Alternative Antivirus

I have to ask, is there even really a point to using an alternative antivirus is I use Sandboxie, or is Windows defender enough? Is Windows Defender deficient in some way?

 

You just lit a fire.

 

If you know how to use Sandboxie properly you don't even need Defender.

 

MS Defender is now a good AV, the latest tests by professional labs have shown it has now excellent detection capabilities. It will be automatically switched off by installing another AV, but otherwise why not have it on with other different security programs as Sandboxie?

I still have licenses for Avira and Kaspersky, but I decided to use MD so I can see if anything untoward happens within the time span of a year. Frankly why pay for an AV in the future?
It has cloud protection, tamper protection, ransomware protection, reputation based protection, exploit protection, core isolation, and secure boot.

AV Comparatives shows good results albeit with FPs, but so far in almost three months I didn't experience any. I wouldn't use it as my sole security of course, but neither Avira Pro or KIS would guarantee 100% security on their own...

 

the only thing i have against it is that Defender is heavier than some other ones

 

You may get false positives with Defender. It actually refused to let me save a .rar file from a co-worker last week. It was password protected and had text files in it, which Defender had no way of knowing because it was password protected. I had to disable it to save the attachment. I find it annoying to have to jump through multiple hoops to save a file that cannot possibly be dangerous in the form it was received. And still wasn't after extracted. As @Joxx pointed out, if you use Sandboxie properly you may not need Defender.

 

That was kind of what I was thinking. Windows has one that's built-in, which seems to be getting better and better. Is it really deficient enough to install another antivirus, knowing that Windows Defender will just be disabled?

 

I doubt that it is deficient and almost certainly not if you're using Sandboxie.
If I was using SBIE I would probably disable WD real-time protection and just perform on demand scans with WD and some other OD scanners from time to time.

 

No reason not to use WD with Sandboxie. There are ways to easily enable advanced settings with Powershell, Group Policy (W10 Pro or higher) or https://github.com/AndyFul/ConfigureDefender

 

That's kind of what I was thinking; there is no reason to not use Defender. In fact, there's really no reason to use anything else. Sandboxie, Hitmanpro.alert, Windows Defender, and weekly full image backups are more than enough for most everyone.

 

i doubt "most everyone"[sic] would need sbie & hmpa.

 

I missed that @n8chavez also has HMPA. Those 3 together are overkill. Oh well, whattaya gonna do ....

 

HMPA may or might not stay long. My license is up. That's why I was wondering if I need to make a change.