Windows 10: Microsoft Defender and 3rd Party Antivirus:

If I download a 3rd party antivirus, Microsoft Defender turns itself off. How long can it remain in the off disabled mode before the software becomes outdated/corrupt and will not come back on if or when I uninstall the 3rd party antivirus? Can you leave it disabled for 6 months, 1 year, 2 years, 3years?


I'm aware of the Periodic Scan Mode that you turn on, but when this feature is enabled, memory and CPU usage goes way up because Microsoft Defender is technically running in the background and will continue to download threat updates.


So, if I add a 3rd party antivirus, should I activate Periodic Scanning or leave it turned off?


HM 10-28-2020

:)

 

3rd party antivirus/firewall and win10

Antivirus; the attempt by Microsoft to remove (uninstall) or limit 3rd party antivirus and firewalls is truly overreach.

This action is purely designed to make the win10 systems allow Microsoft products and setting not be blocked by other software.

Automatically turning on the built in defender and windows firewall before a 3rd party product has finished updating, being completely uninstalled or temporally paused should not invoke win10 to restart its built in products, but it does infract do this.

This is true for any pc that has any win10 files including the get win10 gwx program in win7 and 8.1.

This corrupts the installation of 3rd party product's so as to not allow the program to use its full capacity, there by making the system venerable.

The only option is to have to uninstall the 3rd party software and reinstall, this can be a real pain to reconfigure on every win10 updates build.

I can only think that this is also why Microsoft is making it difficult to use any other system protection but its own.

A big step in the wrong direction.

 

Windows Defender - antivirus?

Windows defender is a built in antivirus, that detects all type of threats.You do not need to install any 3rd party antivirus.

In windows 7 and earlier Microsoft security essentials was to be used with windows defender for a full system protection, but in Windows 8 and later windows defender's capabilities have been increased to make it a full fledged antivirus.

I suggest rolling with Windows Defender (preinstalled)+Malwarebytes for a full system security.

 

3rd party AV program

The message you are describing may be observed if another antivirus program is still installed or there are remnants of a third party antivirus program still installed.

Turn Windows Security on or off
Note the statement "If you want to use Windows Defender Antivirus, uninstall all of your other antivirus programs and Windows Defender Antivirus will automatically turn on. You may be asked to restart your device."

Go to Security and Maintenance, look in 'Security' and see what program is listed under Virus Protection. Windows Defender will not be enabled and functioning properly if there is a program other than Windows Defender listed.

For further information see the reply of quietman7 in Windows Defender

You may want to try the steps recommended in Problems
starting Windows Defender in Windows 8/8.1/10 to include running SFC, scanning for malware with Malwarebytes and running the software removal tools for any security software (Avast,
AVG, McAfee, Norton, whatever) that may have previously been on the computer followed by a reboot? List of
anti-malware product removal tools

And see Configure Windows Defender in Windows
8, 8.1 and 10

If you can't resolve this issue suggest you post back in this thread and provide additional information.

Regards…

Top 10 Ways PUPs Sneak Onto Your Computer. And How To Avoid Them. | Emsisoft | Security Blog