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Windows Defender
Version: 1593
Downloads Count: 788,743
License Type: Free
Price: Free
Date Added: Mar 7, 2007
Operating Systems: Windows XP
File Size: 4900 KB
Author: Microsoft
- Pop-Up Stopper Free 2,297,342
- BearShare 1,187,190
- CWShredder 904,720
- Windows Defender 788,743
- Webwasher Classic 490,533
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Add Your Review
Most recent User Reviews for Windows Defender
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Reviewed by: amark
11-15-2007
Duration of ownership: 1 Days
Strengths: Nice looking.
Weaknesses: Big memory footprint, even when real-time is off. Can't disable the service without getting warning notice on startup. Dang thing's always on, even when I told it to turn off. Can't live with that.
Overall Evaluation: I tried this when it first came out years ago, didn't like it. But, in reading a PCworld review, it said the new version can turn off processes. Well, it will kill a process, but they come back with the next boot. So i't's a glorified Task Manager. A Big Task Manager too, takes roughly 30MB of memory just to sit and do nothing, as I turned off real-time. As far as finding spyware, I don't know, I so rarely have a prob with spyware, I don't know if it would help. I find being careful about what you put on your computer is the best way. Research, think. If it's free why? Especially if it's a free toy(games). So, I see no benefit to this thing. If you want to learn what's going on in your computer, use Sysinternals many tools, esp: Process Explorer and Autoruns. That will give anyone massive knowledge, and it's a good way to learn. Sysinternals was developed years ago by smart people. So smart were they, Microsoft bought them and let's them continue their awsome work. Check it out. The best Defender is knowledge.
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Reviewed by: grangeek
11-10-2007
Duration of ownership: 20 Months
Strengths: in XP I don't notice it's running. Maybe this is good.
Weaknesses: In XP I don't notice it's running. Is it doing anything? In Vista, it is blocking hardware specific startup software that shipped with my system that I want to use, and not giving me the option of enabling it. Grrr!
Overall Evaluation: Microsoft's incredibly arrogant attitude that it knows better than I do what is best for my computer is intolerable. I'm about to disable it on my Vista machine. Actually, I'm about to upgrade my Vista machine to XP! Vista's bells and whistles do not add value, and do not offset the annoyance factor of constantly having to confirm that "Yes, I do mean it. I do want to do this."
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Reviewed by: expeed12
09-25-2007
Duration of ownership: 2 Months
Strengths: freeware,no conflict to other softwares...
Weaknesses: omg!!! very very slow scan!!!!
Overall Evaluation: i guess its ok for a freeware,but scan took almost a 2hrs and never found anything...just keep saying that system running okay...
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Reviewed by: jenzwhiz
09-14-2007
Duration of ownership: 0 Days
Strengths:
Weaknesses:
Overall Evaluation:
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Reviewed by: zixqu
06-09-2007
Duration of ownership: 2 Days
Strengths: Runs smoothly in the background. Found things that Norton Antivirus didn't find during the full scan.
Weaknesses: The scan took about 8 hours to finish. There still is the spyware/virus on my PC. Less options than other spyware/virus protection.
Overall Evaluation: I had gotten spyware from a link on an instant messenger. To get rid of it, I had run everything I could think of that Norton had to offer. As nothing really "came up" as wrong, I decided to download Windows Defender. Overall, it's a smooth running program with a clean look. Unfortunately, it has less options than other companies' protection. However, what I DID like about it, it had found things that Norton didn't, which was a help. Although I still have the spyware on my PC, I do recommend downloading Windows Defender because 1) it's free, and 2) it /does/ find things wrong with the computer.
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Reviewed by: Shinken1
04-25-2007
Duration of ownership: 4 Months
Strengths: It's free and arguably better than nothing
Weaknesses: Too many error messages
Overall Evaluation: As a PC tech, I frequently see computers that display errors related to Windows Defender. This means that my comments are not based on experience with a single computer, but with many. It started out with continual notifications that the definitions were out of date, but updating indicated that the defs were current. More recently I'm seeing many computers with error messages when Windows loads, related to Windows Defender. I immediately uninstall Defender and replace it with other free anti-malware apps (no names mentioned) that are more reliable. This is a product that MS should not be releasing, at least not until more bugs are removed.
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Reviewed by: Parispete
02-23-2007
Duration of ownership: 0 Weeks
Strengths: Fit and forget. It works in the background.
Weaknesses: Not yet the complete one-size-fits-all that is needed, but better than I expected.
Overall Evaluation: I have used Zone Alarm for many years and loved it. But when my Alcatel Speed Touch became unusable due to a suspected corruption of Zone Alarm hinted at be a couple of forums, I had to reluctantly ditch it. I then installed Defender, just to see. My desktop no longer gets the memory dump blue screen from Alcatels **** software, and everything seems to be going well. So good one, Microsoft - looks like I'll be staying with Defender.
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Reviewed by: Sticky
02-01-2007
Duration of ownership: 0 Months
Strengths: None
Weaknesses: Your information says it supports windows 2000. NOT TRUE. Fix your listing.
Overall Evaluation: I liked it while it worked on my machine, but it quit when Microsoft wanted to swtich me to XP.
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Reviewed by: iwanttobeamole
01-17-2007
Duration of ownership: 3 Months
Strengths: None, Zero, Zilch
Weaknesses: Complete failure to detect or remove 90% of spyware
Overall Evaluation: As is typical of Microsoft, they have decided that they want their finger in every possible pie in the IT market. However, as a marketing company, their talentless staff are totally incapable of creating a product that effectively deals with a simple problem, let alone something as complex the many forms of spyware. As a test, when I was removing spyware off a fairly heavily infected machine, with Windows defender installed and completely updated, I set it to scan. It scanned the entire machine, then happily reported that there were no problems at all on the machine and that it was healthy and ready to go. After removing Windows Defender and installing an actual working product (in this case Lavasoft's Adaware SE. I removed close to 300 spyware components and the machine began behaving in the proper fashion. After about 3 months, to be fair, I once again came across a spyware infested machine with a completely up to date install if Windows defender. A complete scan showed up nothing of any threat level. Once again running Ad Aware SE over the system removed a significant number of spyware components and got he machine back to it's proper working state. So don't believe any fancy marketing that Microsoft are smugly plastering as far and wide as their sticky fingers can reach. Save your time and frustration and trust a company that specifically designs software for the purpose of removing malware from your machine, rather than a marketing company who cares about nothing more than the bottom dollar. - Review written by Mole Finkle. Feel free to contact me at iwanttobeamole@hotmail.com. I am in no way affiliated with Microsoft or Lavasoft, and wrote this from a user/tech's perspective. Sorry there is no formatting, but this badly thrown together website won't let me press enter.
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Reviewed by: dennismoha
01-11-2007
Duration of ownership: 3 Months
Strengths: Keeps me informed of what is happening to my computer.
Weaknesses: Does not inform you of the need to reset your network.
Overall Evaluation: An easy to use porduct with no complications other than the need to reset your network when first downloaded.
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Reviewed by: sandeepownzzz
12-30-2006
Duration of ownership: 2 Months
Strengths: Free...
Weaknesses: Look down
Overall Evaluation: Microsoft Windows defender is a decent antispyware program. It doesn't take many resources to run, but the main flaw in this anti-spware is that it is not able to detect many spyware. Through my own personal observations I had discovered that it was only capable of detecting two spyware on my machine, but this was ridiculous. Only 2? Just to verify i scanned my computer with AVG Antispyware and it notice 203 spyware and that is why I give this a low rating.
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