Examination of 18 antivirus programs shows Microsoft Defender has the highest system load

[OortCloud]

I've used pretty much all of them and think that this is a really misleading article.

Maybe the others have a less heavy load on the file being opened/saved - ie the pure on demand scan??? - but they also install 97 other processes doing all sorts of nonsense that we really don't want. They also break things. We had huge issues with Trend and McAfee breaking our builds all the time. No amount of config would stop it blocking files and generally causing pain.

Given the CPU power of a modern PC I have no issue sticking with Defender. It's unobtrusive, it works really well at doing the job it's intended to do and it's 'free'.

More importantly get yourself a copy of MalwareBytes free to run periodically (don't set it to auto-start) and run this now and then. Nowadays protection against PUPs is far more important than a virus scanner.

 

[Cycloid Torus]

"The worst category score of all, a 3.0, was given to PC Matic in the useability section, earning it the lowest score overall (15)." It is (I believe) unique. It "whitelists". This means that any new software is checked before it can be run. Useability suffers (it can take up to a day to complete check of the new software).

I've used it for several years and like the idea that 0-day is delayed while things get vetted. https://www.pcmatic.com/

 

[erickmendes]

Ok... Now where is the system load list??? ....

 

[DEMinSoCal]

18 AV programs tested, but didn't include Webroot? Pretty sure Webroot is more popular than many in the list of 18 they tested.

Also, an article about how Defender "system load" but has no details on what that even is? Seems like an article that just has it out for Windows Defender. In effect, though, the free Defender seems just as good at doing it's job as the paid products.

 

[saladbarsmash]

Firewall is usually more important.

Not so much, as soon as you connect to a remote server and open up that port, the originating computer can get infected. Having an antivirus is important as well as an IPS, and HIPS and some "common sense". Oh, and don't look at Pron unprotected, just like in person haha.

 

[Belgeek]

I have the opposite problem with Outlook. I get emails being sent to Junk/Spam that are from trusted users. Even when I select, "Trust all emails from ...." some still go into the Junk folder. Sometimes, some email from a specific user goes to junk but other emails, from the same user don't. It's crazy.

Oh I have both issues. Some emails of Microsoft are being placed in junk as well.

Sometimes I feel like their filter is only based on keywords like in the 2000. If email contains viagra then junk.

But they don't take into consideration the data in the headers such as spf, dkim, dmarc. Those are basic security elements in an email. I see that they fail in the header but it's accepted and it goes through.

I should switch to Gmail too I guess since Microsoft doesn't seem to move.

 

[Vanderlinde]

There where so many windows boxes hacked to pieces, running malware or being part of a botnet, that microsoft had to come up with something (basic) protection to prevent that from happening. The mission quite succeeded; you got far less Windows machines running as part of a botnet. It does the job and thats about it.

I used trend micro for years; always was a far beyond package. Offered amazing protection.

 

[hwertz]

I'm glad to see Microsoft Defender is the heaviest. I mean, I only run Windows in a VM and Defender seems extraordinarily heavy (I finally turned it off recently, since I make VERY limited use of these VMs). Good to know there are not other AVs that are even heavier!