Recommendations for Browser, Anti-Virus, and Ad Blocker (New Laptop)

[MeanDean]

Finally got tired of putting up with this ancient (8-9 YO) laptop and a new one is on it's way.

Reaching out to the vast CF knowledge and experience base to get input on recommended browsers, anti-virus, and ad-block stuff.

My old one had the default browser being Firefox. It has Norton which I've come to hate; pop-up warnings for this or that, that you can have them scan for, then if you want to pay extra they will remove them. Just feels too much like bloatware. Don't need pop-up commercials from my anti-virus, just something that works quietly in the background.

I was using AdBlock Plus.

TIA

PS: No recommendations from the Google-verse please.

 

[Cloneon]

Brave, Avast (believe adblocker is part of Brave).
That said if it wasn't for one MS dependent graphics program, I would have abandoned MS 2 decades ago, But, alas, I'm still forced to gobble so much bloatware for a kernel that essentially hasn't changed in forever.

 

[jdoggivjc]

I've been told by someone who worked on my laptop recently that with Windows 11 Windows Defender - what comes with Windows - is plenty good enough. Maybe someone who knows more about computers will laugh this off, but I haven't had any problems recently.

 

[Bigman38]

I've been told by someone who worked on my laptop recently that with Windows 11 Windows Defender - what comes with Windows - is plenty good enough. Maybe someone who knows more about computers will laugh this off, but I haven't had any problems recently.

Defender has been the best antivirus I've had in a long time.

I don't know antivirus that well but I thought the general consensus was Defender is good enough you don't need 3rd party software anymore for your personal PC.

 

[CloneOutWest]

As others have said, Windows Defender is plenty good...you don't need anything else.

As far as browsers, I would say Firefox or Brave. If you use Brave be sure to turn off all the crypto wallet stuff and Brave rewards.

 

[Turn2]

I have been a Firefox user for quite a while but occasionally need to use Safari or (gasp) Chrome.

A long time ago a co-worker recommended uBlock Origin as an ad blocker. He subsequently went on to work for the gub'ment. I'm still using it, but the rest is top secret.

 

[3TrueFans]

uBlock Origin always

 

[TitanClone]

For ad blocking if you want to take it to another level look into https://pi-hole.net/. It requires a bit of set up and to buy a raspberry pi, which are cheap. But it blocks ads on your entire network, laptop, phone, tablet, smart tvs, whatever is connected. Mine typically blocks 50 to 60 percent of queries on my network (it shows stats for past 24 hours).

Here's a good setup guide

Edit: it also blocks data tracking sites and you have complete control over sites to block. The setup includes a standard list that is auto updated periodically. My list currently has about 650,000 blocked sites.

 

[aauummm]

Firefox with MalwareBytes Browser Guard/Windows Defender/MalwareBytes Premium/AdBlock Plus. I know that Windows Defender is great, but just for extra security I run MalwareBytes Premium on top of it. I prevent MalwareBytes from registering with Windows Explorer so that it doesn't interfere with Defender (it's just one simple setting within MalwareBytes that you check off).

I will not have Norton or McAfee on any of my devices, ever!

 

[jdoggivjc]

Defender has been the best antivirus I've had in a long time.

I don't know antivirus that well but I thought the general consensus was Defender is good enough you don't need 3rd party software anymore for your personal PC.

What I've liked about Defender is all the things I hated about Norton. I've found that Norton "protects" your system by literally trying to prevent you from doing anything on your computer, and if you want to do anything they want you to use all their proprietary things - their browser, their VPN, etc. And by the time you use all that stuff, you literally can't do anything online. It's effectively a virus that chases other viruses away.

Defender doesn't do any of that - it lets you go about your business and doesn't get in your way unless you're about to do something stupid.

 

[NickTheGreat]

For ad blocking if you want to take it to another level look into https://pi-hole.net/. It requires a bit of set up and to buy a raspberry pi, which are cheap. But it blocks ads on your entire network, laptop, phone, tablet, smart tvs, whatever is connected. Mine typically blocks 50 to 60 percent of queries on my network (it shows stats for past 24 hours).

Here's a good setup guide

Edit: it also blocks data tracking sites and you have complete control over sites to block. The setup includes a standard list that is auto updated periodically. My list currently has about 650,000 blocked sites.

This is on my to do list. I have a pi laying around not doing anything.

 

[TitanClone]

This is on my to do list. I have a pi laying around not doing anything.

It took all of 10 minutes to setup on my Eero router. Been running since April or May without any problems. I also added a cron job to run the update command every week so it stays on the latest and greatest version automatically

 

[Clone83]

On my laptop, I use Edge, Firefox, and Brave. (On my phone, I like DuckDuckGo better than Brave; and I see in the Apple store it has many more downloads than Brave.)

Edge and Firefox have many features I like, and it is possible to lock things down a lot -- such as clearing cookies every time you close the browser -- with exceptions that you specify. For exceptions, I focus on sites where I don't want to log in every time I visit. You can close all 3rd-party cookies on closing the browser, on your exceptions, but I also try to avoid sites as exceptions I may want to log into but that have a lot of associated trackers (the kind of sites that you might see numbers specified high up on a list in the DuckDuckGo or Brave browsers).

Firefox is flexible with many ways to view, making better use of the limited amount of screen space available on a laptop.

Microsoft Edge has many features and are adding all the time. I like it a lot.

Edge is sneaky, though, and ask you things you might regret answering the way they want you to (like whether you'd really prefer personalized ads). Bing isn't as obnoxious as before their upgrade, so I started using it instead of DuckDuckGo on Edge. It takes time to really understand all of Edge's features, and how some settings relate to others, and with greater use they also ask fewer questions that might trip you up (or maybe a switch somehow got switched seemingly on its own, so then I would make a point to check until eventually it doesn't). I understand how much of this ties together only through use and getting into more of the detail over time.

I probably like Edge even better than Firefox now, due to certain features.

I think the default font is bigger in Edge, which is probably part of it, but Firefox packs a lot into a small space.

Edge and Firefox both have good "readers", which can also help on smaller screens and for sites that just don't appear as you like -- that might in contrast read great without a reader on a phone or a bigger screen. Chrome doesn't the last I saw, and I doubt they ever will (the readers block out distractions, like ads).

Both Edge and Brave were developed in Chromium, so you can use the extensions available in the Chrome store on those browsers as well. It's not just appearance or themes, but things like uBlock Origin and Privacy Badger (both of which in Firefox are available through Firefox).

 

[Clone83]

I've only used Microsoft for anti-virus for quite awhile. I keep things pretty locked down anyway, but I like how unobtrusive it is. I haven't had any problems.

The last anti-virus I paid for specially was via Best Buy with my current laptop, the name escapes me but popular, just to be safe. I took it off my laptop long before it expired less than a year later, as it raised issues of its own.

I used quite a few Ad Blockers, maybe the one OP said. I used the most restrictive.

But when I searched on "Privacy Badger" less than a year ago, I saw a NY Times article that recommended UBlock Origin (Privacy Badger was discussed in the comments if I recall correctly). UBlock origin did as good or better job blocking out ads as the very restrictive ad blocker I was using -- and doesn't interfere with the web site functions, like that ad blocker sometimes did.

Privacy Badger is also good, and I think I have both UBlock Origin and Privacy Badger turned on in Firefox. However, I immediately viewed UBlock Origin as superior to and eliminating any need for the Ad Blocker I had long preferred.