• Virus scanners only detect a fraction of the harmful programmes.
• Virus scanners can often be tricked.
• Virus scanners often have security vulnerabilities themselves, which are usually quite serious, since such programmes embed themselves quite deeply in the operating system.
• Virus scanners cause many users to become careless because they rely too much on such tools.

Therefore, from my point of view, the disadvantages outweigh the advantages. Therefore, I do not have such a tool permanently installed, neither under Linux nor under Windows. However, every 6 months I scan my Windows installation with a USB-bootable virus scanner. No actually harmful programme has been found for years.

In my opinion, the following things are much more important than any security software.

• Install updates as soon as possible. Under Windows, you can use tools like Chocolatey for this.
• Only install software from trustworthy sources.
• Only install software that you really need.
• Only use root or administrator rights if you have to. For everything else, the rights of the user account are sufficient.
• Create backups regularly.
• Think before you act.

Especially the last point is a problem for many users. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve witnessed someone receiving an alleged invoice from mobile provider A by email and opening it, even though they had a contract with provider B.