Windows 8 forum: Is Defender good enough to protect my Windows 8 PC?

I used to have md installed on one of my pc (just only md) and it did get infected. it could not boot up or always in restarting mode. Having md installed is not good enough to protect your pc. you need to have some paid version of security software like norton, avast or bitdefender. You can check the virus bulletin websites VB100 result summary for the test on various security softwares. (www.virusbtn.com/vb100/archive/summary).

I don't know about WD but I have been using MSE for a while and never had a virus. I also run Malwarebites scan regularly as a back up to double check that my system is running virus free. You can run both as long as you turn off real time scanning on MB.

yes, mse is a p & f, but can be configured to scan on a preset date and time....something i like...it also will check for updates automatically. I run mse along with spybot and malawarebytes as 'backups'...the malaware pgm is run once a week on full scan. i am on the computer alot and have not had any issues!

i too went the mcafee route for a number of years, got tired of being dunned for a renewal after only 2-3 months, the system degrading scans that seem to go at the WORST possible times....in short, with mr mcafee's other alledged problems, i will avoid it at all costs. i hadn the same issue and worse with norton...why should i turn my computer maintenance and control to a company that seems to preempt my operating system of choice's own utilities?

...in the same sentence unless the word NOT was included before Trustworthy.

In the many moons since I got involved in the PC arena (just about 30 years), NAV has (at least in MY experience) been less than 100% trustworthy. I can't count the number of virus infections I've had to clean up - mainly due to the epic, utter failure of NAV and it's enterprise cousin Symantec Antivirus Corporate Edition (SAV). It would take up far too much time and effort I'd rather spend doing other things. Mind you, the issues at hand were all on client computers - Not my own.

And then there's the shenanigans the Norton people pulled while they still owned a contact management app called Act. They would frequently mark their competitor in the contact management arena's link to MS Word as being viral. Never mind the links were quite benign and offered office automation features that allowed you to merge documents with the information stored in the contact manager.

So the REAL question you should be asking yourself - what sort of internet surfer are YOU?

Are you the type who can't resist that email promising a view of the latest bimbo of the week's explicit romp in the bedroom? Or do you automatically file those in the trash heap and move on?

If you DO tend to like living dangerously and frequent sites that should be scaring the pants off of you, then yes, you might want to consider something maybe a bit more industrial strength.

But if you're a reasonably sane internet surfer and avoid sites that are typical haunts for infections, Windows 8 Defender should be adequate for the task.

As others have pointed out, there's the usual freebie AV apps - Avast and AVG. However, I've found they've gone from being a simple, passive defense to being more "in your face" and go out of their way to deliver pop ups at almost every turn making them more hassle than they're worth. You gotta wonder just WHAT were they thinking when they decided to go that route.

You may also want to look at how much, if any Gaming or other system intensive things you do. Most of these AV "features" (and I use that term loosely) tend to suck up system resources - memory, CPU time, etc... Windows 8 Defender doesn't have much of an impact on system performance in my experience. Even with it enabled, Windows 8 seems to be snappier than Windows 7 - and Windows 7 was fairly snappy compared to even XP and most definitely faster than Vista.

the MS real time protection though. A person could always use the MS utility to scan, and be just fine.

You said you sell AVG - so that kinda discounts your credibility here. At least you're honest!

Friends just don't let friends do AVG. ALL my clients that have tried it have all gone through pure hell with it.

The well known past problems with Norton AntiVirus mentioned by Wolfie2k5 no longer exist in my experience.

I have been using Norton Internet Security for several years and have had no problems. Indeed, NIS routinely caught problems with malware that AVG, AdAware, and Spybot missed (or ignored). Also, the overhead imposed by the older Norton products that noticeably slowed computer operation has been corrected. I can't see any difference in performance with the NIS packages disabled or enabled. In fact, AdAware and Spybot slowed operation more than the Norton product. What was true and well known in the past no longer applies.

For information, on my desktop I'm running Win7 Ultimate 32 bit with a triple core AMD CPU and 4 gigs RAM, and on my old laptop I'm running WinXP Pro with an Intel Celeron CPU and 2 gigs RAM.

Hornet, y'all

From my experience Defender is doing it's job well on Windows as it did (as Microsoft Security Essentials did for widows 7).
Now that I have said that I ultimately do not trust or rely on any anti-virus or security suite at all. I have seen to many machines get infested with something or another due to the habits (good or bad) of the operator of the PC in question.

What I do when running Windows of any flavor is I run Ubuntu Linux as a virtual machine from within my Windows OS. I know this may sound greek to many but it is essentially running another Operating System within my desktop Operating System. I have been doing this for over 4 years and never I mean never have had the slightest hiccup.

All the tools to do this are open source (meaning free). What this get's you is an extremely high degree of immunity for your Microsoft OS. You can browse to pretty much anyplace without getting a bug. You can open any email without re-percussion's. I know there will be some who say no OS is secure be it Windows or Linux.

The beauty of doing it all in a virtual machine is the software allows you to make a snapshot of your operating system and if something does bite it, you can simply revert back to the original non infected version. I do this when I am testing something new, go to a questionable website, or open an email that may be suspicious.

In fact, I do all my browsing and email this way and am never concerned about getting something that would harm my Windows environment. I have even set my family up this way and we never I mean never have a problem.

That is my 2 cents

I agree that older versions of Norton had problems, although they mostly involved the HUGE footprint it had on the system, slowing performance to a crawl, rather than any ineffectiveness in detecting and preventing malware. But since the release of NIS 2010 it has been at or near the top of the heap in all categories by everyone who has run actual tests, and the 2013 version scored the best -- #1 -- in PC Mag's testing of anti-malware suites. This agrees with my personal observations.

No AV can stop a stupid user from ignoring its warnings if he or she is bound and determined to. But NIS is pretty good, perhaps the best, at staying updated and detecting both known malware and suspected malware that it detects via heuristics.

I see you have an ax to grind against Norton. So did I until the release of NIS 2010, but perhaps you should not let it color your judgment. I do NOT practice particularly "safe computing" at home myself (after 12 years as the Internet Services/IT Security Administrator at a major U.S. government agency renowned for its technological prowess, I am fairly confident in my own ability to deal with whatever might befall) but nothing has gotten past it yet on any of my machines, and I routinely use it in my business to successfully clean the infected drives brought in to me by others (love that eSATA jack!).

Avast is a good free product. So is Avira and Panda, but Avast may be the best and doesn't nag much. AVG used to be the best freeware AV until it got so bloated -- now you need a Core i7 with large amounts of RAM just to keep your computer running under it.

If you use MS SE as a antivirus program then its quite good compared to other antivirus programs. Do you want more security like Norton or McAfee are offering, then MS SE is lacking all kinds of features.

So its up to you.

I have tested several programs for some years now and I must say most programs are a very heavy load on most pc's and certainly on most laptops. MS SE is a much lighter program and it does its job well. But it cannot offer extended protection like ie McAfee or AVG does. SE finds most infections just like the other programs do. But in case of a very intelligent operated intrusion into your pc SE does not find it, other programs at some moment do find it. I think its a problem if you rely completely on a program, its your own behaviour that counts here: if you are prudent in your pc use, MS SE is a help.

but you must understand it is not an anti-malware. That is why you had problems. You could have left Spybot S&D on there and run SpywareBlaster concurrently with it - and ran MBAM and/ or Super-Anti-Spyware as a free scanner and pretty much caught/blocked a lot. I like running the OLD defender concurrently as well. I get no slow downs, at all - because much of this is passive real time protection. My Vista version of Defender has many settings I can choose as well, so I'm not sure why so may say it has no granular control at all.

WinPatrol makes a good free HIPs as well - so you may know when Zeus variants are trying to invade the startup folder.

My office computer got a virus, and it made the fonts illegible. I had Panda's premium antivirus software installed. The virus went right past Panda...and never looked back. They told me they would send a disk to rid my computer of the virus. Needless to say, that disk never arrived either, and yes I did remind them numerous times. The lesson...do not trust your computer to Panda. I was on the phone with them half a dozen times, and wrote to them nearly as many times, but Panda apparently does not stand behind their products. They are dirt to me....useless...not only not helpful...but do not think they owe you any service when their vaunted product miserably fails. The only cure at the time was to reformat...and start over.

I do not have Windows 8 yet , but I presume Microsoft Essentials will apply here same as for Windows 7.
According to me , Microsoft Essentials which include all necessary protections including Antivirus , antispyware , defender and Firewall all together for PC and is the best which can protect your PC

Norton is at best 4th ranked by CNET with a horrid GUI that looks like the instrument panel of a 747 and full of totally meaningless words and undefined headers.

I would still use antivrus software, like Bit Defender, just dont forget to turn off autopilot, while gaming as this will effect gaming performance.