BleepingComputer.com: General Question

How useful, is windows defender? What is the main benefit of it (as compared to standard antivirus or teatimer)?

Windows Defender is supposively a "anti-malware" device on your computer. I don't think it's the best out there, but others do the job better than it. So on a scale of 1-10, i'd say 4.

Windows Defender does offer real time protection. But it's not an effective product. Microsoft took a lot of teeth out of it after they bought it. They are planning to issue an all new free security product in June so stay tuned for that.

All right, so what other real time protection that is free would you recommend?

Hello.

Quote

Windows-Defender is an anti-spyware program that provides real-time protection. Some other popular programs that also provide real-time protection are:

Real-Time Protection Antispyware Program

• Spyware Terminator
  
• Spybot - Search & Destroy - Tutorial

AVG 8.5 also has an anti-spyware feature in it that has real-time protection as well

There aren't too much FREE AS real-time protection programs out there. Most require you to pay for it.

With Regards,
Extremeboy

IMO, there isn't a big difference between a Real-Time scanner and one that you scan and update weekly. But if you never update or scan with it, it's alot better to have RT. It gives you the peace of mind.

In my opinion, I think it is useful.
It got rid of a nasty backdoor trojan for me, along with 2 other trojans.
But I wouldn't rely on just WD.
I would get an Antivirus and another antimalware.

Nia(:, on Mar 9 2009, 01:08 AM, said:

Thanks for sharing the experience. So it seems WD really does something :-) I just want one RT antimalware... and it seems WD could do. I still need to check out this Spyware terminator...

How does Windows Defender work?
How Windows Defender identifies spyware
How Windows Defender identifies spyware and potentially unwanted software

While not free, I recommend using Malwarebytes Anti-Malware and taking advantage of the Protection Module which uses advanced heuristic scanning technology to monitor your system and provide real-time protection to prevent the installation of most new malware. This technology monitors every process and stops malicious processes before they can infect your computer. The database that defines the heuristics is updated as often as there is something to add to it. Enabling the Protection Module feature requires reqistration and purchase of a license key that includes free lifetime upgrades and support. After activation, Malwarebytes can be set to update itself and schedule scans automatically on a daily basis. The Protection Module is not intrusive as it utilizes few system resources and should not conflict with other scanners or anti-virus programs.

This post has been edited by quietman7: 09 March 2009 - 11:16 AM

So I am testing Spyware Terminator right now. The good news is that it only takes up to 30MB of RAM (compared to 70MB with Teatimer, and about 50MB with Windows Defender).

Spyware Terminator seems free, and so far is running quite okay. It even alerts me when a program is installing in the background and gives me an option to stop the process. I am using it just for few hours, so I can not report on any other advantages yet. Let's see what else it does.

It has several options that one needs to set up. The only complaint so far is that the Spyware Terminal icon (next to the clock and other active applications) seems kinda creepy.

Spyware Terminator Features
Spyware Terminator Technical Details
About Spyware Terminator Help

Now it is quite some days, I was using real time protection of Spyware Terminator. Overall, it seems quite touchy. What ever I do, it prompts me to take some actions. For instance, if I just start firefox, it will remind me that firefox wants to update some libraries. This slows things down. On the other hand it seems to quite protective. Can hardly imagine a spyware or malware would be able to circumvent Spyware Terminator.

Compared to Teatimer it seems to be much stronger, and it consumes less memory, and it is quicker to load at start up.