Do I need additional antivirus protection for Windows 11?

BobKnDP said:

Billiam29 said:

Sean Nelson said:

I just use Windows' built-in antivirus software. But I also rely on safe computing practices to limit the potential impact of malware:

• I do regular weekly backups which I keep offline and which go back for over a year to guard against ransomware attacks.
• I have unique passwords for every account
• I do all my financial transactions in a virtual machine that is reset to its initial state on every use.
• When I'm doing financial transactions I enter sensitive information such as passwords and credit card numbers by typing the characters out of sequence in order to foil keyboard loggers

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Don't forget...

• Do not use a Windows login with administrator level permissions for your day-to-day computing activities. Said another way: the login you use for your normal daily computing activities should not be a member of the administrators group in Windows.

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That's a good suggestion, which I have never followed. :-(

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Same here.

I've always used an administrator account.

"It's good to be . . . . . . . . Me!"

Billiam29 said:

Sean Nelson said:

I just use Windows' built-in antivirus software. But I also rely on safe computing practices to limit the potential impact of malware:

• I do regular weekly backups which I keep offline and which go back for over a year to guard against ransomware attacks.
• I have unique passwords for every account
• I do all my financial transactions in a virtual machine that is reset to its initial state on every use.
• When I'm doing financial transactions I enter sensitive information such as passwords and credit card numbers by typing the characters out of sequence in order to foil keyboard loggers

Click to expand...

Don't forget...

• Do not use a Windows login with administrator level permissions for your day-to-day computing activities. Said another way: the login you use for your normal daily computing activities should not be a member of the administrators group in Windows.

Click to expand...

thanks for the reminder. ........and something i need to learn more about. today is a rare day for me using public wifi, normally i use ethernet at home, but probably just as valid a practice.

Edit, if you use Firefox browser, look into adding Firefox Containers as an extension. Firefox puts it out and it really needs to be part of the browser as many say it is over the top Great for surfing.

So just now I was browsing along, minding my own business, when I clicked on a seemingly innocuous link served up by a search engine: Technics SL-1200Mk2/SL-1210Mk2 Turntables FAQ

This was the result...



False positive? Maybe... Defender was not bothered in the least—but I can find the info I need without rolling the dice on this site.

--
Sometimes I look at posts from people I've placed on my IGNORE list. When I do, I'm quickly reminded of why I chose to ignore them in the first place.

Ho72 said:

So just now I was browsing along, minding my own business, when I clicked on a seemingly innocuous link served up by a search engine: Technics SL-1200Mk2/SL-1210Mk2 Turntables FAQ

This was the result...



False positive? Maybe... Defender was not bothered in the least—but I can find the info I need without rolling the dice on this site.

Click to expand...

You can paste the URL into VirusTotal for an analysis of the link.

jpegman said:

Ho72 said:

Most people seem to feel that Defender is good enough but, as someone who uses the paid version of Malwarebytes, I can tell you that its real time protection catches nasties that Defender does not. An extra layer of protection is not a bad thing.

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Windows defender and Malwarebytes are different products and to be "fully" (as much as one can) protected, one need to have both. They play nicely together and are recommended by just about everyone (except competitors like Avast, Norton360, McAfee, etc.)

Jpegman

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The paid version of Malwarebytes, aka Malwarebytes Premium, is a different product from Malwarebytes; it can't be run with Defender. When MP is running Defender isn't; though it can still be used for a manual scan.

ppage said:

The paid version of Malwarebytes, aka Malwarebytes Premium, is a different product from Malwarebytes; it can't be run with Defender.

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That's incorrect.

ppage said:

When MP is running Defender isn't;

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That's the default setting, once Malwarebytes Premium has been installed but it's easily overridden.

You simply need to uncheck a box and the pair will run, quite happily, side by side.

I've been using this configuration for years and have yet to encounter a problem.

ppage said:

though it can still be used for a manual scan.

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"It's good to be . . . . . . . . . Me!"

I haven't done anything yet. I still have Norton 360 on the old PC with paid licenses to spare if I choose to install on the new machine (this one). But as I said I am (somewhat) loathe to turn Norton loose on my shiny new Windows 11 machine.

As I read the responses and banter in this thread - thank you to those who took the time to share their thoughts and experiences - I feel like there are almost as many suggesting Windows 11 is enough while many others suggest it need a pairing with something like Malewarebytes.

I did read some reviews (not always helpful) and one caught my eye...

https://cybernews.com/best-antivirus-software/malwarebytes-review/



Maybe someone could comment on the veracity of this review.

There also appear to be conflicting views as to whether Windows 11 Defender and Malewarebytes are compatible or exclusive.

Peter

PMB said:

https://cybernews.com/best-antivirus-software/malwarebytes-review/



Maybe someone could comment on the veracity of this review.

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I remember that and didn't pay it much attention but then I'm not paranoid about these things in the way that some are.

PMB said:

There also appear to be conflicting views as to whether Windows 11 Defender and Malewarebytes are compatible or exclusive.

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The two are compatible.

In fact, I posted earlier re. that.

You do need to uncheck a box to make it happen but I've been running the two side by side, for years.

PMB said:

Peter

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"It's good to be . . . . . . . . . Me!"

PMB said:

I haven't done anything yet. I still have Norton 360 on the old PC with paid licenses to spare if I choose to install on the new machine (this one). But as I said I am (somewhat) loathe to turn Norton loose on my shiny new Windows 11 machine.

As I read the responses and banter in this thread - thank you to those who took the time to share their thoughts and experiences - I feel like there are almost as many suggesting Windows 11 is enough while many others suggest it need a pairing with something like Malewarebytes.

I did read some reviews (not always helpful) and one caught my eye...

https://cybernews.com/best-antivirus-software/malwarebytes-review/



Maybe someone could comment on the veracity of this review.

There also appear to be conflicting views as to whether Windows 11 Defender and Malewarebytes are compatible or exclusive.

Peter

Click to expand...

I've never had any problems using Defender as my real-time protection and Malwarebytes Free as a file scanner only.

Third-party antivirus utilties may be fine; however, there's a history of them being themselves vulnerable to attack, as well as having incompatibilities with Windows itself. And all of this is a moving target due to necessary constant updates.

I decided years ago to keep it simple after a number of third-party false positives and an interference with a Windows feature I use. YMMV.

...

Austinian said:

I've never had any problems using Defender as my real-time protection and Malwarebytes Free as a file scanner only.

Third-party antivirus utilties may be fine; however, there's a history of them being themselves vulnerable to attack, as well as having incompatibilities with Windows itself. And all of this is a moving target due to necessary constant updates.

I decided years ago to keep it simple after a number of third-party false positives and an interference with a Windows feature I use. YMMV.

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Yeah, I found Norton became (evolved) into much more than I signed on for and it seemed that they had license (possibly in the weasel words of the EULA) to promote their products and have popup windows trying to upsell additional things I did not want to buy.

IF I sign onto a product I might try the free version but I would quickly move to a paid version in the belief (right or wrong) that I get some sort of support for the product. Plus w.r.t. antivirus and malware protection I want to set-and-forget and get back to photography; I don't want to have to run things manually.

So you run the free version of Malewarbytes (manually) which others have said does not conflict with Defender. And I acknowledge Jestertheclown, and others, have success running Malewarebytes (paid version) along side Defender with no issue, provided the correct options are ticked at setup/installation.

Seems to me the more I look the more choices there are and I wonder about the reputation & reliability of the companies putting these products out there. For example, the Cybernews review (I pointed to earlier) recommends TotalAV as their #1 choice, but when I view that website I can't find anything about the company that offers that product. They list numerous awards by entities I have never heard of, and there are no details or links to these awards. Slick looking webpage but empty. They might be the same people putting out viruses and malware for all I know.

(Maybe I should dig out my old F3 and some film)

Thanks,
Peter

PMB said:

Seems to me the more I look the more choices there are and I wonder about the reputation & reliability of the companies putting these products out there. For example, the Cybernews review (I pointed to earlier) recommends TotalAV as their #1 choice, but when I view that website I can't find anything about the company that offers that product. They list numerous awards by entities I have never heard of, and there are no details or links to these awards. Slick looking webpage but empty. They might be the same people putting out viruses and malware for all I know.

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i absolutely would never consider installing an antimalware product that wasn't very well known, and had a multi-year track record of functionality.

There are a couple of a/v testing sites, av-comparatives and av-test, that have been around for a while, and a careful reading of their results might be helpful, but as I've said, I have no plans at this time to use any third-party a/v product for real-time protection.

PMB said:

(Maybe I should dig out my old F3 and some film)

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I'm looking over at my Nikon F that's virtually identical to the one I used in the 1970s. It does work--the local camera store re-foamed it, and I ran a roll of B&W film through it. Next time I visit Taos I might take it along and shoot an Ansel Adams tribute at the nearby church in Ranchos.

,,,

Austinian said:

i absolutely would never consider installing an antimalware product that wasn't very well known, and had a multi-year track record of functionality.

There are a couple of a/v testing sites, av-comparatives and av-test, that have been around for a while, and a careful reading of their results might be helpful, but as I've said, I have no plans at this time to use any third-party a/v product for real-time protection.

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At your suggestion I visited https://www.av-comparatives.org/consumer/vendors/ and looked up a couple vendors. What jumped out at me was a company GenDigital, which owns many of the common brands...



So are they competitors?

PMB said:

I visited https://www.av-comparatives.org/consumer/vendors/ and looked up a couple vendors. What jumped out at me was a company GenDigital, which owns many of the common brands...



So are they competitors?

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That's interesting. Symantec is owned by Broadcom. Kaspersky is Russian owned.

I thought the anti-malware market was shrinking, but apparently it is growing slowly according to the website below. There's a paid/free table showing that 41% of free anti-malware owners use Microsoft Defender. Track record is better for free than for paid software.

https://www.security.org/antivirus/antivirus-consumer-report-annual/

Most web browsers are fairly secure nowadays. The principal vector for malware is email for most consumers. As the above says, products protect against "downloading malware and malicious code from websites or through email attachments." I always check software before downloading (virustotal.com) and try to delete suspicious email before reading.

PMB said:

,,,

PMB said:

i absolutely would never consider installing an antimalware product that wasn't very well known, and had a multi-year track record of functionality.

There are a couple of a/v testing sites, av-comparatives and av-test, that have been around for a while, and a careful reading of their results might be helpful, but as I've said, I have no plans at this time to use any third-party a/v product for real-time protection.

Click to expand...

At your suggestion I visited https://www.av-comparatives.org/consumer/vendors/ and looked up a couple vendors. What jumped out at me was a company GenDigital, which owns many of the common brands...



So are they competitors?

Click to expand...

Wow, interesting question; I had no idea that this common ownership was the case. A quick search finds this:


And:


That one makes me wonder if the "brands" are mostly a matter of cosmetics and features.

Fortunately, that's the best kind of problem--not mine. :-D

After a month without any additional antivirus or malware protection, other than the Windows 11 Virus & threat protection, I decided to dig around to see if Windows Security has been doing anything for me. I couldn't find reports other than a mention of the last scan found no issues. I did discover that I could do on-demand scans and so I kicked off a full scan. It warned me that this could take and hour or more. Well, it ran longer than that, and after 4.7M files it hung. I eventually had to cancel it as it was doing nothing. I then noticed I could do a custom on-demand scan and target specific folders. I did get one of these to finish - not in the 00:01:27 estimated time but more like half an hour. And for my first attempt - the full scan - which ran for more than 2 hours and eventually hung after 4.7M files, it was about 15% thru, estimating from the progress bar, and during the first 15 or 20 minutes it really pushed the CPU hard - fans kicked up, CPU package temperature up to 85C, but then things cooled down to less than 50C until it eventually hung. Weird.

So how does Windows Security scan files? I would notice if this activity was going on while I was using the PC. And I shutdown every night and when I am away from my PC for more than an hour. So how is Windows protecting me from viruses & malware? I guess it only does Quick scans?

Peter

PMB said:

I did discover that I could do on-demand scans and so I kicked off a full scan. It warned me that this could take and hour or more. Well, it ran longer than that, and after 4.7M files it hung. I eventually had to cancel it as it was doing nothing.

Click to expand...

Sounds to me like you've got some issue that needs solving. I don't have Windows 11, but I do run full Windows Defender scans every week or two on my Windows 10 system and I've never had it hang on me. And occasionally it finds something in one of my old install kits to complain about.

Sean Nelson said:

PMB said:

I did discover that I could do on-demand scans and so I kicked off a full scan. It warned me that this could take and hour or more. Well, it ran longer than that, and after 4.7M files it hung. I eventually had to cancel it as it was doing nothing.

Click to expand...

Sounds to me like you've got some issue that needs solving. I don't have Windows 11, but I do run full Windows Defender scans every week or two on my Windows 10 system and I've never had it hang on me. And occasionally it finds something in one of my old install kits to complain about.

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Yeah, I think so. I ran another this morning of the C:\users folder and after 15 minutes and 1+ million files it hung too. I run some more tests to try an characterize the issue a bit more and then maybe Microsoft support, I guess.

PMB said:

Sean Nelson said:

PMB said:

I did discover that I could do on-demand scans and so I kicked off a full scan. It warned me that this could take and hour or more. Well, it ran longer than that, and after 4.7M files it hung. I eventually had to cancel it as it was doing nothing.

Click to expand...

Sounds to me like you've got some issue that needs solving. I don't have Windows 11, but I do run full Windows Defender scans every week or two on my Windows 10 system and I've never had it hang on me. And occasionally it finds something in one of my old install kits to complain about.

Click to expand...

Yeah, I think so. I ran another this morning of the C:\users folder and after 15 minutes and 1+ million files it hung too. I run some more tests to try an characterize the issue a bit more and then maybe Microsoft support, I guess.

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wish i had a clue. my desktop win 10 had issues, so i reinstalled win 10 and now the thing runs fine. so i got serious about creating spare C drives for win 10, as one drive gives me trouble the spare C drive gets installed to clean up and then the troubled C drive is recreated. data goes onto other drives for efficiency.

there probably are better ways to fix things, but this is the simple way for me to keep things moving. i like using Samsung Data Migration but their are other free programs to duplicate drives as needed.

in the past i used pc repair disks commercially available but there were mixed results with that.

anyone have a Real Silver Bullet that us average users should be using? thanks

You could do the usual system file checks using SFC and DISM to ensure no problems with them.

You could try another Microsoft safety scanner utility to see if it finds a virus (one they might affect Defender’s operation):

Robert Zanatta said:

You could do the usual system file checks using SFC and DISM to ensure no problems with them.

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That was my first thought: bad spot(s) on disk.

Why not start with chkdsk?

Robert Zanatta said:

You could try another Microsoft safety scanner utility to see if it finds a virus (one they might affect Defender’s operation):

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/security/intelligence/safety-scanner-download

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Thanks Robert. Never heard of it before.