App Review Windows Defender Review - Default Protection good enough?

  • Thread starter Thread starter MalwareBlockerYT
  • Start date Start date
It is advised to take all reviews with a grain of salt. In extreme cases some reviews use dramatization for entertainment purposes.
Windows Defender is very good, unless your actions involve downloading and running malware. Running WD with Unchecky can help reduce the risk is installing Potentially Unwanted Applications.

For the average user, with some good advice, Windows Defender can be enough to protect a Windows 10 PC.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Oxygen, Andy Ful, Deleted member 2913 and 9 others
Spawn said:
Windows Defender is very good, unless your actions involve downloading and running malware. Running WD with Unchecky can help reduce the risk is installing Potentially Unwanted Applications.

For the average user, with some good advice, Windows Defender can be enough to protect a Windows 10 PC.
Click to expand...
For the average user yes it can be fine, but even if that average user downloads a Ransomware file they will probably not be protected. There are much better Free Alternatives which are still Free & better for the average user.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Deleted member 2913, JakeXPMan, Wave and 7 others
TheMalwareMaster said:
Good review. Edge is well known to miss phishing links
Click to expand...
Thanks & it definitely seems to miss phishing links.
tim one said:
Windows Defender can help to protect a system in effective way but nothing prevents you to add VS or ZAL to improve security.
I used WD+ZAL for a long time without any problems.
Click to expand...
It provides basic protection for sure & with another security application it could provide pretty decent protection but on it's own it isn't an option I would recommend.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Andy Ful, Deleted member 2913, Polygon and 5 others
Spawn said:
A very stereotypical comment.

Have you used Windows Defender on Windows 10 Anniversary Update, for at least 6 months? If you ran into malware, How did you do it and Why did you do that? :)
Click to expand...
Honestly, WD protected my shared system three times successfully. One from tesla 2.0 malware campaign on 30th January 2015. The second one from a locky and the third one from a worm. I can't trust running only this on a system used by some beginners, so I added VoodooShield free after these attacks were blocked
 
  • Like
Reactions: souhrid, Andy Ful, Deleted member 2913 and 5 others
tim one said:
Windows Defender can help to protect a system in effective way but nothing prevents you to add VS or ZAL to improve security.
I use WD+ZAL for a long time without any problems.
Click to expand...
I use WD+ZAM. I haven't had any malware or viruses for a very long time. I sometimes run trials of other antivirus from time to time to check nothing is hiding but have always got clean results. I think the most effective AV and anti-malware though is your brain. If something is suspect, dont download or run it, and dont go to sites that are dubious.

...and always keep a backup of your disk.
 
  • Like
Reactions: souhrid, Deleted member 2913, tim one and 5 others
nice review :)

believe it or not, I love the WD GUI :D no idea why

MalwareBlockerYT said:
For the average user yes it can be fine, but even if that average user downloads a Ransomware file they will probably not be protected. There are much better Free Alternatives which are still Free & better for the average user.
Click to expand...
That's the thing... The user shouldn't be aimlessly downloading programs they are unsure of and trying to run them. They should only download when they know the download is safe/trusted and not run anything they download without proper research checks (online engine scans, verifying who developed it and checking reviews, etc.).

If you bump into a program with no company information/no code signing authentication which is small in size and you didn't do absolutely any checks to make sure the program was actually known/genuine (even a google search and a damn VT scan would be beneficial) and you run it, then how can you blame your security product if it misses it? The only person at fault would be yourself for making such a dumb decision

There's a pattern with the samples in the MHUB regularly and that pattern is that each sample pretty much appears suspicious on its own

people need to realize that AV software is not a replacement for using their own brains.
 
  • Like
Reactions: souhrid, Andy Ful, Deleted member 2913 and 3 others
reboot said:
Thank you for the review. May I ask what would have happened if you hadn't excluded your ransomware folder and the sample folder?
Click to expand...
No problem, thanks for watching :) If I hadn't excluded the folders then it was possible that Windows Defender could have started cleaning the folder with Real Time Protection.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Deleted member 2913 and Wave
amico81 said:
How does the defender work? With strong signatures? He doesn't have a behaviour blocker or?
Click to expand...
Windows Defender in Windows 8.1 and 10 is the baseline Antivirus for Windows - it's used by many independent testing sites as a minimum for the security industry.

Dynamic signatures, Cloud-based, Offline boot-time scanning, Network Inspection protection etc.
Windows Defender in Windows 10 (Windows 10)

Doesn't apply to Home and Pro, but Windows 10 Enterprise has enhanced Windows Defender protection for enterprise networks, such as Windows Defender ATP. Not sure, but so is Block at First Sight. (?)
 
  • Like
Reactions: souhrid, Andy Ful, MalwareBlockerYT and 2 others
For many MalwareTips members, WD + UAC + SmartScreen will be irritating. They like to frequently install/try applications (sometimes cracks too). They do not actually want to spend time investigating which application is safe. They avoid to use Universal Applications from Windows Store. They do not like to change habits (from Windows 7) even in Window 10. And, finally, they have the right to do all the above.
The best protection is using something well known, well understood, and well suited to user's habits.
I liked very much the honesty of TheMalwareMaster :)
 
  • Like
Reactions: Deleted member 2913 and reboot

You may also like...