About three months ago my desktop running XP started to slow down & began refusing to do more than one task at a time.

I tried all sorts of stuff. Virus scans, trash canning some recent downloads, cleaning programs...only a marginal improvement.

Then last week Windows Defender popped up saying they had a problem with something & the code for the problem was not listed at the Windows webpage. As the item was unnecessary I deleted it. Later that day Windows Defender popped up with the same thing.

I thought "what the f___!" and deleted Windows Defender.

Without having to reboot or anything my machine became a screaming multi-tasking machine.

I am happy..but...do I need the defender?

Windows Defender is a free Virus Scanner from Microsoft, so if you don't want it uninstall and get another one.

Personal favorite (Free) AVAST http://www.avast.com/index

(select Free Antivirus on that page and not "Internet Security" as that is the paid version.)

Windows Defender is the old product for XP that was superseded by MSE, so you should be running MSE on XP.

It is available as a free download.

I run it without too many problems, but it does slow the machine down when it is doing a scan, which I make it do every day.

In Windows 8, MS has 'enhanced' Windows Defender to make it more like MSE. So now people should be running Windows Defender on Windows 8 and not MSE. Doh!

Unlike MJCM, I did not like Avast and changed to MSE several years ago.

Lots of stuff in Wiki: Defender & MSE

I've never heard of Windows Defender or XP either, for that matter.

Seriously, I've never had Defender slow a machine down. Maybe yours got corrupt or something. MJCM is right, you can just use Avast or something else.

You said you deleted Defender? Does that mean (I hope) you uninstalled it? Link to uninstall.

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In Windows 8, MS has 'enhanced' Windows Defender to make it more like MSE. So now people should be

running Windows Defender on Windows 8 and not MSE. Doh!

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Yeah I find that strange also, first ditch a product (defender) in favour of another one (MSE) and then ditch that one in favour of the other ditched one. What's next ? Windows 9 comes out with MSE again ?

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Unlike MJCM, I did not like Avast and changed to MSE several years ago.

<snip>

MSE is good (and defintely low on resources), but I would use it icm with another real time scanner (MBAM for example).

<snip>

In Windows 8, MS has 'enhanced' Windows Defender to make it more like MSE. So now people should be

running Windows Defender on Windows 8 and not MSE. Doh!

<snip>

Yeah I find that strange also, first ditch a product (defender) in favour of another one (MSE) and then ditch that one in favour of the other ditched one. What's next ? Windows 9 comes out with MSE again ?

<snip>

Unlike MJCM, I did not like Avast and changed to MSE several years ago.

<snip>

MSE is good (and defintely low on resources), but I would use it icm with another real time scanner (MBAM for example).

That is exactly what I do! I run periodic MBAM scans of the system and scan downloaded stuff manually with both MBAM and MSE.

I also occasionally scan with "Windows Defender Offline" which is a bootable version of the new Windows Defender. The first time I ran it, it found a virus in a .exe file that was in a zip file that was an attachment to an email that was in a Outlook Express db file that was about 5 years old!

Double post. Does TV do a backup at 02:25?