Is Windows Defender any good?

I haven't heard anything about it in a while and the last word I got on it wasn't very encouraging. Any new test results?

 

There is a recent thread on WD, from a few weeks back.

 

one WD thread is here

 

I have been watching malware removal forums and I have noticed at times a few users come to them because WD alerted to a threat and the AV they were using did not. Now most of the time these are not out of date old not used AV's but AV's that are popular here and are called the "Good AVs" so yes it is good for what it is made. I use it on all my my Vista/7 machines and I am planning to install it on my XP machine this week. Plus no conflicts with other security products as far as I am aware so you can use it with any product.

 

I used to be impressed with Windows Defender back when it was giant antispyware. What has contributed to make programs like Windows Defender and any other resident antispyware irrelevant is that all antivirus programs now detect spyware. I'm the type of guy that at the very most wants two malware programs in the background and generally prefers one. So if you run an antispyware program in the background and then an antivirus you're simply getting an overlap of protection and sluggish system performance as a result.

Ibrad: I understand that you have seen Defender detect some pieces of malware that gets through standard protection but my thought process is that you could have 5 resident malware programs and each one will probably catch something the other doesnt, but it doesn't necessarily mean it's a good idea to have those programs on your system. At some point you're going to decide if you want to make your system lean and mean with one resident malware program and some other perimeter defenses like hardware firewall, limited rights, browser security/sandboxing or you want to stay bulked up on scanner protection...even if I was forced to have more than one resident protection, Defender wouldn't even pass the test simply because it's not very aggressive compared to worm stompers like Mamutu, Threatfire and Prevx.