Windows Defender for Windows 7

I recently started using Windows 7. Included is Windows Defender, which is now turned off. What is its function and under what conditions should I turn it on?

 

Log in or Sign up to hide all adverts.

I use it in conjunction with my virus protection but I always have to turn it on it doesn't stay on automaticaly so sometimes I forget. It is just another layer of protection for you to use if you want or you could just run the scan once in awhile as well.

 

Log in or Sign up to hide all adverts.

Windows Defender has been superseded by Microsoft Security Essentials, which is a pretty good anti virus/spyware program (especially for free). If you have another anti virus program that you use, Windows Defender is almost certainly redundant.

 

Log in or Sign up to hide all adverts.

There is also a virus called "windows defender 7" "windows recovery 7" and other variants of the name, many of which look very legit to unfamiliar users. Always keep a wary eye out for those

Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!

 

I have AVG and Bitdefender (both free versions). I am not sure if either handles spyware,

 

I like MSE better than the free version of AVG. MSE is all that I use. I'm not familiar with Bitdefender, so I have no opinion on it.

Just to be sure you understand my perspective, I don't worry about spyware/malware infestations too much, because it's very easy for me to reinstall my operating system should things go seriously wrong. But as the family IT guy, I also trust MSE to keep friends and relatives computers clean, and it has been doing a good job for me

 

AVG has a spyware module, but when relying on the free version of an antivirus it's not a bad idea to still have a second opinion scanner specifically for that kind of malware. The free version of SuperAntiSpyware might suffice if you decide to stick with what you've got. I mention it over the free version of MalwareBytes purely because SAS still detects some of the trivial adware that MB no longer does (the latter wanted to decrease false positives). But other than that, MB is as a good or better than anything out there in freeware land, in that area. SAS and MB have demonstrated ample ability to remove what they usually detect, too. The free versions don't offer live protection, but you don't need that anyway when using them to run second-opinion scans.

 

Thanks - I should have mentioned that I have Malwarebytes. I have never noticed a problem with false positives.

 

Microsoft's addition to the security of the operating systems was in response to third-party companies and criminals abusing the OS without security. So Microsoft changed their updating to be more frequent and started to include methods of cleaning their operating systems from various attacks.

MSE is constantly updated and attempts to my knowledge to use data collected from every operating system that does an update to work out what rogue attacks are aimed at the operating system and allows the creation of quick responses to fix them prior to the next update. (It's MS's way of trying not to be responsible for rogue botnet's by not taking preemptive action against their creation)