Is windows Defender enough to protect my pc?

[Brian99]

I have Windows 8.1

Is Defender enough to protect my PC against viruses and malware etc?

Ive read that some antiviruses can really hog your memory and can take more then it says
it would.

 

[johnnyb105]

No you need for free Bitdefender and Spybot both very good and free just google it.

 

[TidalWaveOne]

Nothing is good enough if you don't follow basic computer security stuff... like not downloading untrusted crap, not opening unknown email attachments, not being gullible with all the spam and scam that arrives in email these days, keeping your browser and OS up to date with the latest security updates, etc....

If you do follow those safe practices, then it should be enough... it has been for me..... for years.... and never been infected.

 

[TheTemest]

No it's not. Get a third party program. There's a lot of pretty smart people out there that recommend Microsoft Security Essentials and I used it for years until I read an artilce testing it against other AV programs. At the end of the day I ended up getting rid of MSE and installed a program call Panda (http/www.pandasecurity.com/usa/). I'm extremely happy with its performance. It's free to use.

 

[corndog1836]

No .windows defender sucks... follow the guidelines like tidalwaveone said and if you want to buy a good antivirus get Kaspersky its good and is less of a resource hog with ver little bloatware..

 

[Brian99]

ok ty I will do that

 

[Paul NZ]

I would stick with it the 3rd party programs maybe better. But WD has less chance of it crashing windows

 

[FatalRob]

I use bit defender total security.back in the day I used to always follow suit and use free antivirus/malware programs etc..after buying a new computer and building a new computer I decided to actually spend some money and get the real deal and first bought kaspersky for a couple years and now I'm currently using bit defender and it's by far the best I have used..i just wasn't satisfied with the free anti virus software programs out there any longer.it may just be me,but I just felt like I wasn't getting the full out protection that these free software programs offer.actually buying a good antivirus and all the added features they come with(unlike free) really made the decision easy for me.i will never(well I should never say never) use another free software antivirus again avg/avast and the list goes on.if you have some money to spend I recommend buying bit defender.thats only my opinion from what I have experienced from owning it for the last 2 years.

The one thing I should note is,my new build mobo is a Asus z97 ar and when I downloaded Asus suite 3 it conflicted with bit defender.asus suite 3 is non essential anyhow and just uses up space.i deleted it as soon as I found this problem out.i can't remember what was causing the problem between the two and I'm too lazy to go google it and write it here.if you're curious,just google bit defender and Asus suite 3 incompatible or something on the lines of that.
Bitdefender has quite a bit of features you can use whether it's online safe banking, the vault or wallet or tune-up,the list goes on.
I seen certain ads with it advertising for less then 8 cents a day.thats probably only for 1 pc though.
Good luck and I hope you find something you like..

 

[TheTemest]

Even using the greatest care in the world when opening email, attachments or even clicking on a very benign looking links has inherent dangers. Hackers and malware afficienados have become very sophisticated in their efforts to attack vulnerable computers. Good grief, the OPM just got hacked. the bottom line is to get a thrd party program that updates definitions on a daily basis. Whether it's Security Essentials, Panda, AVG, Bit Defender or any other application, just get it

 

[FatalRob]

Yes,I am fully aware of that and that's just common sense.i was just explaining to him my experience with my anti virus software.

 

[Melonious]

The most important thing is securing your web browser, and like people say not doing dumb stuff.

I don't think there's any point at all to installing antivirus software itself. It is only useful once you realize something has failed, otherwise it just doesn't help much - for the reasons mentioned already.

To secure your web things like noscript and requestpolicy are very good for firefox. They take some getting used to though, and some manual work to approve sites you trust.

 

[SherbetAddict]

no.

 

[Paul NZ]

Doesnt matter what you get if it isnt the windows one.

It'll either crash on you sooner or later

Or you'll be stupid enough to use torrent programs / get dodgy files and get infected anyway