App Review Microsoft Defender Antivirus (Default Settings + DefenderUI Recommanded Settings)

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

Shadowra

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Microsoft Defender is the anti-malware solution present on Windows since Windows 8.
It offers completely free protection powered by daily updates and cloud-based protection powered by AI Machine Learning.

In this test, we will compare the antivirus twice.
The first time, configured by Microsoft, as if you had installed Windows.
The second time, we'll use the DefenderUI tool, which we'll set to “Recommended Settings”.
Is it useful to configure Defender?



For this test, I won't give a grade but I will give an overall opinion.
Quickly: No, configuring Microsoft Defender is not useful.
At least, not this configuration!

In fact, it didn't enhance protection at all. Out of the pack, 6 malwares remained, including 1 that created an exclusion in Microsoft Defender to go undetected.
Although Microsoft Defender tried to defend itself, NPE did detect the malicious file.
Using it as part of a security policy already defined by Microsoft is more than sufficient.

@lokamoka820 request

Quick info: This is the first video of Season 3 of my channel, so everything isn't perfect yet :)
I'm looking forward to your feedback to let me know if there's anything to improve, as I haven't mastered the Neon effects yet :D
 

Bot

AI-powered Bot
Apr 21, 2016
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Thanks for this detailed comparison and review. It's interesting to see that the default settings of Microsoft Defender are sufficient and that configuring it further doesn't necessarily enhance protection. This will surely help users understand the efficiency of Microsoft Defender better. Looking forward to more such insightful reviews from your channel. Keep up the good work!
 

Shadowra

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Very nice work, although the section using time lapse showing threat remediation was hallucinogenic. :D

Do you have any idea how enabling aggressive mode and file hash computation would have fared in same test with your samples?

It seems to me that Defender changes the way it scans in aggressive mode, basing itself on infection patterns.
@SeriousHoax could answer better than me :)
 

danb

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Thank you for the test Shadowra! Yeah, the 25-30 or so Microsoft Defender settings that are optimized when applying the Recommended Profile in DefenderUI will have almost no effect when manually downloading and executing malware samples, except for possibly Cloud Protection Level (set to Zero-Trust). But if one were to test the change in efficacy of optimizing a specific Defender setting, such as one of the ASR Rules, the end result would be a very different story. In other words, DefenderUI certainly increases efficacy, but it is not easy to test.

What would be interesting is if someone were to run the same test with DefenderUI Pro. DefenderUI Pro is essentially DefenderUI Free with a streamlined / lite version of CyberLock built in. We took the absolute best features of CyberLock from the last 13 years and combined it into DefenderUI Pro. It is targeted more towards businesses, but some people might prefer the streamlined CyberLock integration.
 

Shadowra

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What would be interesting is if someone were to run the same test with DefenderUI Pro. DefenderUI Pro is essentially DefenderUI Free with a streamlined / lite version of CyberLock built in. We took the absolute best features of CyberLock from the last 13 years and combined it into DefenderUI Pro. It is targeted more towards businesses, but some people might prefer the streamlined CyberLock integration.
If you've got a trial version, I can take care of it, I've got a bit of time on my hands at the moment. :p
 

lokamoka820

Level 23
Mar 1, 2024
1,258
Microsoft Defender is the anti-malware solution present on Windows since Windows 8.
It offers completely free protection powered by daily updates and cloud-based protection powered by AI Machine Learning.

In this test, we will compare the antivirus twice.
The first time, configured by Microsoft, as if you had installed Windows.
The second time, we'll use the DefenderUI tool, which we'll set to “Recommended Settings”.
Is it useful to configure Defender?



For this test, I won't give a grade but I will give an overall opinion.
Quickly: No, configuring Microsoft Defender is not useful.
At least, not this configuration!

In fact, it didn't enhance protection at all. Out of the pack, 6 malwares remained, including 1 that created an exclusion in Microsoft Defender to go undetected.
Although Microsoft Defender tried to defend itself, NPE did detect the malicious file.
Using it as part of a security policy already defined by Microsoft is more than sufficient.

@lokamoka820 request

Quick info: This is the first video of Season 3 of my channel, so everything isn't perfect yet :)
I'm looking forward to your feedback to let me know if there's anything to improve, as I haven't mastered the Neon effects yet :D

Thank you so much @Shadowra, this is the result I was expected, do you recommend any additions for a free security setup?

By the way, the video production and effects are awesome, keep up the good work. 👍
 

Shadowra

Level 37
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Content Creator
Malware Tester
Well-known
Sep 2, 2021
2,619
Thank you so much @Shadowra, this is the result I was expected, do you recommend any additions for a free security setup?

By the way, the video production and effects are awesome, keep up the good work. 👍

No, this is more than enough :) (for Web protection you can add Malwarebytes or Bitdefender's solution with TrafficLight or even use an alternative dns like NextDNS)
 

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