Every Windows user knows that without a good antivirus you shouldn’t go online. Today, experts can’t even say how many malicious programs exist. They agree only on the fact that there are at least several million of them.
Of course, you need to protect your system from data loss and system files, but how to do this without spending money on antivirus software? There are a huge number of free varieties of these programs, but they do not inspire much confidence among experienced users. In addition, free antiviruses require a special approach to their configuration, so novice users often can not cope with them.
Fortunately, there is a completely free and effective solution from Microsoft itself. It is called Windows Defender. What it is? We will devote an article to the discussion of this issue.
How it all began
It is known that legends about the susceptibility of Microsoft systems to virus attacks have a long history. It all started back in 1995, when several global epidemics nearly brought down the global software industry.
Antiviruses were then perceived as useless toys, but reality quickly cooled users. The very first manufacturer of antivirus software, which became "number one" in our country, was Igor Danilov's laboratory, in which Doctor Web was created. Then Kaspersky and other products followed, the number of which today totals several dozen.
The same situation continued until 2006, when Windows Vista came out. Then Windows Defender appeared. What is it? This is the name of the antivirus program that was created by Microsoft itself. Contrary to what skeptics said, it immediately showed itself to be a reliable and truly effective anti-virus tool that really protected the system from virus attacks.
However, then the application was also called "Windows Defender", and did not receive much popularity. This was largely due to user prejudice.
And only after the ceremonial appearance of Windows 7, when sales reached record heights, users became interested in Windows Defender. What did that mean? Just that the “Defender” had already managed to establish itself not only as a free, but also an extremely effective program.
MSE
Let's make an important digression: Microsoft Security Essentials and Windows Defender should not be confused. What does it mean? The first program is a normal antivirus that works in resident mode. It appeared relatively recently, became known for its complete free of charge and the desire to work exclusively on licensed systems. "Defender" refers to scanners. It does not work constantly, it is launched only at the request of the user. If MSE is installed on a system where there is a Defender, the first utility is automatically disabled.
Windows 8
When this operating system from Microsoft appeared, the Internet just boiled. Thousands of domestic and foreign computer forums discussed its advantages and disadvantages, and often disputes led interlocutors to mutual insults.
Be that as it may, Windows 8, the “Defender” in which it became a full-time antivirus program, has by now continued to confidently gain popularity. To a large extent, this is due to the qualities of Defender, which has turned into a decent antivirus, whereas previously its modules performed only the function of a scanner. Yes, in the G8, MSE and Defender merged into one application, which incorporated the advantages of both predecessors.
basic settings
Just note that in the classic "Defender", which comes bundled with Windows Vista / 7, there are no special settings. Let's make sure of this.
Run the program. How to do it? Click on the "Start" button, select there "Control Panel", in which there is an item "Windows Defender". Click on it with the left mouse button, after which the main program dialog box will appear in front of you.
First, click on the "Check for Updates" button. As a rule, updates are downloaded through the Windows Update service, but it will not hurt to be safe. Attention! Windows Defender, which has not been updated for a long time, is practically useless.
If this is your first time opening the program, the “Check Now” button will appear in the main dialog box. We recommend that you first update the database, and only then click on it, because without normal virus definitions, the scan results will certainly be unreliable.
Varieties
By clicking on the icon with the gear, you find yourself in a window in which the verification parameters are set. There are three at once.
Fast type. If you select it, then only those system areas that are statistically affected by malware most often will be checked. As a rule, the whole process takes no more than a few minutes. Since this type of verification is the default, it can be specially not set.
Full check. In this case, the entire system is scanned. Attention! Since absolutely all directories on the computer will be scanned, the performance of the PC can be seriously affected. In addition, it will take at least an hour to do this, so it’s best to run a scan at night or at a time when you don’t need a computer. To activate this method, select the “Scan” item, and then select the required option in it.
Spot scan. As the name implies, only those areas of the system that you specify yourself will be checked. As in the past case, the process itself can take a very long time (if you marked a lot of directories).
If a virus is detected
In this case, Windows Defender does not lag behind other antiviruses. What does it mean? A large red dialog box appears in front of you, in which you can choose what the program should do with the infected file: delete, quarantine, ignore it. If you are not sure if the suspected file is safe, we highly recommend deleting it.
Disable Defender
And how to disable the "Defender" of Windows 7? Most often, such a need may arise in the case of installing third-party antivirus software, when the need for a standard utility disappears.
Disabling it is quite simple. First of all, click on the "Start" button, in the menu that opens, find the "Search" field, and then enter the word "services" into it. A window with the search results will open, in which you need to left-click on the item of the same name. We are looking for the item "Windows Defender" in the list. We right-click on it, select the option “Stop Service” in the pop-up context menu. We restart the system, enjoy the shutdown of the "Defender".
It is so easy to disable the program in Windows 8: Defender is deeply integrated into the system there, and therefore it is not always possible to get by with regular means.
The same can be done from the window of the program itself. To do this, select the item "Service / Options". There is an option "Administrator". Click on this item with the left mouse button, confirm your intentions by clicking “Yes” in UAC, and then uncheck “Use this program”. Reboot the computer. Here's how to disable Windows Defender 7. Likewise, the program is deactivated in Windows Vista.
In Windows 8, Defender is also disabled through services. Note again that you do not need to turn it off when installing third-party antivirus software: all this will be done automatically. The need for this can appear only in case of some malfunctions.
Important!
We do not advise you to disable Windows Defender without an unnecessary need : Windows 7 in this case remains completely defenseless in the face of numerous malicious programs.