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?

 

[Andy Ful]

@shmu26 is right. Configuredefender cannot be faster because it is as fast as PowerShell cmdlets.

 

[Gandalf_The_Grey]

When I read this post of @cruelsister :Video - Avira vs a D+2 Ransomware file I get a bad feeling about Windows Defender. Maybe another av is a better choice?

 

[shmu26]

When I read this post of @cruelsister :Video - Avira vs a D+2 Ransomware file I get a bad feeling about Windows Defender. Maybe another av is a better choice?

1 WD is bad at static detection. It is better at blocking when the file is executed.
2 If you want WD to really perform, you need to enable ASR. This is easily done by means of ConfigureDefender.

 

[Yellowing]

I just changed to KFA (Kaspersky Free Antivirus) because of this. I got the impression that it is way more secure.

 

[Evjl's Rain]

1 WD is bad at static detection. It is better at blocking when the file is executed.
2 If you want WD to really perform, you need to enable ASR. This is easily done by means of ConfigureDefender.

I found WD's BB/cloud working only after being tweaked by CD
in default settings, it doesn't usually block anything that the static scanner can't detect
I tested it, it blocked 0 after I executed undetected malwares in default settings

I think most windows 10 users are more protected not because of WD but because of windows smartscreen or the improvement of Edge's smartscreen and google safe browsing

 

[oldschool]

I found WD's BB/cloud working only after being tweaked by CD
in default settings, it doesn't usually block anything that the static scanner can't detect
I tested it, it blocked 0 after I executed undetected malwares in default settings

I think most windows 10 users are more protected not because of WD but because of windows smartscreen or the improvement of Edge's smartscreen and google safe browsing

Thanks for your testing. I wish we had more testing of this fine utility. Hopefully more members are aware of ConfigureDefender' s ease of use and overall benefit when added to WD.

 

[Evjl's Rain]

Thanks for your testing. I wish we had more testing of this fine utility. Hopefully more members are aware of ConfigureDefender' s ease of use and overall benefit when added to WD.

I wish we have more but I won't be the tester because windows 10+WD+CD severely degrade my laptop
I wish everyone could see what they did to it, too much freezing and lag especially the HDD

 

[shmu26]

I wish we have more but I won't be the tester because windows 10+WD+CD severely degrade my laptop
I wish everyone could see what they did to it, too much freezing and lag especially the HDD

I do not notice any drag from the Attack Surface Reduction rules, which are the real gems in ConfigureDefender, IMO.
But if you max out the WD cloud settings, then yes, there is drag. And all you will get is a slightly better AV. So it's not worth it to enable max cloud settings, IMO.

 

[Evjl's Rain]

I do not notice any drag from the Attack Surface Reduction rules, which are the real gems in ConfigureDefender, IMO.
But if you max out the WD cloud settings, then yes, there is drag. And all you will get is a slightly better AV. So it's not worth it to enable max cloud settings, IMO.

I just don't know. I noticed significant impact when (the VM always freezes)
- signature update
- when a malware is being analyzed
- Malwares spawning a lot of processes
- copy multiple files

I deeply dislike windows defender

regular users may not notice any impact but testing malware is different. It requires a lot more resources
forticlient, for example, when executing some malwares, forti consumes really high CPU but not in daily activities

 

[shmu26]

I just don't know. I noticed significant impact when (the VM always freezes)
- signature update
- when a malware is being analyzed
- Malwares spawning a lot of processes
- copy multiple files

regular users may not notice any impact but testing malware is different. It requires a lot more resources
forticlient, for example, when executing some malwares, forti consumes really high CPU but not in daily activities

1 could be, I never noticed it
2 yes
3 Hopefully, malware will not be spawning a lot of processes on my computer, and if it does, that's okay with me if it goes slow
4 yes. Copy multiple files is slow on WD. If you have a big copy job to do, just disable WD until you are done.

 

[Evjl's Rain]

1 could be, I never noticed it
2 yes
3 Hopefully, malware will not be spawning a lot of processes on my computer, and if it does, that's okay with me if it goes slow
4 yes. Copy multiple files is slow on WD. If you have a big copy job to do, just disable WD until you are done.

yeah, unfortunately, WD slows down my daily activities because those are what I do everyday, copy, open multiple files
WD doesn't slow down web browsing and boot speed, which many people like
if you have bad hardware and HDD, you will notice WD consuming high CPU and disk io during update, especially when you don't update for a few days