App Review TPSC - Windows Defender vs Avast: Do you need Free Antivirus?

It is advised to take all reviews with a grain of salt. In extreme cases some reviews use dramatization for entertainment purposes.

motox781

Level 10
Verified
Well-known
Apr 1, 2015
483
REAL-WORLD (Triathlon = AV-Comparatives + AV-Test + SE Labs) 12 tests in the year 2021
--------------------- missed samples
Avast........... 1.5 + 5 + 2 = 8.5
Microsoft.... 4.5 + 1 + 3 = 8.5
Norton......... 3.5 + 1 + 5 = 9.5
Kaspersky.... 5.0 + 0 + 5 = 10

Samples............ 3 737

REAL-WORLD (Biathlon = AV-Comparatives + AV-Test) 8 tests in the year 2021
--------------------- missed samples
Norton.............. 3.5 + 1 = 4.5
Kaspersky......... 5.0 + 0 = 5
Microsoft......... 4.5 + 1 = 5.5
Avast................1.5 + 5 = 6.5

Samples............... 3 337
Great example. Statistical detection rate for those AVs listed range from:

99.73% - 99.86%

I'll take those % any day!
 
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F

ForgottenSeer 94654

Yeah I totally agree with you on this one. Leo does know how to test antivirus. In fact he's the one and only tester I've seen who disabled the real-time protection of ESET and tested some ransomware to find if the other modules block it. The whole world knows that all the components of ESET are tied to each other and ESET does not have a behaviour blocker but still he tests like this. Why can't you just shut up instead of spamming all the posts? And just a few days ago you were bashing the YouTube testers. You should seek the help of a psychiatrist my friend.
I never said Leo knows how to test. You are putting words into my mouth. Leo talks to people at ESET, so he has a lot more information than you do.

You contradicted yourself in your post, just for that you are not credible.

I don't care if I'm not "professional" as you say, I do what I like and I'm fine with it, buddy :)
I did not contradict myself. I said Leo is an established professional within the industry - as in a malware analyst, not a tester. I also said he is only a Youtube tester, just like you. He is not a professional tester. Never has been. Never will be. He is an amateur tester and reviewer, just like you.

And Leo does what he likes and he is OK with it, buddy.
 

Shadowra

Level 36
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Sep 2, 2021
2,582
id not contradict myself. I said Leo is an established professional within the industry - as in a malware analyst, not a tester. I also said he is only a Youtube tester, just like you. He is not a professional tester. Never has been. Never will be. He is an amateur tester and reviewer, just like you.

And Leo does what he likes and he is OK with it, buddy.

Yes, you do, and I'm not the only one who sees it.

If you're only taking the "professional" tests, what the hell are you doing here? Besides spamming ALL the posts?
I've already explained to you how much time it takes, I don't like to repeat myself.

Take a vacation, you need it.
Good evening, you exasperate me....
 

devjit2020

Level 2
Apr 7, 2022
91
I never said Leo knows how to test. You are putting words into my mouth. Leo talks to people at ESET, so he has a lot more information than you do.


I did not contradict myself. I said Leo is an established professional within the industry - as in a malware analyst, not a tester. I also said he is only a Youtube tester, just like you. He is not a professional tester. Never has been. Never will be. He is an amateur tester and reviewer, just like you.

And Leo does what he likes and he is OK with it, buddy.
I also talk to the people at ESET. In fact the people at ESET are my friends. In fact the green Robot that you see in ESET is a close buddy of mine. We both meet everyday and chat and exchange ideas over a cup of coffee. Yeah everyone here's an amateur except you. Nobody knows anything about security products except you. You are the only one who knows everything and whenever someone asks for proof you don't have any. Reminds me of the proverb "Empty vessels sound much."
 
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F

ForgottenSeer 94654

Yes, you do, and I'm not the only one who sees it.

If you're only taking the "professional" tests, what the hell are you doing here? Besides spamming ALL the posts?
I've already explained to you how much time it takes, I don't like to repeat myself.

Take a vacation, you need it.
Good evening, you exasperate me....
I never said that "professional" tests are the only useful tests. It is you that is taking what I am posting and giving it all an intent and meaning that is not there.

I also talk to the people at ESET. In fact the people at ESET are my friends. In fact the green Robot that you see in ESET is a close buddy of mine. We both meet everyday and chat and exchange ideas over a cup of coffee. Yeah everyone here's an amateur except you. Nobody knows anything about security products except you. You are the only one who knows everything and whenever someone asks for proof you don't have any. Reminds me of the proverb "Empty vessels sound much."
I never said that nobody knows anything about security software except for me. "Say what? No pic? No pic means it didn't happen. You're making it up." I said that Leo talks to people at ESET. I don't need to provide proof of that. You can ask Leo yourself. So you are saying that "If you don't have a pic of Leo talking to ESET, then it didn't happen?" Oh please.

Provide proof that you talk to Mr Robot every single day. Guess what, Mr Robot is an image on a box. He's not real. And please, dont' even come back with their name is Mr Robot. Looks like you need to see the head shrinker.
 
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BigWrench

Level 19
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Well-known
Apr 13, 2014
922
6D8C6332-76DF-451C-8961-1B499D21D77F.gif
 
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devjit2020

Level 2
Apr 7, 2022
91
I never said that "professional" tests are the only useful tests. It is you that is taking what I am posting and giving it all an intent and meaning that is not there.


I never said that nobody knows anything about security software except for me. "Say what? No pic? No pic means it didn't happen. You're making it up." I said that Leo talks to people at ESET. I don't need to provide proof of that. You can ask Leo yourself. So you are saying that "If you don't have a pic of Leo talking to ESET, then it didn't happen?" Oh please.

Provide proof that you talk to Mr Robot every single day. Guess what, Mr Robot is an image on a box. He's not real. And please, dont' even come back with their name is Mr Robot. Looks like you need to see the head shrinker.
I am Mr. Robot myself. If you would have looked closely at my profile picture you would have known.:ROFLMAO: Anyways jokes apart, please keep your mouth shut because clearly you don't know if Leo talks to the people at ESET. You're just making things up. Even the people at ESET agreed after seeing the video that it's not how ESET works, disabling the individual components since all the components are tied to each other. Please do some research before spamming the threads. And who told you that Mr. Robot is not real? If you're a security expert then Mr. Robot is also real. :LOL:
You're saying that you never say nobody knows about security software except you but please look at your old posts. You simply refuse to believe others and keep on blabbering even after they counter you with proof.
 
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DJ Panda

Level 30
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Well-known
Aug 30, 2015
1,928
I personally grew up with PCSC so I was always curious about their videos. Lately, he seems to be bash WD quite a bit. While I do agree using default settings to get an average user result, would the average user's habits (if they use secure websites or basic tasks), face many of these samples in a day to day environment? I used Avast for almost a decade and enjoyed it but have swapped to WD some years back for easy use. People have their own opinions and I am mostly indifferent. Just getting my two cents in. ;)
 
L

Local Host

I personally would have brought the banhammer out by now.
+1, is one thing to have different opinions and healthy arguments, another is to constantly harass a member of the community.
Most users do not need a free antivirus on their computer as windows defender is pretty good by itself, but some free antiviruses like bitdefender or kaspersky offer better security and are more user friendly.
I rather use no Anti-Virus than Microsoft Defender anyday, if I really need an Anti-Virus I go for Kaspersky, which is the only suite that doesn't give me any problems.
 

ErzCrz

Level 22
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Top Poster
Well-known
Aug 19, 2019
1,152
MD's performance is sometimes a issue but it's integrated into the system so it's resources are managed authomaticall. When accompanied with ConfigureDefender and the ability to tweak options when I can't on a Win10 Home version, it can be tweaked to be so much better.

Anyway, I take these tests with a pinch of salt. Each of them are objectve if their own way. I'm a big fan of the default deny approach with the likes of Hard-Confirgurator, Comodo, Voodoo Shield etc but these tests are meant to be informative and each have their own way of testing them, not worth flaring up for over one tester vs another. There are experts out there which is great and a number of reputable test sites so do what @Andy Ful does and take a sample from various places.
 
L

Local Host

What's your main issue with it? Like for many users, it's the performance impact.
It has a good chunk of glitches and bugs, still poor user interface not to mention the performance impact.

It increases build time in Visual Studio by 150% depending on the code.

In comparison Kaspersky has no performance hit whasoever in Visual Studio nor the rest of the system, then again I don't need Kaspersky on my personal computer.

So I'm running with no Anti-Virus whasoever, which is better than Microsoft Defender.
 

Andy Ful

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Dec 23, 2014
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On my computer, I have to disable temporarily the Internet connection or Defender's real-time protection to compile my applications - Defender blocks the creation of executables from my source code.
From time to time the Protection History crashes and this bug can be solved only by stopping the WinDefend service and deleting the file:
C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows Defender\Scans\mpenginedb.db
There are some other well-known usability issues, but installing 3rd part AV may also introduce several issues.
I do not know any AV that could please all users, so we can find the users who do not like Kaspersky, Bitdefender, etc.
Fortunately, there are many good AVs, so one is not forced to use only one solution.:)
 

kC77

Level 5
Verified
Well-known
Aug 16, 2021
232
On my computer, I have to disable temporarily the Internet connection or Defender's real-time protection to compile my applications - Defender blocks the creation of executables from my source code.
From time to time the Protection History crashes and this bug can be solved only by stopping the WinDefend service and deleting the file:
C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows Defender\Scans\mpenginedb.db
There are some other well-known usability issues, but installing 3rd part AV may also introduce several issues.
I do not know any AV that could please all users, so we can find the users who do not like Kaspersky, Bitdefender, etc.
Fortunately, there are many good AVs, so one is not forced to use only one solution.:)
dont exclusions work? (exclude your visual studio or whatever app is creating them as process exclusion, and/or whatever file/folders are being used?
 
L

Local Host

On my computer, I have to disable temporarily the Internet connection or Defender's real-time protection to compile my applications - Defender blocks the creation of executables from my source code.
From time to time the Protection History crashes and this bug can be solved only by stopping the WinDefend service and deleting the file:
C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows Defender\Scans\mpenginedb.db
There are some other well-known usability issues, but installing 3rd part AV may also introduce several issues.
I do not know any AV that could please all users, so we can find the users who do not like Kaspersky, Bitdefender, etc.
Fortunately, there are many good AVs, so one is not forced to use only one solution.:)
That's another problem I always had as well, a huge rate of false positives from Microsoft Defender (something that doesn't happen with Kaspersky), I got tired of sending samples to Microsoft.
 
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Trooper

Level 17
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Aug 28, 2015
800
That's another problem I always had as well, a huge rate of false positives from Microsoft Defender (something that doesn't happen with Kaspersky), I got tired of sending samples to Microsoft.

I am curious what kind of FP's you have run into. I have not had any but my use case is probably limited from most folks.
 

Andy Ful

From Hard_Configurator Tools
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Dec 23, 2014
8,458
dont exclusions work? (exclude your visual studio or whatever app is creating them as process exclusion, and/or whatever file/folders are being used?
No. During the compilation, the .tmp files are created and this is blocked in the user Temp folder. Defender does not like when Autoit creates .tmp binaries.
 
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