Is Windows Defender enough for Windows 11 setup?

[u/Fabbeliss_Densesth]

For those who pay for antivirus on Windows 11, what makes it worth keeping Defender? Are there extra features that you guys use regularly, or a particular reason that lead to a decision to switch?

[u/pcuser42]

Unless you're doing something really, really stupid, Defender will be fine.

[u/Mario583a → u/pcuser42]

Hell, even if you are doing something really, really stupid, no amount of antivirus will protect you from say getting socially engineered and entering your credentials into a fake "Steam" signin page.

The best AV is NOT Common Sense

[u/giganticwrap]

You haven't needed to pay for an antivirus since 2015

[u/storft2 → u/giganticwrap]

Since forever. All you needed is a functioning brain and the ability to judge.

[u/I_Am_A_Door_Knob → u/storft2]

Ehh i will disagree slightly if we go back to the XP and Vista days. The built in security features have matured a lot over the years.

[u/dtallee → u/I_Am_A_Door_Knob]

At the end, MSE was really not good.
In June 2013, MSE achieved the lowest possible protection score, zero.

[u/I_Am_A_Door_Knob → u/dtallee]

I was trying to convey that the built in security features was a bit shit back then, but has matured into becoming quite good today.

But it was interesting to read that MSE weirdly enough got worse over time.

[u/dtallee → u/I_Am_A_Door_Knob]

Yeah, malware won that race.

[u/Longjumping-Fall-784]

Enough, unless you’re silly enough to click on every single advertisements, download stuff that needs you to disable the antivirus protection, which is not always the thing you’re actually downloading, either way the device will be infected as vast of “free” stuff online requires you to turn off protection while installing so sure, pay Kaspersky, whatever subscription service you want, but until you actually pay for the software or even games there’s still a risk no matter what antivirus provider you use.

[u/Atlamillias]

Windows Defender, ublock, and some decent intuition (if something looks kinda sus, just consider it sus).

[u/tbone338]

Yes, as long as you have the other security features enabled. Things like, core isolation, memory integrity, secure boot, etc…

[u/secretqwerty10 → u/tbone338]

i'd also suggest an adblocker like ublock origin, preferably on firefox

[u/nonlogin]

do not download crap from internet and you will be ok

[u/_AACO → u/nonlogin]

It's not so simple, ads can inject malware for a while now and some can even do it without you clicking on them.

Going to a compromised page from a Google or Bing search is enough.

Use adblockers folks. 

[u/Timber1802 → u/_AACO]

How would that work? 

[u/_AACO → u/Timber1802]

https://citizenlab.ca/research/how-discover-tech-turned-targeted-ads-into-a-pipeline-for-spyware/

[u/Timber1802 → u/_AACO]

Thanks! Very interesting. I thought it would probably be some JS running in the background and... I was right. Unfortunately, turning js off is not really a good option nowadays.

Interestingly, an adblocker may not even have helped as they put these ads in games. 

I personally use Mullvad and use it to block ads too. It also works in games.

Even then, a powerful and niche enough zero day can still get you.

[u/nonlogin → u/Timber1802]

did you understand how JS escaped sandbox? I mean, running a js is not really an attack by itself

[u/Timber1802 → u/nonlogin]

Well not in depth. 

I understand that it escaped the sandbox but not exactly how. I assume you need to escape the sandbox and then need to also use an exploit within the os to actually install your malware undetected.  

[u/BraveInformation4787]

Si, pero no por ser solo un antivirus; sino por la seguridad a nivel de hardware que incorpora (aislamiento del nucleo, integridad de memoria, etc)

[u/oacoello]

It is fine, you are ok with Defender

[u/TimeCherry1758]

Windows Defender is perfectly fine for use. You don't need 3rd party Anti-Virus tools as most people claim, as long as you're not downloading random software from the internet and you're making sure that it's been verified by other people (comments) that it's safe.

At the end of the day, what matters more is end-user education.

[u/storft2]

Yes

[u/Forward_Zucchini9738]

Yes.

[u/koken_halliwell]

It's very useless in my experience, but best antivirus is best habits.

[u/artlurg431]

Yeah, other anti viruses are viruses them selves except for a select few

[u/toomanytoons]

It's not an issue like it was before; I don't know what the malware authors have shifted to but real malware has gone away. The only things I've been called out for the last couple years have been fake website notifications from Edge and Chrome. If you disable the ability for Edge or Chrome to send notifications you stop the majority of it in it's tracks.

[u/PriorityNo6268]

Yes, defender is more then capable.

[u/ulixesodyssey]

Defenders capable but if you feel you want more I just malwarebytes

[u/mtnlovesn]

yes it is enough and try brave i used him for 7-8 mon

[u/ChatGPT4]

Of course it is. I run my business on my PC, and I don't use anything else. Windows Defender is pretty strong. It's not the best, but it's good enough. It offers pretty good balance between false positives and false negatives.

Also its performance hit is relatively small, what's important - many programs offer adding to Defender's white list to provide better performance.

Who am I to judge? I use Windows since 3.0. I used DOS before.

[u/Infamous-Oil2305]

no it's not and never will be:

https://www.reddit.com/r/TechImpact/comments/1xam3db/comment/phww5ka/?context=3