Windows Defender improving by leaps and bounds

[Carfax83]

Is anyone else surprised and impressed by the dramatic improvements that Windows Defender has had over the past few months when it comes to protection from malware and viruses? If you look at the latest scores from both AV-Test and AV-Comparatives, Windows Defender does very well; scoring 100% in the protection and detection rate in December of 2017. That's the first time Windows Defender has ever gotten that high a score in these tests I believe. For something that is free and comes with the operating system, that's really awesome!

I'm sure it has to do with Microsoft's new emphasis on successfully integrating machine learning, A.I and cloud computing into Windows Defender, resulting in a potent combination. In fact, Windows Defender recently found and got rid of a Trojan malware on my computer that's been hiding for a while I believe. What's weird is that Malwarebytes was unable to find it. I had been getting redirects to a phishing site randomly for some time, when I'm on Yahoo in particular with Ublock Origin disabled. I'm certain my PC was never compromised, because from what I've been reading, Trojan:JS/Flafisi.D is pretty severe and can cause a lot of problems and is very difficult to fully remove.

The only thing I ever noticed however, were the random redirects. But I tried Malwarebytes and Spybot Search and Destroy and neither ever turned up anything. Only with this last Windows update, did Windows Defender finally completely remove the Trojan, although like I said before, it never managed to compromise my PC.

Oh well, this gives me some confidence in my decision since last year to stop using paid AV programs

 

[nemesismk2]

is windows defender more secure than avast anti virus for windows 10. windows defender is using up far too much of my available bandwidth

 

[Carfax83]

is windows defender more secure than avast anti virus for windows 10. windows defender is using up far too much of my available bandwidth

Well if you look at AV-Comparative's latest real world protection tests done in February 2018, Windows Defender does outperform Avast, and even the likes of Bitdefender! Personally I'm not that surprised, because since Microsoft owns the Windows platform, it can create products which are deeply embedded into the system and reach a level of effectiveness that competitors cannot match. They only lacked the will to do so, but now it seems they are serious about Windows Defender becoming a premier antimalware solution.

 

[UsandThem]

Well if you look at AV-Comparative's latest real world protection tests done in February 2018, Windows Defender does outperform Avast, and even the likes of Bitdefender! Personally I'm not that surprised, because since Microsoft owns the Windows platform, it can create products which are deeply embedded into the system and reach a level of effectiveness that competitors cannot match. They only lacked the will to do so, but now it seems they are serious about Windows Defender becoming a premier antimalware solution.

That's pretty surprising. It's only for one month instead of some of their longer reports, but it has apparently come a long way. I'll be interested to see where it stands after another 6 months or so. If it keeps performing at that level, it might be the way to go for most.

 

[Carfax83]

That's pretty surprising. It's only for one month instead of some of their longer reports, but it has apparently come a long way. I'll be interested to see where it stands after another 6 months or so. If it keeps performing at that level, it might be the way to go for most.

The big change with Microsoft Defender came with last year's Fall Creator's update. That's why there was a dramatic improvement in the scoring after that time. I'm sure they will continue to improve on WD in the future. Like I said above, Microsoft's intimate knowledge of their own platform makes them potentially more formidable than other third party software developers.

They only require the will to move forward, and it seems they've found it. It's one way to check Google especially, because eventually they will make an OS to compete with Windows.

 

[Mem]

Problem with Defender is resource usage, there are quite a few free third party AVs that use a lot less resources then Defender, one reason why I stay away from it, also a lot of third party AVs (especially the paid type) offer a lot more useful features then Defender.

 

[Nashemon]

I've been using Defender for several years. Probably since 2012. I personally haven't had any issues with malware during that time, and believe me, I surf and download a lot of shady stuff!

IMO, Microsoft has a big stake in improving the perception that only Windows gets viruses, so why wouldn't they invest heavily in improving their built in security platforms? The results don't surprise me.

 

[UsandThem]

IMO, Microsoft has a big stake in improving the perception that only Windows gets viruses, so why wouldn't they invest heavily in improving their built in security platforms? The results don't surprise me.

Because they didn't make important until the last few years. If go back and look at the included security Windows test results in A/V Comparatives 5-10 years ago, it wasn't the best by a long shot. With Windows 10, it looks like they take it seriously.

 

[Carfax83]

Problem with Defender is resource usage, there are quite a few free third party AVs that use a lot less resources then Defender, one reason why I stay away from it, also a lot of third party AVs (especially the paid type) offer a lot more useful features then Defender.

Looking at task manager right now, the Windows Defender Antimalware Executable is using 88.2 MB. Now there are certainly other AV solutions that use less RAM than that it's true, but by today's standards, it's still piddling. Also, SmartScreen uses less than 10 MB.

 

[Mem]

My Avast Premier(their top Avast paid package) uses around 50MB total and that is with Avast firewall. I do agree Defender is improving and it's ok for most users that want something simple that just let it do its thing. Also another factor is cpu usage as well.

The real test for Defender is to see if it can still keep up the high standards it has achieved recently, only time will tell I guess .

 

[Mem]

Well if you look at AV-Comparative's latest real world protection tests done in February 2018, Windows Defender does outperform Avast, and even the likes of Bitdefender! Personally I'm not that surprised, because since Microsoft owns the Windows platform, it can create products which are deeply embedded into the system and reach a level of effectiveness that competitors cannot match. They only lacked the will to do so, but now it seems they are serious about Windows Defender becoming a premier antimalware solution.

To be fair no AV gets top ranking all the time, I have seen Bitdefender, Kaspersky, Avira, Panda etc get top spot depending on month and year of test, no AV has been top spot every month regardless.

 

[Carfax83]

To be fair no AV gets top ranking all the time, I have seen Bitdefender, Kaspersky, Avira, Panda etc get top spot depending on month and year of test, no AV has been top spot every month regardless.

That's true. But I don't think I've ever seen such a massive improvement from any other AV as Defender in such a small amount of time.

 

[Beer4Me]

Agreed, Win Defender is making leaps and bounds. IME, I think a lot of it is being driven due to the demand in the Enterprise sector as Microsoft is driving new technologies such as Application Guard and Defender ATP as Win 10 adoption increases. As the retail consumer, we get the benefits of these advancements via trickle-down effect. That being said, I still run Malwarebytes side by side with Windows Defender.

 

[pcslookout]

Malwarebytes is garbage nowadays.

 

[Racan]

I thought Windows Defender and Malwarebytes antimalware was all I needed untill last month...., when my PC suddenly became very sluggish with constant 50-70% CPU utilization and a couple of suspicious items I could not delete appeared in Task Scheduler. Windows Defender and MBAM were utterly useless at finding anything wrong. So I've tried Avira free antivirus.. and lo and behold it immediately detected and neutralized not one but two kinds of cryptocurrency-mining malware. So no, no thanks Microsoft I'd rather use free AV versions of Avira or Kaspersky, not only you get better protection but also better performance. A far better alternative to MBAM is HitmanPro, unfortuntely it has no free version.

 

[Carfax83]

10

I thought Windows Defender and Malwarebytes antimalware was all I needed untill last month...., when my PC suddenly became very sluggish with constant 50-70% CPU utilization and a couple of suspicious items I could not delete appeared in Task Scheduler. Windows Defender and MBAM were utterly useless at finding anything wrong. So I've tried Avira free antivirus.. and lo and behold it immediately detected and neutralized not one but two kinds of cryptocurrency-mining malware. So no, no thanks Microsoft I'd rather use free AV versions of Avira or Kaspersky, not only you get better protection but also better performance. A far better alternative to MBAM is HitmanPro, unfortuntely it has no free version.

Out of curiosity, are you using Windows 7 or Windows 10? And if you were using Windows 10, what version was it?

 

[Racan]

I was running Windows 10 latest public version with latest updates at the time just as I'm doing now:

 

[Nashemon]

Malwarebytes is garbage nowadays.

Any specific reasons for this opinion? I haven't used it in a while since Geek Squad, where I work, canceled/didn't renew their contract with them and none of their utilities are "approved tools" any longer...

 

[Carfax83]

I was running Windows 10 latest public version with latest updates at the time just as I'm doing now:

And I'm going to assume that cloud delivered protection was also turned on? Anyway, these cryptomalware variants are propagating at very high rates. It's very possible for certain AVs to pick up some variants whilst missing others.

I definitely know for a fact that Defender does detect and block cryptomalware. There was actually a big cryptomalware outbreak that Defender detected and blocked as recently as a few weeks ago. And by big, I'm talking hundreds of thousands of computers were affected, mostly in Russia, Turkey and the Ukraine.

 

[Racan]

Yep, I was running with cloud protection and automatic sample submission on, I believe that's essential. And fair enough, maybe MS have significantly improved crypto-mining malware detection since then, but I'm not willing to risk relying on WD again yet.