Bitdefender Free

[Skhilled]

Once a year or so I check out the reviews of what free antivirus software is rated the best. Lately, it seems to be Bitdefender. So, I've installed it and will give it a trial run.


https://www.bitdefender.com/solutions/free.html

[Chen Zhen]

I've been using it for a few years now and it works well.

[Skhilled]

I've used it in the past but it's been a number of years since then.

[Chen Zhen]

Just an update on my experience using BitDefender AV...

I used it on my last computer with no issues but purchased a new computer about 1 year ago.
It was a bit of a bare bone with a good motherboard, CPU & lots of expansion slots.
I bought it like that to expand the sound & graphics to my liking + saved some cash.

After Windows 10 put out some updates about 4 months ago, I experienced an issue with my computer not being able to install one of the updates.
It would repeatedly reset once a day (I schedule resets at night) trying to apply the update that failed.
Also my computer would crash sometimes with an error code related to memory or graphics card/driver.
I thought I had bought a lemon or perhaps some hardware I installed was not completely compatible.

Then I read somewhere that people sometimes had issues with their AV conflicting with these sort of things.
So I uninstalled BitDefender and opted another free AV to see if it resolved the problem.
I was immediately able to install the Windows update and my computer has not crashed since doing this.
Perhaps the 2 issues were directly related (ie. the crash was because it needed that Windows update).. who knows but now all seems well.

Perhaps this story can help others having similar issues where they can try using other AV software or perhaps temporarily disable the one being used to install updates and/or drivers.
My decision was to just use another free AV which for the moment is ZoneAlarm.

[Skhilled]

Ah ha! My PC had been rebooting on its own lately and I've got no error message...just reboots. I thought it was just dust bunnies as I can see some dust accumulating around outside of the case where the fans are positioned. I just assumed it was overheating but also wondering if something I installed recently was causing this. I thought it may be Dashlane, the password manager, as it was giving my a problem.

I'll uninstall it and see if that works.

[Skhilled]

btw, I've used ZoneAlarm in the past. I just installed it. I'm sure I won't have that same problem with this.