Battle Sophos Free or WD + configure defender

[oldschool]

I'm wondering if WD + ConfigureDefender instead of Sophos Home Free would be lighter on our machine and give roughly the same protection we get now. I'm a new member and I've been using Sophos Free since November 2017 install on our old windows laptop. (i3, 4GB RAM). I've been OK with Sophos and one of the things I like about it is ease of use and web filtering. I'm a safe user but I am a novice with all things PC. Recently I saw info here about ConfigureDefender for WD and it simply got me wondering.....should I give WD a try?

 

[enaph]

I can tell you from my own experience, that hardened WD is enough for a safe user.
Just add some second opinion scanner like HitmanPro, Zemana Anti-Malware Free or Malwarebytes Anti-Malware Free (you can even add all of them if you want) and you're good to go.

 

[Electr0n]

Has sophos home added quarantine feature? Otherwise it is a big no no.

 

[oldschool]

Has sophos home added quarantine feature? Otherwise it is a big no.

Not that I know of. I've only had one malicious website blocked. Oh, and it showed GRC's Leaktest probe blocked and I believe the only option was to "Clean".

 

[frogboy]

Maybe try givngWindows Defender plus VoodooShield a run. For aan additional on demand scanner try Zemana Anti-Malware Free.

 

[tonibalas]

If you have safe browsing habits then i think WD + CD will be enough.
And since Sophos doesn't has quarantine yet i would leave it at the moment because you can't restore a false positive

 

[ZeroDay]

WD + ConfigureDefender. I think now WD is actually a good, solid AV we only ever need to add some zero day protection, adblocker and on demand scanners etc.

 

[kev216]

Has sophos home added quarantine feature? Otherwise it is a big no no.

Nope, not yet. However they are experimenting with quarantine in their b2b products and they'll probably add it in their b2c products too they said. On the other hand Sophos is very low on fp's. I use the free version for a year and a half now and I still have to see the first fp detected on my machine. And I download a lot.
Not that i'm against quarantine though, I've been waiting for it for so long now...
Otherwise, very good basic protection. If you know what you are doing, sophos home free is a very good product on itself already.

 

[oldschool]

On the other hand Sophos is very low on fp's. I use the free version for a year and a half now and I still have to see the first fp detected on my machine. And I download a lot. Not that i'm against quarantine though, I've been waiting for it for so long now...
Otherwise, very good basic protection. If you know what you are doing, sophos home free is a very good product on itself already.

That's precisely my situation. I've got Zemana Realtime + VoodooShield Free + MBAM Free + uBlock, etc. and I'm trying to figure if WD+CD will be lighter and/or better? And would that option give me the same malicious website protection?

 

[Brie]

I'm trying to figure if WD+CD will be lighter

What is CD?

 

[shmu26]

Some people find Defender to be very light, and some say the exact opposite. The only way to know is to try it on your system.
If you enable all the features in Configure Defender, it might slow down the launching of certain apps. You need to play with it a little, and see which features slow you down.

 

[lowdetection]

WD + configure defender

With CPU load reduced from 50% to a lower value.

I found it having some peaks on my config, but I found the solution of AndyFul really nice, that I am using it on a test machine.

 

[oldschool]

What is CD?

FYI: WD's full scans are slow. When it runs its shorter periodic scans I don't notice at all. No clue at all it is scanning. I finally did switch to WD and use Andy Ful's ConfigureDefender. It does what those technically challenged like myself could never do without it: makes maximum use of WD's features. Some folks find WD very laggy when opening a lot of files at once. I'm a different kind of user who can easily live with it. With VS, OSArmor, maybe some hardening with SysHardener (another wonderful app) one has more than enough choices to complement WD.I have found great help here on the forum from the many members with far more experience than myself. I have been able to find a setup that is fine on my older laptop and that I am comfortable using.

 

[vtqhtr413]

We are in, pretty much the same phase, I went to Windows 10 four months ago, not sure this machine could handle it but it's been ok, disabled WD as much as a user can and then installed my favorite AV, then the next and the next, none were as light as WD? I reenabled WD, installed Andy Ful's ConfigureDefender, set it on high, no performance impact at all. I've been so security forward for so many years I can't help but wonder if I've snorted somebody's kool-aid, can it be this simple? If WD continues to improve significantly I'm sure we will begin to hear monopoly rumblings, a lot of money involved.

 

[oldschool]

We are in, pretty much the same phase, I went to Windows 10 four months ago, not sure this machine could handle it but it's been ok, disabled WD as much as a user can and then installed my favorite AV, then the next and the next, none were as light as WD? I reenabled WD, installed Andy Ful's ConfigureDefender, set it on high, no performance impact at all. I've been so security forward for so many years I can't help but wonder if I've snorted somebody's kool-aid, can it be this simple? If WD continues to improve significantly I'm sure we will begin to hear monopoly rumblings, a lot of money involved.

I am reminded periodically here on the forum by advanced users to make use of MS's own tools, whether it's cleanmgr (which I just used today btw), etc. Some people may pooh-pooh WD but it is getting better. I'm happy to be using it. While controller apps like ConfigureDefender are technically 3rd party softs, I consider them merely lightweight extensions of WD - doing what some could not do or are too lazy to do. My system is definitely overkill at present since I had this 3 year discounted offer for Zemana. I haven't even updated my thread completely since it's a little embarrassing what I have on my machine. I still consider it lightweight though! :emoji_grimacing: Aside from boot time my machine is clean as a whistle and it's humming!

 

[vtqhtr413]

Amen @oldschool , to all you said but one and I mean no offense but ConfigureDefender is a heavyweight to me, easily underappreciated as it's unknown out there and free but a top notch app as I know you know, it is as you said, for the lazy or uneducated user, I am both :notworthy: and boot time is the only thing that is sad with Win 10 but I just start it and let it go for about 5 min and no problem.

 

[oldschool]

Amen @oldschool , to all you said but one and I mean no offense but ConfigureDefender is a heavyweight to me, easily underappreciated as it's unknown out there and free but a top notch app as I know you know, it is as you said, for the lazy or uneducated user, I am both :notworthy: and boot time is the only thing that is sad with Win 10 but I just start it and let it go for about 5 min and no problem.

CD does take some time to load, maybe due to how the script is written? Is it heavy @ 1.3MB? I have no idea, but it is slow and a bit balky when closing as well. I'm ~ 2 minutes boot time. I brew my morning pot of Assam and presto!:emoji_ok_hand:

 

[vtqhtr413]

Set it back to defualt and remove it for a day and keep it in mind, I did this myself and saw no difference in performance specs. For many years I have used CleanMem just for an apples to apples view of minor changes made and it showed no difference at all, really depends on your machine specs though

Is it heavy @ 1.3MB? I have no idea

To me that is minuscule but again it depends on your machine.

 

[Yellowing]

Why are you discussing ConfigureDefender? You run this program once and then never again. What does it matter if it is a little slow? :emoji_grimacing:

 

[shmu26]

CD does take some time to load, maybe due to how the script is written? Is it heavy @ 1.3MB? I have no idea, but it is slow and a bit balky when closing as well. I'm ~ 2 minutes boot time. I brew my morning pot of Assam and presto!:emoji_ok_hand:

I am guessing that the configurator loads with a delay because it first needs to read your system info in order to correctly display what you enabled and what you didn't