Patch Lady and Windows 10 Home Comment

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I read with interest Patch Lady’s following comment:

“If you are on Home you need to uninstall any third party antivirus and stay with Defender.”

Just curious: Do other Woody gurus agree with that statement?  Would it be best to uninstall a third party antivirus and simply use Defender?

I currently use Norton Internet Security, and would consider changing my antivirus if the consensus is to do so.

Let me know your thoughts.

Papaisgr8

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Hi Papaisgr8, I’m not a licensed guru but I am fairly free with an opinion. You may find those two things being exclusive. Careful people recognize that facts change over time and may appear different from another person’s chair. So I’ll try to explain the reasoning behind my opinion, in case the facts change later.

First the opinion, you have chosen Windows10 so in my view Defender is the best choice for your machine.

Then the explanation, I do not believe Microsoft knows all. I believe there are other protection solutions just as good or even better by some metrics. All of those third party applications are at the whim of Microsoft’s changing landscape provided by their Operating System. This may present as only a nuisance, it might require troubleshooting, or it could even create vulnerabilities to new exploits through poor cooperation at a deep level.

Defender is not a poor solution to be avoided, at this time. So it should not be excluded out of hand. This is the weak point of my presentation, as it could change at any time. But again, you have chosen to trust Microsoft for your OS if that level of trust cannot be extended to their proprietary antivirus, you may want to reconsider your issue of trust.

When things go wrong and need to be fixed, I do not want to be the errant sailor stuck between a rock and a hard place. If my machine is not working I have very little patience with finger pointing between vendors. If there comes a point where Microsoft cannot make Windows work even with their own Defender product, or conversely cannot make Defender a strong enough product to protect their own OS; then I think the good ship Microsoft will have finally sailed away from my home port.

2 users thanked author for this post.

HiFlyer, BobbyB

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I have to agree with @Cascadian that IMHO the bundled Windows Defender is preferable and, “touch Wood”, fairly reliable. As its bundled, its almost like part of the OS its self, I find it has a very low System impact, negligible effect on start up process’s and Depending on how you have your WUD setup GPOL etc or Win10 version updates with the minimum fuss. Downside, well not found one yet except occasionally alerts on “Binary Files” Bios raw code, not the bundled update packages from the OEM, but occasionally the odd off the shelf Bios Tweak. Definitely not for the average user, and that’s it.

3rd party virus solutions I have found over the years sometimes result in a small barely perceptible degredation of process(s) speed, slightly longer boot times, extra updates Definitions etc. Basically you’ve got two process both doing the same job at the same time. Some recommend disabling Defender in favour of a 3rd party solution, which “kinda sorta” makes sense, but that’s like “Getting a dog and Barking yourself” IMO. The M$ AV products haven’t done me any harm as such and may be one of the few “shining Lights” from M$ that seems to do what its supposed to, how its supposed to, when its supposed to.

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