Windows 10: Microsoft Security Essentials Scores Incredibly Well in New Antivirus

Defender was not very good at the beginning so they used it as reference point to show how much better were other ones. Last 6 month or so, I have a feeling that it much improved. It caught some stuff in files I had downloaded before and it missed then. It also downloads new detection several times a day. I also check with other AVs on demand and they are not catching anything that WD missed.

 

I just liked the fact that Norton's scored so high in the 1st report.....#2 is not a bad spot. So tired of folks flaming Norton. *Thumbs

 

I remember when Symantec issued an announcement stating that AVs are no longer relevant - they provide limited to questionable safety. That was a bombshell that shook the industry. Over the following years many users dropped AVs totally - I see it on a lot of forums. They claim they have been virus free for years - even those who still use XP. Now these guys have mult-layers of security installed so it is not as if they have no protection what-so-ever., so that has to be taken into account. I understand that MSE on W7/8 has been updated to W10 Defender level. Zero-day is not an AV strength - has to be acknowledged, but for me, even though I have layered support, I still have an AV installed. MSE has improved tremendously over the past 2 years and with browser safety turned on, it is a good addition, IMHO.

 

Yeah, I also own Malwarebytes Pro, which runs right next to my Nortons. They can both be on at the same time, and get along fine. I even have a 3rd AV program, that only runs when I turn it on. So think I got things covered. *Smile

 

I have a third party anti virus and my laptop certainly is not slow at all
Click on a site or forum and goes straight in
click on Edge and goes straight in on one click so where is slow on that.
Facebook that IE11 used to give me trouble now one click enter password and loads straight in.
So how is that slow

 

The elephant in the room is that there aren't so many 'viruses' around now. Instead, virtually all infestations I see on client's computers are PUPs and AV programs don't stop these as they are invited in.

My client record is 3,300 entries in Malwarebytes but others have seen even bigger numbers.

I have only used MSE for years and, yes, it will let PUPs in.

But still encouraging results from Clusterhead, even though I don't place much store in these tests.

 

I would rather be safe than sorry and I have always been told make sure you have your anti virus turned on.
That was from a Microsoft Rep

 

MSE/Defender has always scored brilliantly in the (lack of) false positive department, and yes I agree with you I hate false positives, especially when it suddenly appears on a previously trusted program.

 

I think as already mentioned that Defender and malwarebytes is a great way to protect your system

also consider comodo security suite (Free) and malwarebytes.

On occasion I also run the Kaspersky rescue disk (thanks Kaspersky) about once a month
Kaspersky Rescue Disk 10

Add a giant dose of common sense and maybe something like Ghostery to you browser you should be okay *Smile

 

It's AV's job to meddle into everything or most anything going on in the system. That has to have some impact, more protection, more impact, it's unavoidable. Fortunately or by design it's not measured by percentage of CPU, RAM or disk usage but have set values in any system. Take one AV, turn off all but one core of the CPU and slowdown will be quite noticeable comparing to when let's say all four cores are running. So you can't compare impact of one AV on computers that vary a lot by their performance.
Benchmarks I found are mostly HW centered so they are not much influenced by AV's presence. Monitoring let's say disk performance in real time with or without AV will tell you more.

 

That depends on a few things, but two worth bringing up:

1) Are you someone who will open & close a lot of programs/windows while using PC
2) Have you had a chance to use a really fast PC with no AV and a ton of other programs installed?

If answer to both is yes, then you will definitely notice the difference. Of course, if you've had a 3rd party AV for years and got used to same slowness on start-up and while it's searching your PC, then you probably just think it's normal for things to work that way.

There really is no reason to use anything other than MSE if you know a few things how stuff works on the internet. I've worked in an IT company and repaired computers on daily basis and the reason people had a ton of malware and stuff like that was because they would click anything and everything, download various stuff from unknown websites and emails as well.

But at the end of the day, each user uses their machine as they want. If someone has one, two or even more 3rd party AV/anti-malware and similar programs installed and they're fine with stuff being slower than it could be, then that's up to them.

 

OTOH if you have Windows XP, not running with Defender, nor MSE, nor Windows Update, nor Windows Error Reporting, nor any Malicious Software removal tool, and just a low impact 3rd party antivirus, such as Baidu, the speed it runs at is amazing, if not comparable or superior to Windows 10 on the same hardware.

 

Ah yes Microsoft Security Essentials, wasn't this pre-Windows 8 and Windows 10 software days??

It is really the only anti-virus I use in conjunction with MalwareBytes.

 

1) - To answer the larger question, and clear the assumptions, this no rookie here. That said, yes... I've run my machine with and without AV, and yes, there is a slight difference; However, it's not so much that I'm sitting around whining about how slow my system is with an AV installed.

2) - We've all had IT jobs and have opinions and thoughts on how things work and should be. Nothing new here.

3) - Arguing about fractions of a second an AV program "may" add is a waste of time, especially when it'll hardly be noticed by those doing daily tasks on their PC's. I know I'm not sitting here sayin "man, my PC could be so much faster if I didn't have that AV installed". Why... because the only time you may really notice it is during start-up and shut-down, and that's not a major daily task of using a computer. In short, it's insignificant.

4) - Yes, we run our systems as we see fit... even if others disagree.

Bottom line is I think this argument is much to do about nothing.

Peace *Cool

 

You remind me of my late, lamented father's penchant for seeking out a doctor who'd tell him what he wanted to hear...*chuckle I can vouch for Defender--it's excellent--and I've got more than a decade of using it to prove it. I started using it back when you had to pay for it, back before Microsoft bought the company and turned it into "Live" and then "MSE" and finally just "Defender" since Windows 8. What I have always liked about it is that it's the least invasive of any AV program I've ever used, and it's got by far the lightest resource footprint. Yet, it does a great job--the few nasties I've somehow caught it found and neutralized instantly, and best of all--no false positives! Unlike Norton's or the gosh-awful McAfee's (and AVG, etc.), it doesn't wedge itself in between your OS and your applications. Anyway, just thought I'd provide my own recommendation. It's just never computed for me that some other company could do a better job protecting Windows than Microsoft--and in more than a decade I've seen nothing that would change my mind about that.