I use Windows 10 Pro as well and it seems that every time there's an update or problem the first thing they tell you is to remove all third party AV software.
FWIW, Windows Defender was rated the HIGHEST among AV impressively beating every other AV (I belive with no false positives and detected everything thrown at it); Defender is all I use, and it has NO ADDITIONAL COST. Also, any AV, especially 3rd party AV is another attack surface regarding security, and frankly, today is a higher risk running 3rd party AV than the supposed protection it provides. AV's are also snoopy and DO TRACK and gather personal data on everything you do--and sell that data becasue that is how they offer it for FREE--becase they are inspecting everything to provide the supposed protection. Some FREE versions now have such disclaimers while others do not, but do, in fact, track and gathre data--because that is why it is FREE, and we can only hope they tell the truth when they
claim that PAID versions do not track nor gather personal information. Further, the OS's are making near impossible for AV's to truly do their job or provide the security they claim to provide because the OS's MUST close the SAME holes that 3rd party AV uses that are also used by malicious actors in order to protect users--and better, absolute protection by closing those holes instead of HOPING a 3rd party AV can detect someting malicious (or false positive) since every AV scored lower than Defender.
Malware is real threat today, along with (Spear) Phishing, phony CA's and 3rd party sites that inject code that can be malicious (reputable sites that run reputable ads, fonts, etc. carrying the malicious code to your device that the 3rd party is unaware they have been hacked to send out the malicious code), so always use an add-on like uBlockOrigin that have other benifits and protections, and many more privacy and security add-ons. Really good and well known ad-ons provide better security consisitanlty than any 3rd party AV in several regards.
I think it was reported that simply NOT running Windows as an Administrator, but only as a Limtied User, solves about 98% of your problems, as well as running a really sucure browser, almost anything other than any version of Internet Explorer (although MS Edge--offered with Windows 10--is the first truly
sufficienlty secure browser from Micrsoft EVER!). Chrome is still the most secure (but they are SNOOPY), so Firefox is a good alternative (they offer privacy) and with recent updates and more big changes to come, Firefox could be eqaully as secure as Chrome by the end of the tranformation.
Advice FWIW:
*Just use Windows Defender.
*Don't use Internet Explorer at all.
*Log on Windows as Limited User.
*Use a good malware scanner regularly like Malwarbytes, etc. (but not in "Real Time Mode" because that is invasive like an AV and could provide an attack surface).
*Don't click on any links in email unless you are EXPECTING such a link from a safe source (like a friend). Otherwise NEVER clink on any link even from what appears to be a reputable company with whom you have a realtionship, but instead go to the site yourself using your browser.
**Those are the threats today, not so much viruses.
There is more to add, but the point is that one really should NOT be using a 3rd party AV today. There are documented cases where 3rd party AV's have caused problems and NOT provided the security we are told they provide. It's the 2010's, not the 1990's. Threats and hackers have evolved.
