Windows Defender Is Becoming the Powerful Antivirus That Windows 10 Needs

Understand. So has to be hardware then eh?

 

Yes, it's just because of slow hardware. Maybe in future builds Microsoft will improve the performance of WD. Time will tell.

 

I hope they do for your sake.

 

Maybe the machines I am running are new enough that I wouldn't notice any slowdown. 2 of them have SSD drives. Still definitely faster than the previous version.

As far as feeling safe with it, after seeing the test results posted in other threads today, I am coming a lot closer to it. Plus, I threw Sandboxie back on (not compatible with most 3rd party AV anymore), so in situations where I feel I am doing something risky I use it.

 

I am sure the SSD is a big help for you Jack.

Still not certain I am fully believing the posts today. I realize it's in black and white, but until I see consistent results not sure I can deal with WD only. I have not installed Sandboxie (yet). But I do use uBlock and OpenDNS plus Malware Domain List so that gives me some level of comfort.

Just my two cents anyway.

 

I have a few issues with this program: 1. High cpu/disk usage. 2. VERY slow to open GUI 3. Exclaimation mark in system try icon every day, telling me I am overdue to run a scan, even though I just ran one the prior day.

I've been incouraged by recent test results, but plan to go back to a 3rd party AV for now.

 

Thanks. I don't recall running ccleaner yesterday, but will see if that makes a difference.

Edit: After the creators update, WD seems to be running lighter than before.

 

Great. Great

 

I take this back. No lighter after update. I do not run benchmarks, but per taskmgr WD uses more cpu/disk/ram than most other AVs I have tried.

 

Last night while browsing I got a popup that a malicious file had been detected. While trying to figure out what it was, it went back to 0 threats and showed me nothing of what had been done. I don't know if it deleted a threat, if it was a false positive, or if there was actually an issue at all. Things like this are what they need to fix if they want me to use this long term.

 

You probably came across a fake web alert, imposing as Windows Defender.

In Windows Defender under ' Virus & threat protection ' section, under there and scan history should contain the information on the detected threat.

 

I actually wish that was the case. When I first opened Defender it showed 1 threat and a link to click for details. When I clicked the details link it took me to another page in Defender with no info. When I went back to the main page there were 0 threats and no history. I was running a browser in Sandboxie anyway so I just emptied the sandbox and I'm not worried about it being an actual threat. And no, I didn't empty the sandbox until after I checked Defender. Even if I did empty it sooner there should have been history. I guess I'll never know what actually happened.

 

It was obviouuuuuuus why...because WD nuked and erased all traces of the infection before you clicked the link, so the time you arrived on the page there was no more malware, so no more infos !!! (just joking )

 

Does WD have a issue with large network transfers? I use Netgear Readydrive, which is basically a poor mans NAS, or just a USB drive plugged into my router. For a long time now, I used this setup with very few issues. Ever since using WD, I consistently get errors that crash my xfers to the connected drive. Not mention xfers are much slower, and sometimes pause for a bit.

I wasn't sure if the issue was related to the Windows "Creators" update, or WD. So I completely disabled WD via group policy, and installed Webroot AV instead. Just tried a couple 5gb xfers, and they completed at full speed without any errors. So I am starting to wonder if the issue was WD.

 

I've experienced slow file transfers over network, on local disks and on USBs disks also. Usually disabling WD temporarily improves transfer speed. So IMO, WD can create some problems when transferring data.

 

This is surprising to me. I could see a 3rd party AV having this problem, but not a built in Windows app.

 

Depends what third party AVs you are comparing WD to. WD is certainly much more of a drag than Webroot, for example, which uses minimal resources. WD's scans and constant downloading of definition files take their toll.

 

Of all the AVs I have tried over the past year or so (maybe 5 different ones), WD was the first/only one that caused slow speeds and consistent file transfer crashes.

 

Since it's developed by MS it will probably have less compatibility problems with OS than 3rd party AVs. But it doesn't mean that it's the most optimized AV or less resource hungry than other AVs...

 

Using Windows 10 defender from the Creator Update, how do you access "quarantine"

 

Go to: "Virus & threat protection" and then click on the text link "Scan history". Below "Current threats" there's the "Quarantined threats" section.

 

rpsgc, thank you very much for the info.

 

How does Defender work with exclusions & symbolic links?

If I want to exclude say my Music folder on my 3rd harddrive E:/Music, but also have a folder on my second harddrive D:/Music that is just a symlink pointing to E:/Music

Do I need to exclude both?

 

Is the PUA registry hack still working with the latest version?