Serious Discussion The best of both worlds. Use McAfee Total Security unlimited VPN and Run KVRT weekly. in USA too

That's what I'm doing....Oh and V30 of O&O Defrag just came out.... PC runs much faster with it, It's noticeable, can't explain way.
That's great to hear, annaegorov! O&O Defrag has been a solid tool for years, and it's cool that you're noticing a real performance boost with version 30. Defragmentation can make a difference on traditional hard drives (HDDs) by reorganizing fragmented files, which reduces seek times and improves read/write speeds—especially if your drive was pretty cluttered before. If you're on an SSD, though, it's usually not necessary (and can even shorten its lifespan due to extra writes), so just something to keep in mind.

Can't explain the "why" without more details on your setup, but if you share specs like your OS, drive type (HDD vs. SSD), and what tasks feel faster, we could dig into it more. Have you tried comparing it to built-in tools like Windows Defrag?
 
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I use Windows Defender, running a quick scan on a daily basis, along with another daily quick scan from KVRT, Emsisoft EEK, and Eset Online Scanner on a rotating basis. Honestly, though, I suspect that since I am careful about downloads (reputable, VT Total, etc.), the extra scans, not fully automated, are just busy work.
 
I use Windows Defender, running a quick scan on a daily basis, along with another daily quick scan from KVRT, Emsisoft EEK, and Eset Online Scanner on a rotating basis.
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If you didn't download anything or open any attachment in an e-mail client, there's no need for scanning; you're only wasting your time. Beside, Microsoft Defender (and all other antivirus software) scan files as they download as well as whenever you open the file. So the file is actually scanned twice every single time.

Scanning is useful only in cases if you didn't have antivirus software before and want to know if there is malware present on the system. By running a scan every single day, you're unnecessary using system resources which could have been used for some other tasks, and waste your time you could have used for doing something else.
 
I only run a scan when I install a solution that requires it to work faster, like Kaspersky or Bitdefender. Otherwise, one of the shields in whatever solution you’re using will detect an infection during download, extraction, or installation.


If you want to play it safe, you can run a second-opinion scan with another tool either before or after installing something.
 
I only run a scan when I install a solution that requires it to work faster, like Kaspersky or Bitdefender. Otherwise, one of the shields in whatever solution you’re using will detect an infection during download, extraction, or installation.


If you want to play it safe, you can run a second-opinion scan with another tool either before or after installing something.
It is recommended to scan with most of them so they can complete their caching and detect whatever they can detect. But it is recommended to scan once, after installation. Not every day. A quick scan here and there doesn’t hurt, but that’s about it. When installing security software, it is expected that it will help you prevent issues and infections. Not it lets them be and then it chases them via a full scan.
 
there's no need for scanning; you're only wasting your time. Beside, Microsoft Defender (and all other antivirus software) scan files as they download as well as whenever you open the file.

Scanning is useful only in cases if you didn't have antivirus software before and want to know if there is malware present on the system.
Although I wouldn't disagree that I am wasting my time and efforts, I am still not sure about what you said regarding the quick scanning being unnecessary for the cases that you mentioned.
  1. Windows Defender itself is by default scheduled to quick scan once a day when the computer is idle. One possible reason why this may be useful in a "rare" case is when the latest intelligence update catches something that the previous ones didn't.
  2. All of the products I mentioned have quick scan options. One possible reason for this is to catch something that Windows Defender doesn't—a second opinion, so to speak, just like some people install Malwarebytes (free) for a second opinion.

If you didn't download anything or open any attachment in an e-mail client,
These exclusions got me, though 🤣 I am struggling to think of people who don't do these at all: maybe elderlies, younger kids, etc.

If you observe people who ask for malware removal help on MalwareTips, Bleeping Computer, and the Malwarebytes forum, all these people have AV solutions. Almost invariably on the malware removal forums, they will be asked to use one of these second-opinion scanners to check for "complete" malware removal.
 
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