Defender question

  • Thread starter Thread starter Chester GS
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Chester GS

I used to be able to scan with Windows Defender in a few minutes. Now it
takes hours. What's up with that?

Chet
 
Chester said:
I used to be able to scan with Windows Defender in a few minutes.
Now it takes hours. What's up with that?
Click to expand...

More stuff to scan?
More applications installed and running?
You used to do Quick Scans and now you are doing Full Scans?

I suggest dropping it (disable it) and whatever your current AV solution is
and using Avira. ;-)
 
No more stuff on my computer than before. And I've always done the quick
scan. Now it's taking forever, still with the "quick" scan. In fact, the
other night it ran for 13 hours before I just shut it off. I don't get it.
 
Chester said:
I used to be able to scan with Windows Defender in a few minutes.
Now it takes hours. What's up with that?
Click to expand...

Shenan said:
More stuff to scan?
More applications installed and running?
You used to do Quick Scans and now you are doing Full Scans?

I suggest dropping it (disable it) and whatever your current AV
solution is and using Avira. ;-)
Click to expand...

Chester said:
No more stuff on my computer than before. And I've always done the
quick scan. Now it's taking forever, still with the "quick" scan.
In fact, the other night it ran for 13 hours before I just shut it
off. I don't get it.
Click to expand...

Suggestion the same. Get rid of it/disable it.

(Although - being honest here - you have more unless you have something like
DeepFreeze installed and/or have not done any updates of anything since you
first ran Defender or saved any of your files to local drives, no bookmarks,
no emails, nothing...)

If you insist on a Microsoft solution - get Microsoft Security Essentials
(which will disable it for you.) to replace it and your antivirus software

Otherwise - and I think the better option - would be to download free Avira
AntiVir, uninstall your current antivirus solution completely (*if Norton or
McAfee - find their uninstall/cleanup/removal tools and use them after
uninstalling them properly to get rid of them completely) and install Avira
AntiVir instead. You can also occasionally scan with MalwareBytes (free) as
well if you like.

In fact - I would say doing the following:
(Make sure you have a current backup.)

Please give details on your OS:

Start button --> RUN --> type in:
(No "RUN", press the WindowsKey+R at the same time.)
winver
--> Click OK.

That will give you (picture at top) the full name of the operating system.
That will give you (in the text) the Service Pack you have installed.

How to determine whether a computer is running a 32-bit version or 64-bit
version of the Windows operating system
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/827218

Reboot and logon as administrative user.

Download, install, run, update and perform a full scan with the following
(freeware version):

SuperAntiSpyware
http://www.superantispyware.com/

Reboot and logon as administrative user.

Download, install, run, update and perform a full scan with the following
(freeware version):

MalwareBytes
http://www.malwarebytes.com/

Reboot and logon as administrative user.

Download and run the MSRT manually:
http://www.microsoft.com/security/malwareremove/default.mspx

That will all but guarantee you are malware free (at least for the common
and nastiest known stuff.)

Reboot and logon as administrative user.

Download/install this:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/290301

After installing, do the following:

Start button --> RUN --> type in:
"%ProgramFiles%\Windows Installer Clean Up\msizap.exe" g!
--> Click OK.
(The quotation marks and percentage signs and spacing should be exact.)

Clear out your Internet Explorer Temporary Internet Files (all of them,
cookies, caches, etc.)

Empty your recycle bin.

Use Disk Cleanup to clear out more files.

CHKDSK and DEFRAGMENT your hard disk drives. (In that order, please.)
 
Wow. That's a load. I have 32-bit, service pack 2. I'll do all that stuff.
Thank you
Chet
 
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