I don't know, the more time passes the more I convince myself that the net benefits of antivirus software do not (an maybe never) exceed their downsides. In decades I've heard so many stories about AV software behaving suspiciously, using borderline shady tricks to monitor user activity, causing severe performance degradation, etc
> (an maybe never) exceed their downsides There were certainly times when they were necessary: when Windows had nothing built-in to defend itself, and for a time after then when those built-in features were crap. Those times are pretty much over now IMO. I'd go as far as to suggest that the market is now an attempt at a protection racket and hardware hawkers are complicit: things come pre-installed on new laptops and…
Around the time of Windows 7 I stopped using anti-virus software and nothing happened. And for a long time before that, paid antivirus software (ESET NOD-32) wasn't finding anything. I think the simple rules of having a router with a firewall, not clicking random files, not using Internet Explorer, and keeping Windows up to date covered 99% of possible exploits, and the other 1% was luck.