Windows Defense

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Windows Defender

I don’t normally talk about Windows software, but now that you can boot into Windows on a Mac, I thought I would pass on this tip I heard on The Mac Observer’s Podcast.

The very first thing you should do after installing Windows on your new Intel Mac, is install Norton AntiVirus and Windows Defender.

Windows Defender is a FREE application from Microsoft. It scans your hard drive for spyware. Norton AntiVirus is pretty self explanatory. It’s not free, but Amazon has it for $13.95… it’s well worth it.

This tip obviously isn’t just for Mac users running Windows. All of you PC users should do this too.

4 thoughts on “Windows Defense”

  1. Paul,

    I wouldn’t recommend Norton anymore personally. 5 years ago, perhaps, yes, it’d be a good idea, but in today’s world – Norton is flawed for 2 reasons.

    1) It is the most popular antivirus, so viruses seek it out and disable it (the good ones).
    2) It is a CRAZY resource hog (Same goes for McAffe Antivirus).

    People who practice safe computing (don’t open email attachments, run random executable files, etc) don’t even really need an antivirus, per se. Nowadays, spyware is the issue and Norton doesn’t really help you there. However, that is unadvisable to go AV-free unless you truly know what you are doing.

    This is what Windows users should do (based on my experience):

    * Definitely install Window’s defender ASAP. It does a really good job keeping out the yucky’s.
    * Install Firefox next and make that your primary browser. NEVER use IE unless you absolutely have to (like for Windows Update).
    * If you are going to use an antivirus program, don’t use Norton. I recommend NOD32 (http://www.nod32.com) if you would like to pay. Because I’m cheap, I use AVG Antivirus Free Edition (http://www.grisoft.com). I’ve been using it exclusively for about a year now and have had not a single issue – (This is keeping in mind that I practice safe Windows computing and have never had a virus in my life).

    At any rate, don’t install Norton. In the world of Windows and Internet security, sometimes its not best to be the most popular. And it is definitely not cool to eat up as many resources as Norton does. In Windows land, every last resource is an endangered species.

  3. I would agree with Tim about Norton. i think it has become a horrible anti-virus and I would never install it myself. I have tried Panda Titanium anti-virus which i personally think is very good. It also deals with spyware as well! However, it is a resource hog and I would not recommend it to anyone with a slower computer.

    As for spyware, i personally don’t use windows defender and I turn off the security center service. I prefer to use spybot: search and destroy and Adaware. At the end of the day though I think it is more important to practice clever computing rather than relying on anti-virus and anti-spyware programs.

  4. I concur with Frank. I prefer Spybot to Windows Defender as well. I find Ad-aware to be the less useful of the 3. I think the best feature of Spybot (as well as Defender) is what Spybot calls immunization (this would be Defender’s All-time Protection). Essentially Spybot will look for known Spyware vulnerabilities and attempt to plug the holes.

    I haven’t used Spybot or Ad-aware since I got my new PC in November (mostly because I’ve been too lazy to load them). I think, at most, I’ll install Spybot one day. But like I said, I haven’t had a single issue using only Defender and Firefox since November.

    Keeping Windows safe nowadays has become an art to which Mac users have been blissfully ignorant for some time. It is my unfortunate duty to welcome you to the fold which I am trying to escape :-)

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