Advice Request What is your opinion about Microsoft Windows Defender (Windows 10)?

Share practical recommendations that address the author's needs.
roger_m said:
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When it comes to problems, 360 TS doesn't cause any for me, as I've found it be extremely stable. Even though it gets very regular updates with unspecified bug fixes, which would suggest that it's a very buggy product, it's not. As for annoyances, by using a third party antivirus, I have fewer. My computer runs faster and I don't have to manually whitelist files that I don't want to be deleted.
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You have made a very rational choice. WD/MD is a natural starting point on Windows 10. But, there is no need to use it if one does not like it. Fortunately, there are many good AVs around.:)(y)
 
Nagisa said:
@Andy Ful Is there any way to apply BAFS feature for all files on the computer, or to remove MOTW requirement completely?
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No, I am afraid. One can use WD + RunBySmartscreen tool to force BAFS and SmartScreen for EXE, MSI, SCR, and COM files that do not have MOTW (via the option on the right-click Explorer context menu).
 
I didn't like the blue dot in the Avast tray icon popping up and telling me about sites blocked for one reason or another even with game mode on and all notifications disabled, so I decided to give KSC another try. Before that, I used manufacturers' cleaners to completely remove Avast and Kaspersky and run Novabench several times for Defender and after installing KSC. This is weird, but Defender is now as slow as KSC and others in contrast to a week ago.

Given that and what was shared in another thread, I think I'll stick to KSC for now, although it still causes problems for me with browsers like Firefox (e.g., logged off Youtube or some settings returned to default) unless I disable the traffic processing options.
 
Gandalf_The_Grey said:
I think that it depends on other stuff like internet connection, browser used, because I have no delays with it enabled. 🤔
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I have that issue as well. It's 100% related to Kaspersky's script injection. But exactly what causes this I don't know. They were supposed to fix it with the current update but haven't properly yet.
Anyway, I just noticed it's a WD thread 👀
 
mazskolnieces said:
The reality of Windows Defender has not changed. In the vast majority of cases, WD is more than sufficient. When installing 3rd party security software onto Windows, most of the time it introduces various problems and annoyances that negatively affect the user more than any benefit of increased security. This is the bottom line reason why security software is one product group with among the highest customer dissatisfaction.

There is no reason to install 3rd party security software except for in the cases where user negligence is profound or extreme paranoia. In the case of paranoia, it is not about actually being more secure, but instead feeling more secure. It's about feelings.
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I disagree, as Kaspersky in general follows Microsoft Documentation and updates their suites for the latest versions of Windows 10, not to mention it has no performance loss in comparison to Windows Defender.

Is extremely easy to setup on multiple PCs, I'm yet to hear about any problems coming back to me (contrary to Windows Defender which tends to cause issues like failing to protect the end user, and that is when it's not having a negative impact on the PC).
 
I received a new platform update "4.18.2101.9" today but haven't found any info about the changelog yet:

1.PNG
 
Local Host said:
I disagree, as Kaspersky in general follows Microsoft Documentation and updates their suites for the latest versions of Windows 10, not to mention it has no performance loss in comparison to Windows Defender.
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Generally is different from always. There are many undocumented changes made in the Windows kernel - most of them are security-related (PatchGuard, Low-level APIs, etc.). Generally, Defender is the most compatible AV with Windows 10.
Local Host said:
Is extremely easy to setup on multiple PCs, I'm yet to hear about any problems coming back to me (contrary to Windows Defender which tends to cause issues like failing to protect the end user, and that is when it's not having a negative impact on the PC).
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Although there are a few (paid) AVs for home users that are better than Defender free, the above conclusion is not universally true in the home environment. There is no objective evidence for such a statement. Many (rather) objective tests made by the known AV testing Labs are more convincing than any personal opinion based on personal experience. See for example:
malwaretips.com

The best Home AV protection 2019-2020 | MalwareTips

Real-World tests include fresh web-originated samples. Malware Protection tests include older samples (several days old) usually delivered via USB drives or...
malwaretips.com malwaretips.com

There are people who prefer Defender instead of 3rd party AVs when considering an impact on the PC. This can depend on many factors and the term "impact on the PC" can have a different meaning for different people (even for different AV testing Labs).
 
Got a strange request and maybe this isn't the place to ask... but for those of you with the latest Windows Defender Platform, 4.18.2101.9-0

Could someone tell me the hashes of the two files "mpasdesc.dll.mui" and "mpuxagent.dll.mui" in their "C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows Defender\Platform\4.18.2101.9-0\en-US" folder? Thanks in advance.
 
Special said:
Got a strange request and maybe this isn't the place to ask... but for those of you with the latest Windows Defender Platform, 4.18.2101.9-0

Could someone tell me the hashes of the two files "mpasdesc.dll.mui" and "mpuxagent.dll.mui" in their "C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows Defender\Platform\4.18.2101.9-0\en-US" folder? Thanks in advance.
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mpasdesc.dll.mui
MD5: 7cd77ae81d0c3c8886e9955a411b3c74
SHA-256: 4b4eedcf797e8ba480dc6b10b1c718c1344cbc164debe842daa9de7e3f098b69

mpuxagent.dll.mui
MD5: 217d6af9bf9a5e0b5065f1225044a23b
SHA-256: edbfa4e369530fc757829df106c92e17e535f4cc8d4cf5e51fc3a093e092fed6

123.png
 
Special said:
Got a strange request and maybe this isn't the place to ask... but for those of you with the latest Windows Defender Platform, 4.18.2101.9-0

Could someone tell me the hashes of the two files "mpasdesc.dll.mui" and "mpuxagent.dll.mui" in their "C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows Defender\Platform\4.18.2101.9-0\en-US" folder? Thanks in advance.
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You can upload these files to Virus Total, for example:

1613213876633.png


The file mpasdesc.dll.mui is absent on my computer in the ".\en-US\" folder. I have got it in ".\pl-PL\" folder and this file can be different for different countries.
 
Special said:
Thanks for the replies and your time doing this little request. That's good enough.
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I can confirm that you have probably still the file version from the platform 4.18.2011.6-0.
On my computer the file mpuxagent.dll.mui from the 4.18.2011.6-0 platform has also the hash:
ac5854111729aa99e837dee9db29b72493f45a09cf1d2db1f8d62f73aa98fc2d
 
Last edited:
Personally I don't like windows defender.

Sure it has amazing detection rates when configured properly and has always ran pretty light on any system i've ever owned.
But there's a few things about it that i personally dont like (yes I know these are just small things, but I'm very particular)

first of all, it lacks fine built in controls, I don't like having to use a third party program to control it
Second, even with a third party application, there's no way to set it to "ask" when it detects a threat (atleast no way that I have seen)
and last, the toaster notifications for when a threat is detected on any system I have ever used has been extremely laggy
as well as it doesnt hand threats in a timely manner (I.E it takes it a bit of time to remove something as simple as the Eicar test file)

I want to like it, I really do. I've seen it come a long way. But I just cant.
 

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