media types, and one kept off-site). Having cloud backup built into your antivirus software can help supplement and boost your current process. It serves as a different type of backup (compared to storing data on an external drive), and it also covers being off-site.

PCWorld

PCWorld

PCWorld

If an antivirus service offers this feature, make sure you’re getting cloud backup, rather than cloud storage. Cloud backup copies your files to the cloud, regardless of later changes made on your PC or other source device, and saves versions over time. Meanwhile, cloud storage mirrors files across all locations — if you delete a file on your hard drive, it disappears in the cloud, too. So this kind of setup will undermine the point of having a backup on hand.

Parental controls

Not everything on the internet is appropriate for the tiny humans in our lives — and there’s not enough hours in the day to police all their online activity. Similarly, some adult family members don’t always pay attention to what types of sites are risky, which can cause headaches for both them and you.

Parental controls can help with managing these situations. Such tools allow you to filter and restrict online activity, with the better parental controls able to block specific sites and site categories on PCs and mobile devices (either universally or at specific times of day). They also can shut off internet access during certain hours, like during school or bedtime.

PCWorld

PCWorld

PCWorld

Separately, parental controls can also track location on mobile devices. However, compared to Android and iPhone’s built-in location tracking, this particular feature isn’t always as reliable. So when evaluating the usefulness of parental controls, focus more on their ability to restrict content and usage.

Data broker opt-out

Data brokers are the bottom-dwelling vacuum cleaners of the internet. They hoover up information about you from every corner — companies that sell your data (including places you shop), public records, social media, warranty registration info, and more. Those details then feed into people search sites, where entering a person’s name and city or state can reveal their current and past addresses, phone numbers, birth date, known relatives, judicial records, and even social security number. 

Hackers can then use your personal data to wage social engineering attacks on you. Impersonating you when chatting with a customer service agent becomes much easier if they know your mother’s maiden name, the last few places you lived, your siblings’ names, and the like. That can then lead to identity theft and financial losses. And then at the far extreme end of dangerous behavior, someone can also use people finder sites for swatting attempts.

In response, entry and mid-tier level antivirus suites sometimes will scan for your info on data broker sites, using your email address, name, birthdate, or other identifying info, and see where you turn up. More expensive subscriptions will also automatically attempt to remove you from those sites, so that you don’t have to spend time filing requests for opt-out. Compared to dedicated opt-out services, this feature in an antivirus plan often isn’t as comprehensive, but the cost tends to be cheaper overall, too.

Identity protection

Identity theft is an ever-looming threat these days, thanks to untold data breaches. And while you may think antivirus software wouldn’t overlap, the more expensive subscriptions offer protections that start with identity monitoring. You’ll get a heads-up about things like changes to your credit, activity involving your social security number, phone number transfers (i.e., someone switches your cell phone provider, a possible sign of SIM jacking), even title changes if you own your home.

PCWorld

PCWorld

PCWorld

Top-tier plans may additionally include insurance-like coverage. If you’re ever victim of identity theft, you could get up to $1 million for remediation costs (having help reporting identity theft, restoring lost funds, etc).

Generally, you can handle identity threats and theft on your own, but this kind of service is meant as a time (and sanity) saver. The one potential drawback is the level of trust you’ll need to place in a third-party and their security practices, since they’ll end up learning much of your most sensitive information.

Social media privacy scan

If your social media accounts are set so that everything’s public, you can reveal a lot of personal information to strangers — people in your life, places you frequent, products you use or like. These details can then be used for social engineering hacks, or at a more extreme end of the scale, online or real-world stalking.

You can lock down your accounts on your own, but privacy settings can be annoying to find and change. So some antivirus software subscriptions (typically the more expensive plans) will offer to scan your social media settings to alert you to privacy issues. Think of this feature as not necessary, but potentially helpful if you’re too time-strapped to completely do it yourself.

PC utilities

Data shredder

This kind of utility is a secure-delete tool for files — so long as they’re stored on a hard-disk drive. For solid-state drives (which most modern laptops and PCs use for storage), a different method is required for secure deletion.

Data shredders work by overwriting files repeatedly so the original data can’t be recovered. The better tools let you select the protocol used for the overwrite process, as well as how many passes are done.

PCWorld

PCWorld

PCWorld

System optimizer

You can already clean up Windows within the operating system itself — it has its own tools for deleting temporary files, dumping operating system installation files, and otherwise tidying up. But they’re not easily accessed through one simple interface, which is a gap some antivirus makers try to fill.

On the surface, a system optimizer utility can be helpful, but beware: You should first understand what you’re wiping beforehand. Altering your Windows registry in the name of spring cleaning could cause system issues down the road.

Mostly, if you know what you’re doing, system optimization tools can save a bit of time. But generally, most people shouldn’t buy an antivirus suite because it includes this kind of utility.

Software and driver updater

Software updates are definitely a key part of online security — out-of-date code leaves vulnerabilities open for bad actors to exploit. Some antivirus software monitors your apps and Windows for updates you’ve yet to run.

However, even though you can run updates directly through your antivirus software with this feature, you’re better off treating it as an alert system. Unless you’ll never update without outside assistance, most programs take care of their patches automatically, as does Windows. For the rare driver update that must be run manually, downloading the driver from the manufacturer website guarantees you run the right version. You’re usually best off getting updates direct from the source, to avoid potential version conflicts.

Sensitive file protection

You may have files you don’t want prying eyes to see — and while you could encrypt them, restricting access to them is sometimes an acceptable intermediary step.

PCWorld

PCWorld

PCWorld

A few antivirus vendors include this feature with their software, which blocks general access to files and folders you’ve chosen. Instead, only specific apps can access them. So if you have a documents folder you specifically want to keep on lockdown, you can keep unapproved apps opening files in there. The idea is to prevent malicious or compromised apps from digging into documents you don’t want them in, unbeknownst to you.

In practice, this feature can be hit or miss—but when it does work reliably, you get a second line of light defense against snoops.

File encryption

This tool is a rarity, but it can dramatically boost the security of your sensitive files — even if you already encrypt your local storage drive. 

Typically, antivirus software with this feature will let you create an encrypted container file, which then gets mounted on your PC as a virtual drive. Anything you store on that virtual drive will be locked down with said encryption once you unmount the container file.

Even if you already encrypt your whole storage drive using Windows Bitlocker, locking down individual files and folders this way adds extra protection. Why? If you’re logged into Windows, and someone gets access to your PC, Bitlocker won’t keep them from seeing your files. However, if the encrypted container file isn’t mounted, they won’t be able to see inside it.

PCWorld

PCWorld

PCWorld

When considering the usefulness of a file encryption feature, check if it uses at least 256-bit AES encryption — currently considered a standard level of protection. Pass on those that don’t.

Backup services

On rare occasion, you’ll see this utility in an antivirus suite, where you can use the software to run automated backups.

However, for this kind of feature (which is mission critical for your data and your overall sanity), we prefer dedicated software, which tends to be more robust. As appealing as an all-in-one software solution is, when it comes to backups, it’s best to choose an app based on how well it does the job.

Other things to consider

Customer service

If you need (or want) human assistance with your antivirus software, including basic walkthroughs of installing the app, some top-tier plans offer premium customer service. 

Separately, top-tier plans also sometimes have agents available to help with identity theft — not just walking you through the process of remediation, but handling the details as well.

Scam protection tools

Phishing scams continue to get more sophisticated (and prevalent) over time — and in response, antivirus vendors have begun releasing tools to navigate around them. For example, McAfee now has a mobile app designed to automatically detect and block text messages containing phishing links.

Not all of these utilities are paid, either — Bitdefender’s Scamio chatbot is free. You just copy and paste a text link (or a screenshot of a text link), and it will tell you if it’s possibly dangerous. Similarly, you can paste in email or text messages to judge if the sender is genuine or just trying to play you.

See PCWorld’s guide to the best antivirus software for our recommendations.

At its Build 2024 conference, Microsoft unveiled a new AI trick for Windows PCs—one that can help users locate or remember details from their digital past. It could be looking for a PDF file worked on a couple of weeks ago. Or perhaps finding the name of a restaurant recommended by a friend earlier this year. Called Microsoft Recall, this feature could save you many lost minutes trying to hunt down whatever’s eluding your memory.

Yet even before its launch, Microsoft Recall is already giving security experts indigestion. Underneath the futuristic shine, Recall comes with a potential massive hit to user privacy—and by extension, security. 

Here are the reasons for the unease, echoed by many security experts this week—and what you should do when you finally encounter Microsoft Recall in the wild.

1) It watches and records everything you do on your PC

Microsoft

Microsoft

Microsoft

When active, Microsoft Recall monitors your every move while you’re on your computer, capturing screenshots every five seconds as your screen changes. Local AI helps Windows determine when you’ve done something different enough to warrant a screengrab.

Local AI also assists in parsing the images to extract text, so that details can be offered as search results whenever you decide you want to look up, say, the green jacket you saw online a few weeks ago.

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Windows 11 Pro

By default, Microsoft Recall will commandeer anywhere between 25GB to 150GB on your storage drive—up to about three months worth of data. Nothing is sacred, either. Passwords, tax details, and other sensitive details (really, anything you do) are fair game. To protect some of your privacy, you must manually exclude websites, private browsing sessions (if you don’t use Edge), and applications from Recall’s reach.

Even then, according to Microsoft’s own help files, you can still end up with possible a paper trail of your activity in excluded apps, websites, and private browsing windows. In a couple of scenarios, screenshots are still taken and saved as temporary files, then deleted. Deleted files (and any remaining Recall snapshots) can theoretically be recovered from a storage drive by anyone who can access your Windows account — include hackers and other people in your household. More on that later.

2) It’s on by default

Microsoft says it informs users about Recall during setup of compatible PCs, and lets them change the settings or turn off the feature entirely at that time, too.

But practically speaking, most people blaze through initial setup screens. Many even skip right over those interstitial screens without really reading them. The result will eventually be thousands (if not millions) of people unaware Microsoft Recall is capturing all their activity.

3) Security measures only go so far

PCWorld

PCWorld

PCWorld

To mitigate the huge privacy risk posed by a collection of screenshots chronicling every bit of user activity, Microsoft offers two protections. The first is keeping everything local to your PC. No data is shared with cloud servers or Microsoft directly. In fact, you don’t even need an internet connection for this feature to work. Other users on the same computer also can’t access your Recall screenshots.

Second, Microsoft encrypts all Recall images using either Device Encryption or BitLocker (Windows Home vs Windows Pro, respectively).

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Neither defense is bulletproof, however. Local processing doesn’t mean local access only—in general, your PC’s contents can be viewed remotely. And if you’re logged into your Windows account when an attacker infiltrates your PC, your files won’t be protected by encryption. They’ll be automatically decrypted when accessed. Make sure your antivirus defenses are up if you plan to use Recall so you have help keeping hackers away from all those snapshots!

4) Searching your activity history cuts both ways

Microsoft Recall can help you remember everything you did last week…and it can equally tell someone else everything you did last week. One is useful, and the other is potentially dangerous—particularly in abusive relationships, where one person may not have the ability to keep their account access solely to themselves. (Or may not know it’s been compromised.) We’ve seen similar outcomes with other tracking technology.

How to make Microsoft Recall safer

Microsoft

Microsoft

Microsoft

First—not everyone will get Microsoft Recall, which is still in a preview phase. Only those with Copilot+ PCs (which currently extend to just upcoming Snapdragon X Elite and X Plus computers) will get this feature, though it’s expected to be available on new Intel and AMD laptops with more powerful NPUs later this year.

If you are in that camp, the easiest move is to turn off Microsoft Recall all together. Head to Settings > Privacy & security > Recall & snapshots, then untoggle Save snapshots.

If you choose to leave it on, take a moment to configure which apps and websites are fair game, and which are blocked. Chrome and Firefox users should also turn on automatic blocking of private browser windows. (Only Edge’s InPrivate windows are excluded by default.)

You can also choose to reduce how much storage is allocated for Recall screenshots (though that will limit how far back the feature will be able to search).

Microsoft Recall isn’t inherently a terrible feature—but it could be used against you when it goes public, if you’re not careful. Security researchers have already expressed a keen interest in trying to crack this tool, and malicious actors are no doubt smacking their lips at the prospect as well.

Further reading: Windows includes built-in ransomware protections. Here’s how to turn it on

In Windows, an admin account has full access and control over your entire operating system, which is exactly what hackers hope for when sending malware out into the world. If you’re on a Windows account that’s allowed to install programs, then malicious apps will have an easier time taking root in your PC.

And so, for years, the going advice has been to avoid a Windows administrator account for day-to-day use, since funny business could happen unbeknownst to you in the background.

But this advice could soon become obsolete.

During Microsoft’s Build 2024 event, the company announced a welcome but surprising change to Windows accounts: for administrator accounts, admin-level access will switch to being available only when needed rather than at all times.

Currently, Windows admin accounts have full access to the operating system for software installation, registry key changes, and other system file alterations, while standard accounts can only perform those tasks by entering an admin account’s credentials. Going forward, explicit approval is required for both types of account.

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This update simplifies the advice given by security experts and tech journalists on how to improve your digital security. The prevailing recommendation has always been to create two accounts on your PC—one as an admin account that you use to set up the computer with all the software and settings you need, and another as a standard account that you use as your daily driver. But most people still use an admin account every day, since that’s the default.

At the moment, Microsoft says admin users will authenticate approval requests using Windows Hello (a simplified version of what happens with the two-account system outlined just above).

You probably don’t have access to this more-elegant handling of account permissions yet because it’s been first released to private preview, but Microsoft says in its blog post that will move to public preview “soon.”

Further reading: How to turn on the built-in ransomware protections in Windows