Is it ok to use Windows Defender as your only protection against viruses etc with Windows 10?

Is it as good as ie Avast. I understand it is better to use only one anti virus protector, and

Windows Defender comes with Windows 10.  Thanks.

 

Technically it is not that highly rated for catching all virus but in real world it does seem to work fine - operator common sense will avoid most in any case.  But these days believe more than one system can be used and on-line scans are available to double check hard drives.  

 

That said I have returned to just using Defender.

If it was all you need, there would be no market for other 3rd party antivirus. IMO, windows defender is probably good at looking after windows operating system and not so good at looking after programs, browsers etc, that windows may be running. All antivirus is subject to what you ,say yes and no to. 

Defender and some good habits would probably suffice.

10 minutes ago, Peterw42 said:

Defender and some good habits would probably suffice.

I am using my PCs without 3rd party security stuff since 10 years or more.

With W7 I did not use an on-access scanner at all, just from time to time an on-demand scan with McAfee Stinger.

With W10 I let this Defender run. It does not seem to eat a big chunk of CPU time and memory as many of those 3rd party tools do.

I never lost a bit to viruses or whatever. Just my own stupidity accidentally deleting stuff that had not been backed up.

I don't use an administrative account for daily use but a standard account only (an important method still not well supported/documented by MS).

 

• Don't use the Windows PC with administrative account for day to day use.
• Do appropriate backup of valuable data.
• Reinstall the system from scratch if it has become slow/overloaded (after a year or two typically).

That's about all.

Ah, and forgotten: use your brain, nothing is for free and this hottie does not admire you.

21 minutes ago, Peterw42 said:

If it was all you need, there would be no market for other 3rd party antivirus.

Seems there is always a market if marketing is good

 

Some antivirus or net nanny tools do more harm than good.

How often do you find people stuck with problems caused by them?

How often do you see reputable SW installations hinting to temporarily switch off antivirus SW to get the job done?

3 minutes ago, KhunBENQ said:

Seems there is always a market if marketing is good

 

Some antivirus or net nanny tools do more harm than good.

How often do you find people stuck with problems caused by them?

How often do you see reputable SW installations hinting to temporarily switch off antivirus SW to get the job done?

 

Yes, you are right. 

Problems are sometimes worse when people run multiple AV programs. AV programs are to busy seeing the other AV prog as malicious, nobody is watching the front door.

Thanks all very much, I will now just use Windows Defender by itself on both my desktop and laptop.

Recommended (if not already done).

http://www.laptopmag.com/articles/limited-user-accounts-windows-10

 

82% to 100% vulnerabilities defeated by this due to the study.

What remains are mainly leaks/exploits in Windows itself.

To keep them under control immediate Windows security updates are necessary. Now being forced by W10.

 

In many cases people trying to gain entry into other people's computers look for something familiar and predictable.  When things get complicated they just may give up and go on to another unsuspecting computer (unless they really want to get into a particular system).  I would think the assumption would be the stock Windows Defender and out-of-the-box setup, I wonder what percentage of the PC users out there even know what it is, much less how to configure and maintain it.

I'm running Win10 using Defender as the firewall and a 3rd party AV.  I tried running a different firewall back when I installed Win10 but couldn't get things working properly.  Maybe I just needed to put a little more effort.  Might try again someday.