When it comes to choosing an antivirus program, you have two choices — if you have a PC running Windows 8 or later. It’s because Microsoft has started including Windows Defender as the default anti-malware and anti-spyware solution in these OS versions. Needless to say, things got better when we came to Windows 10 due to primary reasons. For instance, in Windows 10, WD has better integration with your computer hardware and software. It can also work along with other security-based feature to ensure best results. What’s more, you are even getting a bunch of premium features that we used to find only in paid antivirus programs.
Even so, people are still confused whether Defender is enough to protect their computer because it contains most of the inbuilt security software. Nevertheless, we think it is wise enough to keep Windows antivirus apart. That is, there is something different when it comes to the case of Windows Defender. In this article, we will find out whether Windows Defender is enough to protect your computer.
We will start with a briefer introduction to Windows Defender.
Windows Defender – Let’s Get Started
If you have been looking for a free antivirus program while using Microsoft Windows 7, you’ll have heard of Microsoft Security Essential. It was the name of Windows Defender when it launched for users. Obviously, that was a successful utility from Microsoft Developers and was considered as an efficient manner, to deal prominent malware and digital threats. With the launch of Windows 8, however, Microsoft included a well-integrated form of MSE into the Operating System – namely Windows Defender. Now, all Windows PCs shipped with original Windows OS has this security software inside.
It starts when you start using your Windows PC. And, it keeps working until you install another antivirus suite – is it free or premium. Despite being free, Windows Defender is offering a bunch of bonus features as well. We will have a look on those features now.
What Does Windows Defender Offer?
We will take a glance at the notable features we found in WD.
- Real Time Protection is something essential in today’s digital world. You protected from a lot of issues such as unwanted incoming connections and execution of malicious files. Using the Real-Time Protection feature, Windows Defender will keep your device away from threats.
- Cloud-based Scanning makes sure that the latest malware definitions utilised for the detection. The step is essential for including most of the modern malware in the digital world. You just have to make sure that you have enabled Windows Updates, which will take care of WD updates as well.
- Because Windows Defender Built into the OS, you face minimal resource consumption. Chances are, you can run the antivirus program without actually compromising speed or performance of your PC.
- Last but not least, Windows Defender is free from those nasty advertisements, unlike the case of free antivirus programs around. This is a significant advantage we suppose.
In spite of these features, we have to make a decision.
Read: How cyber criminal attacks you using social medial like facebook.
Is Defender Enough?
If you need a single-line answer: It depends upon your PC usage patterns.
If you are a primary Internet user — who is just limited to Facebook and a few other favourite websites —, you might be able to go ahead with Windows Defender on your computer. However, make sure that you enable Windows Updates every time. In that case, the protection features of WD are more than sufficient.But, it is not capable of removing virus like shortcut virus. So, you need manual action to remove shortcut virus.
That was having said; Windows Defender isn’t enough when you explore the world of Internet. Suppose it is essential for you to visit new websites and collect content as a part of your work. In that scenario, you will also have to visit the malicious sites on the web. If you have such a usage pattern, we do recommend going for another antivirus program than Windows Defender. In other premium antivirus suites, you get features like better threat detection rates and additional options like Anti-Theft and Scheduled Scanning.
The Verdict
Considering the abovementioned points, Defender isn’t enough for those advanced PC users. We highly recommend going for paid antivirus programs like Kaspersky, Bitdefender or Norton in that particular scenario. That is having said if you are confident about what you do – and if you have a better sensibility about the Internet —, it’s cool to continue your protection layer with Windows Defender. It’s a matter of the fact that some other third-party programs do perform well than Windows Defender when it comes to zero-day threat detection.