Ultimate Predator Posted November 30, 2016 Share Posted November 30, 2016 Hi there, Been wondering about how decent the built-in anti-viruses are for Windows 7-10. I ask as for some friends who have 10 I recommended getting rid of their built-in Norton (as their laptops are very slow) and sticking to Windows Defender for the moment. Do you think Defender is decent enough anti-virus/malware? And the same goes for a windows 7 laptop I'm working on with built-in Norton, I'm going to remove Norton but is MSE good enough? I understand Windows Defender in Windows 10 is better than MSE? I ask as on the wiki I see recommendations of antivirus but no discussion of windows defender/MSE? If MSE and/or Defender aren't sufficient, what free antivirus would be recommended instead? Is it according to the wiki still Avira or Sophos, and which one is less resource-intensive? Finally, is the built in firewall in Windows 7-10 good enough? Or do you still recommend adding Glasswire? Or should one get a new firewall altogether? Thank you! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrator Tarun Posted November 30, 2016 Administrator Share Posted November 30, 2016 Avira is one av that I've been leaning towards moreso lately since avast has gone downhill a bit, becoming so bloated. I also see Sophos recommended on reddit a bit as well. I still do like GlassWire as a complimentary layer with Windows Firewall. Personally I'm still running Outpost. I've been keeping an eye out for a replacement to Agnitum's Outpost Pro ever since they were bought out and discontinued. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ultimate Predator Posted December 1, 2016 Author Share Posted December 1, 2016 16 hours ago, Tarun said: Avira is one av that I've been leaning towards moreso lately since avast has gone downhill a bit, becoming so bloated. I also see Sophos recommended on reddit a bit as well. I still do like GlassWire as a complimentary layer with Windows Firewall. Personally I'm still running Outpost. I've been keeping an eye out for a replacement to Agnitum's Outpost Pro ever since they were bought out and discontinued. Hi there! So avira would be the one to go for as a free antivirus. But is it necessary to replace Windows Defender with it? Or to replace MSE? I see, so glasswire is complimentary but not necessary in your opinion? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrator Tarun Posted December 1, 2016 Administrator Share Posted December 1, 2016 Both Avira and Glasswire would be complimentary. Microsoft at one point in the past said that they recommended running an antivirus alongside WD. If that antivirus needs to disable something like WD, it generally will for you. I like the UI and how much information Glasswire tells you. It's a great addition if you don't have access to Outpost Firewall Pro. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
greenknight Posted December 2, 2016 Share Posted December 2, 2016 I use Avira, have for several years. It's pretty lightweight, and it's the most trouble-free AV I've used. Ranks high in AV Comparatives' tests. Windows Defender has limited periodic scanning available with the AV installed, to turn WD on fully would require uninstalling Avira. I have had WD scans disabled because I thought it a waste of resources, but I'm giving it another try now. I'll let you know how it goes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
greenknight Posted December 3, 2016 Share Posted December 3, 2016 WD periodic scanning turned itself back off,but today it's back on again. Yesterday it wouldn't stay on unless I disabled Avira, the icon was still in the system tray but hover gave a tooltip that said it was turned off. Turn it back on, it would turn off again after a short time. I was able to update it - it wasn't auto-updating - and start an on-demand scan, but it shut down before it completed. Disabled Avira, then I was able to complete a scan. Then tried to do a startup scan, another feature it has, but that failed. But today, as I said, it's back on, and it's staying on. But how to schedule scans? There's no clue - but a quick search revealed you have to use the Task Scheduler for that. It sounds like there's some sort of default scanning plan, but no hint what that is exactly - https://www.bing.com/search?q=windows+defender+scheduled+scans&form=EDGEAR&qs=AS&cvid=0e72f3fbe59e4f348335b99df494a72a&pq=windows defender scheduled scans Much as I despise the Windows Task Scheduler, I managed to do it. I've set up weekly scans, starting tonight - we'll see if they work. I think it's more trouble than it's worth. I forgot to mention, I use the built-in firewall but I use a program to provide a UI for it and harden it's settings, called Windows Firewall Notifier. MajorGeeks has a few of these type programs, but this is the one I found I liked best. The current Windows firewall works well enough, but there's no reasonable way to control it. This program fixes that and is very lightweight. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
greenknight Posted December 8, 2016 Share Posted December 8, 2016 WD scans are working. It's not automatic, it notifies you that it needs to run a scan, click in the notification and it runs. It's doing it every day, apparently that's the default. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrator Tarun Posted December 8, 2016 Administrator Share Posted December 8, 2016 I think Windows 10 Home operates differently from Pro. I never see prompts or notifications about Defender on my Pro machine. The Home one however seems to scan nightly. On a sidenote, Malwarebytes 3 is out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrator Solution Tarun Posted December 18, 2019 Administrator Solution Share Posted December 18, 2019 (edited) Microsoft will continue to issue updates for Windows Defender on Windows 7. That's really good news for those few that really don't want to take the free update to Windows 10, or are unable to due to hardware limitations. Nice thing is that Windows Defender is one of the top rated anti-virus products out there. Edit: It's now September 2020 and it's still the top rated anti-virus. As of the Windows 10 2004 update it's now called Microsoft Defender. Edited September 8, 2020 by Tarun Added note about Microsoft Defender. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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