Windows 10: Do I need Defender?

Do you need it?... Well, I don't... the first thing I do on install is disable it gpedit.

 

Thread Opener has the Home edition. I don't think that has gpedit enabled.

The question might be asked "I have MSE and Defender on my system after upgrading to Win10. Which malware protection is recommended?"

but... you did answer the question asked *Wink

 

This is interesting & I think I understand why MSE is still on my desktop. I have both a custom built PC & an HP laptop. I worked getting Win10 installed on my custom built desktop 1st.

After hours of not being able to install I resorted to using the download tool to make a USB installer. After beginning the install I realized it was trying to do a clean install, not an upgrade. I canceled that & booted to the Win7 desktop & did an upgrade by picking the setup.exe from the USB drive while on the desktop. Yeah, I know it's confusing but I was able to upgrade so lets leave it at that instead of critiquing my install explanation. *Wink

Meanwhile, my laptop was offering the upgrade from the Windows Update window which never happened on my desktop. I used WU for the laptop upgrade & DON'T have MSE installed on it.

Not sure if that's the reason but it would seem likely. Just a thought.

 

I'm not sure what gpedit is. It's not on my PC. It would be nice to remove MSE but not worth cause other odd issues. In time I'm sure there will be a removal tool developed.

 

No problem, it is an easy mistake to make (clean vs. upgrade).

If you successfully installed Win10 on the Desktop and it shows activated, then you could do a clean install using the USB.

If you're up for it *Tongue

This time, a clean install, you DO want to boot the USB.

For a squeaky clean install - you can remove all information from the disk
Select custom install from the options given
When you're asked where you want to install, select Drive options (advanced) then select each partiiton and delete it. Do the same thing for all partitions until only allocated space is shown.



You'll have to re-install your programs and your data will be wiped.

Make sure you have a good backup of your data before doing a clean install.
Also locate any license keys for software that your purchased, so you can re-install it.

I upgraded my Win7 box with USB media, then decided to test a clean install.
There are two times when you are asked for the key. The key is not needed after the upgrade was successful

The 1st time it asks, press skip this (lower left)
The 2nd time, press do this later (lower left)

Win10 completed the install and Windows is activated - I never entered a key.
I'm pretty sure this is by design and how it's supposed to work. The initial upgrade creates a key, encrypts it, and puts in firmware. Subsequent installs use the key from that location.

 

Thanks Slartybart. Your suggestion is a good one but I'm going to leave well enough alone. I have quite a number of programs & reinstalling them + digging up the software product keys would be quite the undertaking. MSE isn't worth that much of my time.

 

Understood and a wise decision - it's been great working with you on the issue.

Bill
.

 

Belarc Advisor will give you a complete system inventory including your software keys. Probably a good thing to do for future reference.

 

I'm have some weird crash issues & think I need to do a clean install. The PC crashes. There's no BSOD. Just goes black & restarts itself. I'm downloading Adobe Photoshop CS6 & other software & gathering keys.

I only have one partition on C:. I don't think other drives will be affected. I guess I could unplug them before re-installing Win10.

I use Oops Backup software. Do I need anything else?

 

A bit confused by this thread. Assuming one has MSE installed will anyone upgrading to Win 10 from Win 7 carry over MSE and then have both MSE and Defender like the OP? If so, should MSE be uninstalled before upgrading?

 

I believe Security Essentials is uninstalled during the upgrade. I had one W7 upgrade with MSE and it was gone when the upgrade was finished.

I've always removed all 3rd-party antivirus on every system I've upgraded, just to avoid any problems, although MS have said that it would be done automatically during the upgrade.

 

You might try turning off "fast startup" and do a couple of good shutdowns. That solved some strange issues I had on one system.

Whenever I do a complete reinstall, I have keycodes, software disks, drivers and personal files backed up. Make sure the system is activated before you clean install.

 

I have no idea why MSE carried over but it did & my PC will not allow an uninstall even though it has been deactivated. I upgraded from Win7 & MSE was installed on my Win7 PC. I'm sure you're aware Defender was malware only for Win7 so I never used it. I had no idea Defender was the newer version, as I did not upgrade to Win8.

 

I highly recommend disconnecting all other drives before a clean install.

As long as you have the keys for purchased software, I can't think of anything else.

Win7 was good at supplying drivers, Win8 nearly perfect and Win10 follows teh same process as Win8. Drivers are not the problem they used to be, so do the install and don't think about HW drivers. If any are missing in Dev Mgr you can back fill them if you really need it or the WU supp;lied driver isn't functioning well. MS has really done an outstanding job on this - even provided two obscure drivers on my box that I had previously just left flagged in Dev Mgr.

From the clean install tutorial


Tip Drive options (advanced)

If you only have one partition for a disk # (hard drive) listed that you wanted to install Windows on, then select the disk # and click on the Delete option if not grayed out to make it unallocated space.
.....





That's about it - good luck

 

That's about it - good luck I followed your tutorial late yesterday with complete success. Clean install went surprisingly fast. I was surprised Windows didn't automatically search for video drivers, etc but no big deal. Re-installing software this morning so far without issues.