Software Review Best Antivirus vs Windows Defender: What's the difference? (PC Security Channel)

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Thanks for sharing this video! It should provide valuable insights into the differences between Windows Defender and other antivirus solutions. Let's discuss it further.
 
It feels more like marketing material for Kaspersky and BitDefender than being an actual informative video. He even covered Kaspersky's VPN in the video, which I find to be completely irrelevant to whether or not the file he ran could be detected as malicious, or protection from malicious files in general. Sure, is the inclusion of a VPN or an app updater a nice thing? Yes. I don't find them necessary for the video though.
To make it more fair, he should have used the basic versions(or even the free versions, since Windows Defender is free) of both Kaspersky and BitDefender instead of the most expensive versions, in order to focus more so on just detection.
In addition, I would have liked it more if he also had showed a hardened version of Windows Defender with ConfigureDefender or DefenderUI rather than with just default Windows Defender.
 
I often criticized his videos about AV protection tests but this video seems OK. It is a short presentation of features and does not pretend to be an AV protection comparison test.
He clearly says that Defender is not his favorite AV but does not try to convince people that using Defender is a stupid thing. He even understands that many users can prefer a simple but effective Windows built-in AV over 3rd party solutions.
 
It used to be (like in Windows 7), when there was no MS defender, some people (maybe even the majority of consumers) didn't use AV at all. Now they all have AV defenses. Definitely better than before.

And don't estimate the power of being "free."
 
It’s always been the same main issue, what’s the point in detecting something that behaves like malware but it is not? In AV tests this called false positive. There is no doubt that Kaspersky and Bitdefender are good AVs but so is Windows Security. I’ve had MS Defender (Windows Security) for 2 years on Win11 and 7 years on Win 10. No problems whatsoever. I also believe there is no malware around for average users, if I wanted to infect my computer purposely, I wouldn’t know what to do.
 
Lymphocyte said:
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I did not like this video at all and found it misleading bcoz:
1. At 1:23 he says this is not a known malware but clearly it has a proper signature for Kaspersky. Even Bitdefender probably had one but he did not open bitdefender and checked but both were blocked based on static analysis. Static Analysis is not the only way defender can block threats. Obviously it is possible that defender gets bypassed here (albeit he did not show), this one case does not prove that defender is inferior. I can give countless examples to him or anyone else of samples that defender detects statically but kas or bd do not and few of them can even bypass the two giants.
2. In the video, he compares the bells and whistles of paid products to free Windows defender which does not make sense. A good amount of features say like VPN do not work in some countries. Will i get a discount in the paid plan of Kaspersky and Bitdefender. Obviously not.

Sad that he had no other video to upload so he had to upload an advert.
 
I have been using MS Defender for many years and have had no problems with it
In addition, I use Hard_Configurator with Cofigurator Defender and have not had any problems with computer infection.
I don't understand why others don't like using MS Defender
when you just need to fit another security application to it, such as the one I use, and everything fits together and plays without any problems. Light and unburdened.
 
Khushal said:
I did not like this video at all and found it misleading bcoz:
1. At 1:23 he says this is not a known malware but clearly it has a proper signature for Kaspersky. Even Bitdefender probably had one but he did not open bitdefender and checked but both were blocked based on static analysis. Static Analysis is not the only way defender can block threats. Obviously it is possible that defender gets bypassed here (albeit he did not show), this one case does not prove that defender is inferior. I can give countless examples to him or anyone else of samples that defender detects statically but kas or bd do not and few of them can even bypass the two giants.
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Yes, this fragment is unnecessary in the video and contradicts the test's main purpose.
Later in the test, Leo admitted that Microsoft Defender is not his favorite AV. Testing Kaspersky and Bitdefender on one sample already missed by Defender can prove nothing else but his preferences about AVs.

However, contrary to many invalid tests made by PC, the author wanted to show that the Windows built-in version of Microsoft Defender has fewer features that can be useful for some users. He mentioned that many people might skip those features and still choose Microsoft Defender.

Still, the test could be better if he additionally included the paid version of Microsoft Defender (MD for Endpoint). By skipping it, the video is slightly biased and prefers non-Microsoft products.
 
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jamey910111 said:
windows defender is bloat, even without extra software ‘bloat’, it’s inefficient, a resource hog at least compared to kaspersky- not saying it’s a horrible product but it’s just mediocre at best imo
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"Bloat, inefficient, resource hog, mediocre" Wow you really dislike it don't you? Can you provide evidence supporting your criticism? I have a powerful laptop (2 years old) and with or without Windows Defender its speed is unaffected. Inefficient? How can you measure that? Mediocre at best? what results will support your statements? I used Karsperky with Windows 10 on still another powerful laptop (license was a prize)in 2016, and speed then was unaffected compared to MS Defender. Detection? I've had no detections for more than 15 years, but AV Comparatives has shown excellent resuts for MS Defender and Kaspersky.
 
Harlequin said:
"Bloat, inefficient, resource hog, mediocre" Wow you really dislike it don't you? Can you provide evidence supporting your criticism? I have a powerful laptop (2 years old) and with or without Windows Defender its speed is unaffected. Inefficient? How can you measure that? Mediocre at best? what results will support your statements? I used Karsperky with Windows 10 on still another powerful laptop (license was a prize)in 2016, and speed then was unaffected compared to MS Defender. Detection? I've had no detections for more than 15 years, but AV Comparatives has shown excellent resuts for MS Defender and Kaspersky.
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Talking with a deeply devout person is mainly useless.
 
Every antivirus was bypassable, nothing was perfect but that doesn't mean you shouldn't use antivirus.
Let's talk about Sandboxie, well there two antiviruses use the Sandboxie.
Which is supported by MalwareTips but one of them dead (Tiranium antivirus which is horrible for me) but my one is up to date and it's harder to bypass because it contains everything. Without plugins Sandboxie wasn't great. Also, my thing is not good for definition of Antivirus. Containing everything is a key but even if Comodo didn't does that and can easily bypassed.
 
jerzy601 said:
I don't understand why others don't like using MS Defender
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Mainly performance. Lots of people still using HDD systems. Microsoft Defender can be hard on available resources.

Harlequin said:
I've had no detections for more than 15 years, but AV Comparatives has shown excellent results for MS Defender and Kaspersky.
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AV-Comparatives is not the best indicator. In reality, against new malware, Microsoft Defender performs in the 40% to 60% detection rate. When it comes to any type of advanced tests - such as protections against active banking trojans or info stealers - Microsoft Defender always performs very poorly. One fatal flaw with Defender is that if it does not detect an infection by signature, the malware can do a lot of damage on the system.

"I never had detection in 15 years" is proof that your behaviors are what protect your systems. Microsoft Defender is not even involved. 15 years of no detections means Defender and its forerunner were silent.

On my very powerful laptops (i9-149000HX) with liquid cooling, Microsoft Defender performing a full system scan causes Edge to not be able to connect to the internet. That is because of the way that Defender is programmed to hog all available threads. This has been known for years.

Others that are still using HDD always face performance issues with Microsoft Defender.

I suppose that people do not understand Leo because they are not malware analysts like Leo. He creates videos from his own perspective. He is very skilled and he does know what he is talking about.

What I do not get is how every single time Leo makes a video there are those people that are outraged. I have no understanding how people cannot disagree with Leo without becoming emotionally upset.

I just cannot understand why people get so upset when someone online criticizes a product they believe in. It is childish and ridiculous. Who cares what others think?
 
bazang said:
I suppose that people do not understand Leo because they are not malware analysts like Leo. He creates videos from his own perspective. He is very skilled and he does know what he is talking about.
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It can be true for many people. This video is probably the fairest for Microsoft Defender among his and many YouTube videos.
It is not always good if one creates videos from his perspective, especially when he is skilled and knows what he is talking about. But, It seems that recently Leo has tried hard to fight his general prejudice against Microsoft Defender. :)
 
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