Do I need Windows Defender?

  • Thread starter Thread starter AreWeThereYet
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A

AreWeThereYet

Subject: Windows Defender

PROS: I like Windows Defender's "Software Explorer" tool, particularly for
removing programs from 'Startup'.


CONS: Defender's two processes (MsMpEng.exe, and MSASCui.exe?) are a HUGE
life-drain on my PC. I question how effective it is as a security tool.

(I also use BitDefender, and am testing SpySweeper)


FAILED SOLUTION:
I "disabled" Defender from startup thinking I could start it on-demand like
any normal program. That fails with error.


QUESTION:
- Is there a solution to this?
- Can I complete these same maintence tasks from the XP-Admin-Tools panel?
Or using other Windows Utilities?
- Do I need Windows Defender at all? Or is it time to say good-bye?

Thanks,
Me!
 
AreWeThereYet said:
Subject: Windows Defender

PROS: I like Windows Defender's "Software Explorer" tool, particularly for
removing programs from 'Startup'.


CONS: Defender's two processes (MsMpEng.exe, and MSASCui.exe?) are a HUGE
life-drain on my PC. I question how effective it is as a security tool.

(I also use BitDefender, and am testing SpySweeper)


FAILED SOLUTION:
I "disabled" Defender from startup thinking I could start it on-demand
like
any normal program. That fails with error.


QUESTION:
- Is there a solution to this?
- Can I complete these same maintence tasks from the XP-Admin-Tools panel?
Or using other Windows Utilities?
- Do I need Windows Defender at all? Or is it time to say good-bye?

Thanks,
Me!
Click to expand...

Some type of spyware/malware detection software is necessary these days.
There are so many titles on offer. I use F-Secure to deal with mine.
I used to have Defender, but honestly wondered what good it was. I
personally would not use Defender on its own.
 
What kind of hardware do you have that Defender is a "huge" drain on your
resources? I have it running in the background, and I don't notice it at all
unless it's complaining that it wants to do a system-wide sweep.
As to its effectiveness - that depends. I just caught a trojan and some
other malware despite Defender and AVG resident virus shield. They didn't
even notice. But that's probably because I ran something as administrator
that had the malware built in, and when these things have full rights, they
can disable protection software a/o hide from it.
Made me wonder if any of that stuff is any good.

Of course, the problem is to find out which programs do offer real
protection. As I said, I'm not sure anymore any do, against the really
sophisticated stuff anyway. But if you find something you like better, run
that. Just make sure to not have several product running at the same time.
You can install more than one, but those should be on-demand tools, not
resident ones.
 
- Thanks for the comments everyone, I've gone ahead and removed defender!
- To the other part of my question, what's the best windows utility for
watching startup and running processes in pace of Defender-Software-Explorer?


System is a Pentium4-HT 3.02ghz
1gig ram
With SATA harddrives in RAID1

Even when idling in the background, Win Defender was running TWO processes,
each 25-30mb of RAM, and some CPU time. To me thats alot for a program thats
supposed to stay out of my way....

It looks like I'm going to go with "SpySweeper" and "BitDefender Total
Security". Right now I'm running them both full-time, and they behave
moderately well together, but I think things coming through the network are
getting double-scanned!

Thanks for the help guys.
 
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