Continuing the Windows 10 theme, we would like to discuss Windows Defender in short. If you haven’t heard about this tool before, then beware now that this software is a Microsoft’s own anti-malware, which was accessible for Windows Vista and Windows 7 before. However, it has been updated and comes as a default built-in anti-malware tool. In a general sense, the fact that you don’t have to worry about PC’s security after upgrading to Windows 10 is great, but can Windows Defender be trusted? Is it worth using in comparison to other well-known antivirus tools? In this short post, we will try to introduce what features this anti-malware exhibit and what are its pros and cons.
Windows Defender is a relatively old anti-virus. Nevertheless, as a built-in tool for Windows 10, it has been updated and supplemented with a variety of new advanced features. The software now provides both scanning and real-time protection, as well as includes protection against rootkits, worms, and other serious threats.
In general, Windows Defender has already found its fans as it features user-friendly interface, speed, and smooth performance. On its home screen, you can find your protection status, update status, history of scans, and selection of scan types (quick, full, custom). It will never ask you to pay money for the service. It simply checks the system on a certain schedule and informs about the threats detected. However, is Windows Defender enough to keep your Windows PC secure from virus attacks?
Unfortunately, but it seems that Microsoft did not outmatch the other anti-malware tools. Although Windows Defender works well, it stands at the end of the line because from AV-TEST it scored just 3.5 points out of 6. The AV-TEST has been initiated this spring and, although Windows Defender caught 94.5% of PC threats, it did not score BitDefender and Kaspersky, and other old-timers. In addition to AV-TEST, Defender appeared to be quite a week in real-world exposure tests that are initiated live online as it was able to detect only 88.9% of threats, which is certainly not sufficient.
By the way, Microsoft’s Windows Defender is blamed for misleading users by blocking legitimate software as malicious. This might be a very irritating and disruptive issue as you may not be allowed to install needed software. In fact, all anti-virus tools react to legitimate software as dangerous in some cases, but Windows Defender featured the biggest number of misidentifications.
Besides, Defender seems to be great regarding system performance. In other words, it seems not doing a visible effect on PC’s speed, which is a great achievement. As a rule, anti-virus programs cause system slowdowns or even crashes, especially when performing a scan. Luckily, Windows Defender seems to deal with that perfectly, except when you install the applications for the first time after Windows 10 upgrade.
All in all, although Windows Defender is not the best anti-virus according to the test results, it works well and will detect the most of the PC threats that you will encounter. However, if you opt for the best anti-malware on the market, and consider installing it right now, don’t forget to uninstall Windows Defender first of all because two anti-virus conflict and can cause errors, slowdowns, and other incompatibilities.
