Solved What does Windows Defender lack, what can’t it do?

antspants · Jan 21, 2024

My concerns were mostly if when Defender was setup on a novices computer, where it may fail. Thanks for the responses.

cereberus · Jan 21, 2024

antspants said:
My concerns were mostly if when Defender was setup on a novices computer, where it may fail. Thanks for the responses.

Defenders is plug and play pretty much.

The main thing I turn off is smartscreen as it gets very annoying blocking just about any exe download until you confirm it is safe.

However I do not recommend turning it off for any user unless they understand the risks and take suitable protection e.g. regular image backups.

antspants · Jan 21, 2024

cereberus said:
Defenders is plug and play pretty much.

The main thing I turn off is smartscreen as it gets very annoying blocking just about any exe download until you confirm it is safe.

However I do not recommend turning it off for any user unless they understand the risks and take suitable protection e.g. regular image backups.

I totally agree, thanks cereberus. I turn it off because it is annoying. And you’re right, I’d rather get a phone call once a day from this person asking me what to do or to confirm, than leave it off for them.

monkeylove · Jan 22, 2024

jimbo45 said:
Comparative tests are really 100% U/S. For starters they are usually done many days or even weeks in the past - and new nasties can appear at any time. WD is often updated 5 times in a week - and no 3rd party vendor will be able to test their products on new insider windows builds for a period after that too.

For domestic users WD is as good as it gets - most of those other 3rd party products are essentially solving a C20 problem when Windows was as leaky as a sieve. There's utterly no need for any of these for domestic users - certainly not for technological reasons.

If people feel paranoid and want extra security -- then that's fine if it gives you extra piece of mind but its not actually buying you anything on a technical level other than possible performance issues and potential problems with next windows update or release - especially if using insider versions.

Corporates, large LAN operators, web site operators etc have other issues - but for domestic users WD is fine,

Cheers
jimbo

It doesn't matter if one can be hit with older malware, and the tests include consumer markets.

jimbo45 · Jan 22, 2024

monkeylove said:
It doesn't matter if one can be hit with older malware, and the tests include consumer markets.

Not an answer -- since WD works -- and is updated regularly so what the magazine voted or suggested was the most effective in say July isn't valid in September for example.

Cheers
jimbo

Hazel123 · Jan 22, 2024

He could add Malwarebytes free as an on demand scan as well as defender. Turning off all the things in settings so it doesn’t keep nagging to upgrade or running in the background.

Defender is supposed to be pretty good. It’s possible it might miss something Norton would pick up - but then he could run Malwarebytes now and then to check and/or remove and quarantine anything that got through.

Depends if his usage is of a risky type as well.

TairikuOkami · Jan 22, 2024

antspants said:
My concerns were mostly if when Defender was setup on a novices computer, where it may fail.

Defender is not user friendly, but sadly other free AVs require user's interaction to keep it activated after a year or so.

BigOleDummy · Jan 22, 2024

I too use Windows Defender exclusively as my AV. I do have Privazer but thats more for privacy than AV. If I'm ever suspicious of something or how my machine is acting I use the Eset online scan. Its free and very comprehensive. It can be used once a month, totally free.

monkeylove · Jan 22, 2024

jimbo45 said:
Not an answer -- since WD works -- and is updated regularly so what the magazine voted or suggested was the most effective in say July isn't valid in September for example.

Cheers
jimbo

According to AV Comparatives, it still gets compromised with older malware, etc.