I searched to see if any old threads touch on this, but it was a tour of now-obsolete tech questions. Since nothing turned up, here goes. I'm on a Dell desktop XPS, up to date, using Win10 still.

This week in November of 2024 I have switched from Spectrum Internet to AT&T Internet. Spectrum offered a Security Suite for free to download and run on the computer and browsers. It has antivirus and real-time browsing features (such as F-Secure Browsing protection) as part of it.

Since I've switched from Spectrum (cable) to AT&T (fiber optic) I am changing the antivirus software in my computer to what is provided free to subscribers by the company. I was using Spectrum's Security Suite and F-Secure browser extensions.

AT&T offers a McAfee suite - I'm not fond of McAfee because if it's behavior in the marketplace, how it comes bundled in so many programs (you have to de-select it for some downloads) and preinstalled (my new phone, for example). But this is a regular security suite of stuff that AT&T offers free to users of the fiber services.

Meanwhile, I've paid for Malwarebytes for several years after using free for many years before that. It includes VPN and I have it on four devices with real-time protection, and some other stuff.

Spectrum's Security Suite didn't like Malwarebytes and anytime I turned on the computer it popped up and said it wanted to remove the conflicting software. I told it to not ask again and turned off the request. They seemed to work ok, and this brings me to this question:

Malwarebytes Premium Plus does a lot but it isn't a true-antivirus. I did some research to ask the Interwebs if McAfee and Malwarebytes can be used together and it seems like they're ok. I'm wondering if any of our usual techie folks have real-world experience or thoughts on this?

I cancelled the Spectrum account today (it's hard - you're battling a hard-core sales person who's trying to offer you incentives to stay - they should have said "yes" when I called last week and asked them to lower the price because they were unable to deliver the 600meg they said they upgraded me to - they never managed 500 that I was paying for - it rarely got over 300meg). AT&T is up and running and I set up their modem to passthrough so I'm using my existing router firewall and network setup, having turned off the AT&T Firewall and WiFi. And I uninstalled the Spectrum security software on my desktop and am now looking at McAfee. I don't want to pay for another program, I'll use this if it seems adequate and not likely to conflict with the Malwarebytes that I do choose to pay for.

Any thoughts or suggestions? (It has been a busy day - talking to the AT&T installation tech and his sidekick who arrives to "set you up" - except I made it clear he wasn't going near my equipment or selling me anything else to go along with the internet service. They back off when realize you've been doing this since before they were born.)