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

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

antspants said:

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

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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.

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.

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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.

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

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

monkeylove said:

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

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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

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.

antspants said:

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

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

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.

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

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

trumpy81 said:

3rd party apps that do the same thing. All they do is bloat your system and slow it down, so it makes sense to stay with WD IMHO.

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Webroot has less impact on performance than Defender so your generalisation is not helpful.

antspants said:

Halo.

I have a friend that has no money and cannot renew their antivirus Software. (Norton 360)
Normally I would just buy it for him as I buy software for other friends but this person is broke due to a fetish with tattoos and as a result his family goes without. I will not invest in his tattoos.

So, as I have read in here some comments from those of you who love or proffer to use Windows Defender, I was hoping you’ll could tell me:
What if anything does it lack?
Is there a best practice for running it?
If the person was to open a file, start a program or open a corrupted zip file that was malicious, what would defender do?

I probably have more questions but as I have never used anything but 3rd party software, I can’t think of them right now.

Thanks

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95% of the time, it's the PC owner's behavior that results in infections. The other 5% involves a physical attack, and / or other owner actions that would not be considered reckless. I use Kaspersky because it does provide some additional protection on top of Microsoft Defender Antivirus. I leverage both of them, and have them both active on my system.

Been using Defender & Malwarebytes Premium since 2018, and not one issue, and Malwarebytes always finds nothing when i scan with that so think Defender is doing a terrific job, but im not as reckless online as i was in my younger years.

Stopped using 3rd Party Antivirus in 2018, and haven't hardly had any issues besides a false positive here and there, but that is fixed usually really quick and go about my business

As well as Got Backup software now and make sure to do my Backups, and think i'm safe as can be these days without going too crazy and having too much protection.

"Back in 2005 when i signed up to test Windows Live One Care---i was very reckless tester, and got a zipped folder from so called Online Friend in 2D Chat program, and idiot me opened it, and really infected my at the time AMD Athlon XP 2500+ system, it was so bad local shop couldn't even clean it up, in the end after having to take it back to shop a few times, finally they said "only way to fully clean this up is replace your Motherboard, CPU, Ram, Hard drives, and video card with new & used parts, and that should clear the infection and was informed do not restore any backups i had then made with Windows Live Onecare. Ended up with Sempron Processor, lower amount of ram, Seagate Hard drive and Maxtor and 9800XT Radeon video card at the time

Microsoft Defender For Business brings enterprise grade security to Microsoft Defender. The price is cheap - $3 a month for up for up to 5 endpoints you on board with a simple script.

Prebuilt default polices are fine for the vast majority of users.

Microsoft built a central cloud console to administer it. Before, everything was scattered all over Microsoft 365.

bikemanI7 said:

As well as got Backup software now and make sure to do my Backups,

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You just got ten cookies for this.

Re using Microsoft Defender for Business. It isn't the same thing as the version of Defender in Windows 11. It is business\enterprise level technology that requires good IT administration skills to configure and maintain. It also cannot be setup using a standard Microsoft Account.

I use it because when I retired a couple of years ago (was self-employed) I retained my Microsoft 365 Business subscription, and it suited my needs to keep it as I have my own custom email addresses in Exchange Online with my own domains that I still use.

I would not recommend Defender for Business for the average user (consumer). It would be using a sledgehammer to crack a nut.

I've found onboarding with MDfB on my endpoints a painless and simple affair. The local script in the cloud console is sufficient.

As for being complicated, the setup wizard that provides the default policies makes setting them up a breeze. Most people don't need to modify them.

For the price, the protection is superb.

It can't let your computer breath and run at it's full potential, my computer finds it to be too restrictive. I went back to Webroot and dumped Avast, now we're running at near full speed when needed.

NormanF said:

I've found onboarding with MDfB on my endpoints a painless and simple affair. The local script in the cloud console is sufficient.

As for being complicated, the setup wizard that provides the default policies makes setting them up a breeze. Most people don't need to modify them.

For the price, the protection is superb.

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And how would you get set up for something like that?

It doesn't butter my toast, but besides that it does everything I want/need to do pretty nice. All I have used for years besides Malwarebytes free as a "second opinion"

To recap and add to my previous points:

There may now be malware that don't require user intervention. That means you don't need to do anything for it to attack.

More are attacking what you think are legitimate sites, legitimate software, and legitimate servers used by legitiminate sites. The ones managing thse sometimes don't know that their sites or software are infected until much later.

Malware can now operate in the background, without you knowing it, and stealing your information. That means you won't know if protection is good enough because you won't be able to tell that your system has been infected.

Backups will help you restore your data but won't reverse stolen information.

Aside: more information is now stolen even though it's not your fault. That means your info given to banks, various companies, etc., may be stolen.

Malware might now be able attack embedded software directly, or the software found in your devices regardless of the system that you use.

Security programs are by default intrusive. Also, many countries engage in privacy intrusion. Look up "eyes nations".

The cost of buying security programs might be high if you have to buy for many devices. There may be volume discounts, but the cheap price for the first year might be part of a promo. For some programs, you can buy legit serial numbers in some stores, and then insert them in your security program when the one you're using is about to expire.

Finally, if you want to find out which are the best, then check tests for performance or system impact, protection, etc.