AikenMooney
Senior Member
I am running the same on 4 computers & no problems yet. I say "yet" as nothing is 100%.
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What Anti Virus do you use?
- Thread starter Trevor Carpenter
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hotdog321
Forum Pro
I've been using it for several years on a couple of computers with no issues. I like how Malwarebytes automatically blocks a suspicious site.
Carey Brown
Senior Member
Every now and then I read an article comparing the various AV programs. My take away is that all AV programs are pretty good theses days. Most viruses are caught by most programs with each program able to deal with some outlier virus that others do not. Defender may not be the absolute best but it can claim to have the least amount of overhead on your machine. That and its being provided with Windows made it a no brainer for me.
R Neuschul
Leading Member
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And my takeaway is that how and how well any given AV product detects and handles problems is a function of its code-base and of its virus database management.
But that's only one - small - part of the wider picture. Endpoint protection of devices is today very intimately tied into the architecture of the operating system. That entanglement is both a good and a bad thing. In good product it enables far more rapid and accurate detection and problem resolution. In bad product it has a lot of unintended consequences.
Let me be quite clear here: not all AV vendors write equally good code; the outcome of all of this is that when things go wrong some vendors' products are perfectly capable of trashing the operating system or making the AV product impossible to remove cleanly or otherwise restoring the system to good health. In addition, not all AV code is neat or tidy; some is an outright leviathan in scale and scope with massive heavy-footed impacts on CPU and RAM and often also a fairly heavy hit on disk Input/Output [thrashing the disk - something one *really* doesn't want to see on SSD systems] whilst others are neat small tidy and very fleet of foot.
The landscape of AV products is MUCH more complex than your message suggests.
But that's only one - small - part of the wider picture. Endpoint protection of devices is today very intimately tied into the architecture of the operating system. That entanglement is both a good and a bad thing. In good product it enables far more rapid and accurate detection and problem resolution. In bad product it has a lot of unintended consequences.
Let me be quite clear here: not all AV vendors write equally good code; the outcome of all of this is that when things go wrong some vendors' products are perfectly capable of trashing the operating system or making the AV product impossible to remove cleanly or otherwise restoring the system to good health. In addition, not all AV code is neat or tidy; some is an outright leviathan in scale and scope with massive heavy-footed impacts on CPU and RAM and often also a fairly heavy hit on disk Input/Output [thrashing the disk - something one *really* doesn't want to see on SSD systems] whilst others are neat small tidy and very fleet of foot.
The landscape of AV products is MUCH more complex than your message suggests.
On a new PC build, I installed Windows 10 and then Bit Defender Free, since Bit Defender ran nicely on the Dell XPS8900 that I had that recently died.
The user interface of the latest version of Bit Defender Free looked different from what I was used to. But the problem was when using Firefox, I was getting a “Your connection is not secure” popup msg when accessing different websites including “Tenforums” and “overclockers”. This did not happen using Chrome so it was something to do with Bit Defender Free and Firefox.
I tried to figure out what was causing the "not secure" popup but was not successful. I,m a Firefox user so I uninstalled Bit Defender Free. That of course allowed Windows Defender to work again and there have not been any problems with Firefox.
So I'll just continue to use Windows 10 defender. I've also always scanned with Malware Bytes Free so I'll continue to do that. I install Malware Bytes Free for all of the folks that I provide computer support for, and one person later bought Malware Bytes paid version so at least Malware Bytes got something out of the deal. It is a great program.
Sky
The user interface of the latest version of Bit Defender Free looked different from what I was used to. But the problem was when using Firefox, I was getting a “Your connection is not secure” popup msg when accessing different websites including “Tenforums” and “overclockers”. This did not happen using Chrome so it was something to do with Bit Defender Free and Firefox.
I tried to figure out what was causing the "not secure" popup but was not successful. I,m a Firefox user so I uninstalled Bit Defender Free. That of course allowed Windows Defender to work again and there have not been any problems with Firefox.
So I'll just continue to use Windows 10 defender. I've also always scanned with Malware Bytes Free so I'll continue to do that. I install Malware Bytes Free for all of the folks that I provide computer support for, and one person later bought Malware Bytes paid version so at least Malware Bytes got something out of the deal. It is a great program.
Sky
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Royi Avital
Leading Member
Move to Windows 10 and don't ever touch anything but Windows Defender.
It is the only AV out there you should trust which really knows the OS and hence can discern unusual activity which others can't.
All of them supply decent protection about what is known, the question is which are good against unknown attacks.
Since Defender has access to the OS others don't it can use better Anomaly Detection and handle unknown cases.
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It is the only AV out there you should trust which really knows the OS and hence can discern unusual activity which others can't.
All of them supply decent protection about what is known, the question is which are good against unknown attacks.
Since Defender has access to the OS others don't it can use better Anomaly Detection and handle unknown cases.
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My Flickr:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/RoyiAvital
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I had problems with a couple of third-party AV programs a while ago, and went back to Defender after reading about the vulnerabilities introduced by some third-party AV programs. Like this article mentions:
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www.zdnet.com
Glen Barrington
Forum Pro
That article seems to question the QA efforts of the 3rd party security programs, but given Microsoft's recent issues, can we REALLY point to their QA efforts as superior?
To me, the article seems to really say, use two programs, not one, at least their errors will likely be in different places.
Royi Avital
Leading Member
Easy, have a look at:
- Ex top Mozilla dev to Windows users: Ditch all antivirus except Microsoft's Defender.
- Google Chrome engineer says Windows Defender “the only well behaved AV”.
- Use next-gen technologies in Windows Defender Antivirus through cloud-delivered protection.
Since Windows is built by Microsoft which both designed it and has telemetry of it, it has huge advantage of building a model of its normal behavior and according to that identify threat.
In my opinion, don't use anything on Windows but Defender (On Windows 10).
Royi Avital
Leading Member
Easy, have a look at:
- Ex top Mozilla dev to Windows users: Ditch all antivirus except Microsoft's Defender.
- Google Chrome engineer says Windows Defender “the only well behaved AV”.
- Use next-gen technologies in Windows Defender Antivirus through cloud-delivered protection.
Since Windows is built by Microsoft which both designed it and has telemetry of it, it has huge advantage of building a model of its normal behavior and according to that identify threat.
In my opinion, don't use anything on Windows but Defender (On Windows 10).
gaul
Senior Member
Why anything else?
R Neuschul
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1] the article is dated January 2017.
2] The article is about Defender on Windows 8.1
3] Defender on Windows 10 is a totally different product with entirely different code and a different detection engine and processes.
Stop comparing chalk and cheese.
2] The article is about Defender on Windows 8.1
3] Defender on Windows 10 is a totally different product with entirely different code and a different detection engine and processes.
Stop comparing chalk and cheese.
Glen Barrington
Forum Pro
You talkin' to me? YOU talkin' TO ME?
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As I read it, the AV critics were saying that adding third-party programs to Windows increased the potential for vulnerabilities. I didn't see it as a relative QA issue; the Windows Defender code is still there after the third-party AV is installed, just temporarily inactive.
So you end up with twice as many errors. Hmmm. ;-)
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Windows 10 was released in July 2015.
"Former distinguished engineer at Mozilla, Robert O'Callahan, has told users on Windows 8.1 and up to ditch any antivirus (AV) that isn't Microsoft's own Windows Defender."\
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www.zdnet.com
Glen Barrington
Forum Pro
BUT! (I love buts, and I can not lie) with a single known AV, where presumably the errors are known to the Malware producers, I should think net risk is higher.
With two unpredictable Security programs (from the malware producers perspective), I would think, even with QA issues, there is a much finer filtration in place that the malware producer has to navigate.
In the end, though, we all just take our chances.
With two unpredictable Security programs (from the malware producers perspective), I would think, even with QA issues, there is a much finer filtration in place that the malware producer has to navigate.
In the end, though, we all just take our chances.
DanasSutra
Forum Enthusiast
I let Windows Defender do it's thing and occasionally run a scan with some portable apps. Also I do a windows clean install yearly. I don't believe any computer is completely clean of malware nowadays.
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Ah, (and I love Ahs
) BUT Windows 10 is, as we know, (to the sorrow of some, heh) constantly changing, as are its security measures.The 'filters' here are likely in parallel rather than series. Break either one, you're in.
Truth!
Ah, BUT perhaps we can optimize our chances with the right choices. :-D
Did you see Rick Moranis playing Woody Allen in the SCTV parody of Taxi Driver?You talkin' to me? YOU talkin' TO ME?
Steve Bingham
Forum Pro
I use 3.
1- Superantispyware. VERY slow but very thorough. Used to use free AVG before it got sold. Misses a ton of stuff. My suggestion - avoid it.
2- The old reliable Malwarebytes
3- CCleaner
Then there is Windows 10 own protection. Computer runs VERY fast and few, if any, hangs. Restart fixed it the one time it happened on some bizarre program.
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Steve Bingham
1- Superantispyware. VERY slow but very thorough. Used to use free AVG before it got sold. Misses a ton of stuff. My suggestion - avoid it.
2- The old reliable Malwarebytes
3- CCleaner
Then there is Windows 10 own protection. Computer runs VERY fast and few, if any, hangs. Restart fixed it the one time it happened on some bizarre program.
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Steve Bingham
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