Windows Defender

[Wepynx]

Does Windows Defender have serious system impact? Will it slowdown my PC. I'm running Win 10 all updated, Intel Core2 Duo, 2.33 GHz and 8.00GB RAM. Thanks.

[EldonW]

Originally Posted by Wepynx

Does Windows Defender have serious system impact? Will it slowdown my PC.

No.
Microsoft's programs included with Windows has always been low on system resources.

[Wepynx]

Thank you EldonW.

[Anupam]

I have Windows 10 32-bit with 4 GB of RAM. My experience is that Windows Defender does slow down my PC a bit.

[Burn-IT]

I have always found it better to remove Defender and replace it with a decent third party tool.
Defender has never been known as anything other than a "better than nothing" tool even by MS.

[EldonW]

Originally Posted by Burn-IT

Defender has never been known as anything other than a "better than nothing" tool even by MS.

Not any more.
Have a look at this comparison.
https://www.av-comparatives.org/comparison/

Unfortunately, the 36 false positives spoil the glory.

[Remah]

Originally Posted by Burn-IT

Defender has never been known as anything other than a "better than nothing" tool even by MS.

I've never heard that from any official source at Microsoft so it would be good to provide a source reference for such a disparaging comment.

Microsoft's stated intentions have always been to provide a much higher level of protection than you've stated. And that goes all the way back to their purchase of Giant anti-spyware in 2004:
https://news.microsoft.com/2004/12/1...giant-company/

I think that you're probably confused about the Microsoft products. The AV Comparatives report that @EldonW links to is for the current anti-virus product rather than the original anti-spyware product which this topic is about.

Windows Defender is the name used for at least three different products:

1. The original Windows Defender from 2005 was only anti-spyware for Windows XP and later for Windows Vista and 7. From 2009, Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE or MSSE) provided anti-virus for Windows 7
2. Windows Defender for Windows 8 was an anti-virus that used the same definition files as MSE.
3. Windows Defender Antivirus for Windows 10 supercedes both MSE and Windows Defender for Windows 8.

[EldonW]

Originally Posted by Remah

The AV Comparatives report that @EldonW links to is for the current anti-virus product rather than the original anti-spyware product which this topic is about

The user is running Windows 10. Therefor this topic is not about the original anti-spyware product.

[deya]

I use Defender, haven't used anything else for years and never noticed it causing any slowdowns. And on a PC with the specs that the OP has posted there shouldn't be any problem. In all honesty, I've never had an issue while using it with Win10.

[Anupam]

Windows Defender comes on whenever I uninstall Avast to install a new version. There is noticeable slowdown in the system, which I don't feel when Avast is installed. Specially, when I open a folder with exe files, there is a lag.