Quote:

Is MS Defender the same as MS Security Essentials?



No. Windows Defender is a HEINOUS program that screens EVERY BYTE that goes in and out of your computer with such scrutiny that it will deny you access to a lot of places. I dealt with it a lot at the internet provider where I worked and in about 60% of the cases, Windows updates had run, turned Defender back on, and suddenly they stopped connecting. That was DSL and the modems had a firewall built in and the combination of the 2 stopped the connection.

The media has frightened the public to such a degree that I have seen users running THREE anti virus programs. There is no chance in Hades that data can pass through THREE anti virus and firewall programs. None. One or the other will see everything as an intrusion and stop it.

Far too many people don't know the difference between spyware and virus. And honestly, this forum isn't the place to be teaching basic basics. You can get that all over the internet. I run Norton Anti Virus as my active scanner and Malwarebytes as my malware cleaning tool. I never get infections. Partly because of the tools, and partly (mainly) because I know what I am doing. Everybody with a connected computer needs to learn that "know what I am doing" part.

Remember, when you see a commercial for some kind of protection product, it's their goal to frighten you into buying a product the you can either get something similar for free or don't need because it's overkill.