Is Windows Defender all I need?

What other anti- virus-spywere ect. programs do I need or is Windows Defender enough?

Depends what you want to do. Though Windows Defender offers real time anti spyware protection, it's ineffective and you shouldn't depend on it. The good thing is it doesn't seem to conflict with anything. I have Defender but I don't use it. I have a security packlage from my ISP that gives real time protection and also Spyware Blaster. And I use Malware Bytes as an on demand scanner.

I would use Malwarebytes as an on demand scanner, Avira AntiVir as a real time virus protection as well as a scanner and Spywareblaster (see link in my sig)

For a firewall, I'd go with Comodo, but be sure that during installation, you untick to install their antivirus software if you are running a different anti-virus such as Avira.

Edited by xblindx, 29 November 2009 - 06:57 PM.

No single product is 100% foolproof and can detect and remove all threats at any given time. The security community is in a constant state of change as new infections appear. Each vendor has its own definition of what constitutes malware and scanning your computer using different criteria will yield different results. The fact that each program has its own definition files means that some malware may be picked up by one that could be missed by another. Thus, a multi-layered defense using several anti-spyware products (including an effective firewall) to supplement your anti-virus combined with common sense and safe surfing habits provides the most complete protection.

As a general rule, using more than one anti-spyware program like Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware, SuperAntispyware, Spybot S&D, Ad-Aware, etc will not conflict with each other or your anti-virus if using them as stand-alone scanners. In fact, doing so increases your protection coverage without causing the same kind of conflicts or affecting the stability of your system that can occur when using more than one anti-virus. The overlap of protection from using different signature databases will aid in detection and removal of more threats when scanning your system for malware. However, if using any of their real-time resident shields (TeaTimer, Ad-Watch, MBAM Protection Module, Spyware Terminator Shields, etc) together at the same time, there can be conflicts when each application tries to compete for resources and exclusive rights to perform an action. Additionally, competing tools may even provide redundant alerts which can be annoying and/or confusing.

Keep in mind that you can overkill a system with resource heavy security programs that will slow down performance.