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My dads MacAfee subscription on his new computer expired (it was only for a month....?!!). I removed it as i wasn't going to have him pay for it - my intention was to download and install AVG.

Upon removing MacAfee, windows automatically recognised that i had no cover, performed it's own search and automatically downloaded Windows Defender...........pretty clever stuff. No subscription or any problems. Is this Windows Defender any use though, or should i remove it and download AVG or any other recommended software? Its a laptop that he uses for his own personal use, mostly browsing cookery and gardening sites.

Thanks.

Avast is 10 xs better than AVG and doesn't slow the computer down.

Windows Defender is not an antivirus program, just a real-time antispyware and antimalware protector.

You can download Microsoft Security Essentials which contains all the programs of Windows Defender but also has an antivirus program in it.

If you want to use one of the others on offer for free, Avast is better than(or at least I think so) AVG, but you will still need a realtime antispyware. Windows Defender, Spyware Terminator and Spyware Blaster are real-time system protectors. Also Spybot Search & destroy has the ‘Tea-timer’ as real-time protection.

The auto updater on MSE is still a bit dubious because it is set to check for updates at 2am and if you are shut down it may miss that schedule when you restart. I use it on one PC which is a test bed for other things and so I usually just click it to check for updates whilst I am doing something else.

dave

I have ended up downloading the free version of AVG. It has anti-spyware, which it says protects from all kinds of malware. It has anti-virus, link scanner, e-mail scanner and couple of other bits. It seems pretty good. I carried out a full scan which it carried out pretty quickly and found two infections that it dealt with.

I'm impressed so far. I'll see how it goes - no doubt the old fella will soon let me know if he's having problems. Cheers!!