Windows Defender

fifi35

I have a laptop which uses vista. Each time it restarts windows defender starts up and takes forever. I do have AVG v. 9 free. Do I need defender as well or can I delete it.


Thanks in advance.

Fifi

PCease

Hi,

If you open windows defender (click windows Start button then start typing "defender" it will be displayed on the menu).

Go to Options->Automatic Scanning and change the frequency (daily, or a day) of the week). I dont recommend turning it off, but maybe perform the can daily at a time you probably wont be using your computer i.e. lunch times, or evenings etc.

You can also tell it to run a scan only when system is idle (windows 7, not sure if this is in the vista version).

Hope this helps.

Regards

Paul

luci

My understanding is that AVG is an antivirus and Defender is antispyware? Is that correct?

gaming_guy

luci wrote: »

My understanding is that AVG is an antivirus and Defender is antispyware? Is that correct?

yes.

However both are pretty rubbish and you can get much better software for free.

PCease

luci wrote: »

My understanding is that AVG is an antivirus and Defender is antispyware? Is that correct?

Totally correct. I dont use AVG (I prefer Avast) so not sure if it has anti-spyware built in but there is no harm having more than one anti-spyware software installed on your system... (I recommend Malwarebytes, spybot, bazooka, superAntiSpyware and adaware).

Only have ONE anti-virus installed...

fifi35

Thanks very much for your replies I shall try and amend defender.
I do have malwarebytes and adaware so may even get rid of defender.

penrhyn

Replace both with Microsoft security essentials, which is both antivirus and antispyware, its also a free download.

http://www.microsoft.com/Security_Essentials/

luci

fifi35 wrote: »

Thanks very much for your replies I shall try and amend defender.
I do have malwarebytes and adaware so may even get rid of defender.

Be aware that Malwarebytes doesn't offer real-time protection unless you have the paid version whereas Defender does.

I stopped using AVG as there were too many potential problems with the latest version. I have Avast AV and Comodo FW on the desktop and laptop, and MS Security Essentials on the netbook.

gaming_guy

luci wrote: »

Be aware that Malwarebytes doesn't offer real-time protection unless you have the paid version whereas Defender does.

Defender is about as much use as a chocolate teapot whether it has real-time protection or not.

MS Security essentials should do a much better job than defender, so if i were you, i'd use security essentials

fifi35

How do I know if my vista home basic is 32 bit or 64 bit.
Thanks.

gaming_guy

start > right click my computer > properties and it should say if you have a x86 (32bit) or amd64 (64bit) copy