Dec 16, 2009

Windows Defender

An IT friend of mine recently commented on a Windows virus protection tool saying that it's very good. It's called, Windows Defender and is included in Vista and Windows 7 operating systems. In my history of using virus protection tools, the one tool I have used for the last four years which has not hindered system performance is a German product which you can download for free, called Avira. I've been virus free since using it. While McAfee is the only other product I have experience with, I found that it really slowed system performance and comes with an annual cost.

Windows Defender is also a free program and is light weight. It evolved from another product which was developed by Giant Company Store called Antispyware. Microsoft purchased this product in 2004 and hacked away at it to enhance it and be competitive in this space. They released a reengineered product in 2006. I'm not a big fan of Microsoft these days but this doesn't look like a bad product.


There are two features which Microsoft is proud of in this tool but I don't see how this is different from other tools. They are

1) Software Explorer



2) Real-time Alerting


These features alone do not impress me but I'm willing to try it out. Avira does throw advertisements dialog windows at start-up and I experience some slowness with this tool but nothing significant. I'm willing to try something new though, why not? Has anyone out there used this tool or appreciated any of it's features over other tools?

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