Windows Defender Is Becoming the Powerful Antivirus That Windows 10 Needs

True story and good point.

 

From the link =

 

"Operating system integration: Microsoft Defender SmartScreen is integrated into the Windows 10 operating system. It checks any files an app (including 3rd-party browsers and email clients) that attempts to download and run."
It checks files on the file system that are tagged as having come form the internet, but it does not "work in the browser" as was stated.

 

No thanks, I'm actually not a big fan of SmartScreen.

Correct, SmartScreen shouldn't play a role in this problem since it only checks downloaded files. But anyway, today it happened again, so there is something wrong with WD, perhaps WD gets triggered by the word ''stream'' or something, it's the craziest thing ever. And Vivaldi is not always able to render the site correctly whenever WD gets active.

 

That sounds a bit weird.

 

I apologize for my ignorance. I really do wish MS were not so ambiguous about what exactly Defender does and what exactly Defender will/will not and can/cannot do. I have always found Defender to be not so easily diagnosed.

Jimmy

 

Never apologize for ignorance unless it is willful.
I agree, Microsoft has never been very open about details with Defender. It seems to take a lot of manual digging to find out anything about it.

 

Windows Defender Browser Guard extension does indeed work in Brave browser:

 

It's probably one of those weird computer problems that can only be explained by the developers of Win Def. I don't think that any malware is hosted om streamwijzer.nl and WD shouldn't be performing any HTTP scanning, so there is something seriously wrong. Perhaps I should also post it on the Vivaldi forum.

 

Probably. You would be more likely to encounter someone that has experienced the same problem.

 

BTW, I forgot to mention that with realtime protection disabled and cloud protection enabled, it doesn't seem to happen. So it's definitely related to WD's realtime protection.

 

Probably something hitting the file system.

 

Yes very weird. I'm pretty sure it's a bug in WD. Perhaps I should also change a couple of settings with ConfigureDefender or DefenderUI for troubleshooting. I have to say I haven't updated WD for quite a while and I'm not planning to update Win 10 1909, because the last time I did, it broke some stuff.

 

I would say if you're going to run Defender keep it up to date, but the choice is yours. I don't even blame you for not wanting to update Windows. The 22H2 builds of 10 and 11 aren't winning any fans.

 

Agree. I have had my own share of issues with Win 11 22H2 both at home and work. I thought it was supposed to be so much better but alas, it is not.

 

Yes, I think 1909 was one of the better builds there. Running 21H2 now (Windows 10) and it's pretty decent, though. Defender's quick scans have gotten a smidge faster too but I dunno if it's improved its cleaning functions, particularly for the more stubborn malware.

 

What malware is that?

 

Why can't you search this online--I did and found numerous threads on the difficulties, not with detecting so much, but cleaning (and being unable to "clean" files that weren't actually there any longer).

Here also:

https://malwaretips.com/threads/microsoft-defender-antivirus-windows-11-default-settings.114932/

A very good outcome except for one glitch in the cleanup part.

Look, I run Defender, OK? If I had malware on here, I would not waste my time with Defender's trying to "clean up" anything. I would reinstall Windows instead.

 

I use WD and OS Armour and never had any malware ever and I am very high risk. You changed your original statement from malware to cleaning so there is no malware right?

 

I believe that you can always update Win Defender itself, without having to upgrade to newer versions of Windows. The reason why I don't always update signatures is because the cloud is supposed to catch most malware, unless I misunderstood. But anyway, I have installed DefenderUI and will tweak a couple of settings to see if this strange behavior disappears. If not, then I might disable realtime protection. I always scan files with VirusTotal anyway and WD's cloud protection stays enabled.

 

Good luck with that sticking. I think it stays off for about 10 minutes before turning itself back on. It certainly does not stay off after a reboot.

 

No correct, after reboot it's enabled again. But from what I understood, with DefenderUI it stays disabled until next reboot. I did however have to disable tamper protection, but no problem since DUI can take care of this. I seriously don't understand why M$ couldn't come up with such a GUI for power users.

 

Ok, I haven't tried that with DefenderUI. MS doesn't seem to be interested in power users. Most of them will use something else. It is the very reason I use something else.

 

FYI: Disabling realtime protection also disables cloud protection.

 

Looks like I spoke too soon, today I saw that somehow realtime protection was turned on again, so perhaps it does this when the system comes out of hibernation? But once you disable it via DUI, then it stays off. The problem with this website is kinda annoying though, but I'm not sure if I'm willing to switch to another AV.

Good to know, thanks! But seems to be a Windows design error, because why isn't this cleary mentioned? Would have made more sense that once you disabled realtime protection, that the cloud protection slider would automatically switch to the off setting too.