I know that a couple of other people have also mentioned Windows Defender,
besides Anthony; so, I thought that I would share that my experience with
this program has been a bit less positive. I had been running the previous
incarnation of this program in the background for quite a number of months
with no problem (I think they simply called it MS AntiSpyware Beta); so,
when they released this latest version (now called Windows Defender) I
upgraded to it.
After having done this, I noticed while playing an online computer game
(Battlefield 2) that my computer was struggling to keep up with the action.
While this game is very hardware intensive, I had the game options set so it
was fine, before. I went through the options for Windows Defender and
disabled the real-time protection. Since then, I've not experienced any
more problems with my online gaming.
I know this is anecdotal and just one person's experience; so, take it with
a grain of salt. Still, I'm a bit concerned about how MS seems to be
turning what was a nice little program into a resource hog. I'm guessing
(really haven't looked into this) that Windows Defender will eventually be a
full blown security suite from MS, probably including Antivirus and Firewall
components, as well as anti-spyware capabilities. Hopefully, they'll be
able to trim back its resource demands before they are done.
But, as noted, the program is currently a free download; so, try it and see
what you think for yourself.
John Sproule
----- Original Message -----
From: "Anthony Garvey" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Tuesday, May 16, 2006 11:10 AM
Subject: Re: [PCBUILD] Anti virus and security
>I like to run the new "Windows Defender" anti-spyware software from
>Microsoft in addition to anti-virus and a firewall. It seems very stable
>and is free (after a "genuine advantage" check) from MS at:
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