After Kaspersky's Shots Across the Bow, Microsoft Reacts

[FordGT90Concept]

Microsoft Security Essentials and Windows Defender were born out of the need to fight viruses that can prevent the successful installation of Windows and later, Windows security updates. The research they had to do there lead to branching off to a basic system to counter malicious software that security updates can't fix. The only thing one really can fault Windows Defender for is not being as intrusive, meticulous, and heavy handed as the third party solutions. Microsoft basically delivered what most people wanted. Popularity of third party antivirus programs therefore plummeted.

 

[DeathtoGnomes]

Microsoft Security Essentials and Windows Defender were born out of the need to fight viruses that can prevent the successful installation of Windows and later, Windows security updates. The research they had to do there lead to branching off to a basic system to counter malicious software that security updates can't fix. The only thing one really can fault Windows Defender for is not being as intrusive, meticulous, and heavy handed as the third party solutions. Microsoft basically delivered what most people wanted. Popularity of third party antivirus programs therefore plummeted.

I agree, m$ did an ok job on not being intrusive with WinDef, but they have plenty of other products that are, they had to cave on something... eventually.

On the other hand, I would like to disable Window Defender from continuously re-adding its notification(MSASCui.exe) to HKLM/Run, just goes to show how much m$ loves to be intrusive in one way or another.

 

[kn00tcn]

It working, being simple to use, using very little memory and resources, and letting me uninstall it when I feel like it. These are all thinks Kaspersky struggled to provide when I was using a log time ago. I hope things have gotten better, but I don't care about going back to check. I just tossed it in the pile of software I have quality working replacements for like Firefox, MS Office, Nero, and a few others.

dont mean to necro, but i didnt login for a few months

so basically you blacklist entire software FOR LIFE based on a bad experience at one point in time? shouldnt this mean no more windows if you used it at the start of vista, no more amd if you used their cards/drivers in 2011, ignoring how good ryzen is based on how bad amd was last few years, no more modern linux based on how messy & uncompatible it was a few years ago, the list goes on

you could at least take a look eventually if some software is claiming to have changed, or has users reporting that it has, or if there's a large enough userbase

 

[TheLaughingMan]

dont mean to necro, but i didnt login for a few months

so basically you blacklist entire software FOR LIFE based on a bad experience at one point in time? shouldnt this mean no more windows if you used it at the start of vista, no more amd if you used their cards/drivers in 2011, ignoring how good ryzen is based on how bad amd was last few years, no more modern linux based on how messy & uncompatible it was a few years ago, the list goes on

you could at least take a look eventually if some software is claiming to have changed, or has users reporting that it has, or if there's a large enough userbase

Hardware is not software. I do have a Ryzen 1800X and no I don't use any of AMD's current software offerings. I never used Vista because I knew to avoid it. I have never had an issue with an Linux distro I couldn't fix in 15 minutes and a web search. So I hope that helps you someone because I still have no reason to check any software I have dropped in the past.

 

[StrayKAT]

m$ could try and make(sell) Security software, but I they seriously doubt have the ability to be competitive and still have personnel left over to cater to their enterprise customers. Nope, its just basic, bottom of the line, barebones type effort put in its security software to placate the consumer, knowing full well the majority of m$ consumers will go with 3rd party security. If it takes a 3rd party to get m$ to react to fix something, maybe there is a bigger issue inside the m$ bedchambers.

For all this to work, people have to put egos aside and actually work better together, there seems to be too much "my way or the highway" developers there.

I haven't once thought of going third party since they integrated this. Not sure how the market is now though. There was a lot of bloated software last I checked (Norton, McAfee). If it's still like that, good riddance.

edit: lol.. damnit.. old thread.

 

[Shihab]

I haven't once thought of going third party since they integrated this. Not sure how the market is now though. There was a lot of bloated software last I checked (Norton, McAfee). If it's still like that, good riddance.

edit: lol.. damnit.. old thread.

It has gotten worse, with AV vendors now buying snake-oil software (Tuneup -> AVG, CCleaner ->Avast) left and right.
Ironically, these bloatware seem to be LESS secure now they are owned by security vendors.

 

[rtwjunkie]

It has gotten worse, with AV vendors now buying snake-oil software (Tuneup -> AVG, CCleaner ->Avast) left and right.
Ironically, these bloatware seem to be LESS secure now they are owned by security vendors.

How is that? CCleaner was bought at about the time the security breach happened. As soon as it was discovered it was announced. It literally had nothing to do with Avast's purchase of the company. In a month after acquisition, merged companies still operate independently most of the time. Culture, software, procedures of parent company always take awhile to be adopted.

 

[Shihab]

How is that? CCleaner was bought at about the time the security breach happened. As soon as it was discovered it was announced. It literally had nothing to do with Avast's purchase of the company. In a month after acquisition, merged companies still operate independently most of the time. Culture, software, procedures of parent company always take awhile to be adopted.

Which is why I started with "ironically." But yes, my sentence seems to imply more causation than I intended; I stand corrected.

 

[DeathtoGnomes]

Which is why I started with "ironically." But yes, my sentence seems to imply more causation than I intended; I stand corrected.

Why stand when you can sit? implying that software is snake-oil isnt right, someone else might swear by it, that it works flawlessly for them. CCleaner does have its good points even if it did delete every single save from my Steam games.

 

[Frick]

I have never had an issue with an Linux distro I couldn't fix in 15 minutes and a web search.

Then you're doing something wrong.

 

[Shihab]

Why stand when you can sit? implying that software is snake-oil isnt right, someone else might swear by it, that it works flawlessly for them. CCleaner does have its good points even if it did delete every single save from my Steam games.

I know many who swear that some random fruit or what's not cures cancer, but I personally wouldn't be changing my diet to it because someone else thinks it works. Placebo's well known to attach beneficial labels to things that isn't. And while I might admit the existence of some remote case scenarios in which CCleaner does have benefits, in general it is nothing but half redundancies (uninstaller, startup modifier component, etc) and the rest is most of the time "snake oil" (registry cleaner component, disk cleaner, etc).

 

[lexluthermiester]

I agree, m$ did an ok job on not being intrusive with WinDef, but they have plenty of other products that are, they had to cave on something... eventually.

On the other hand, I would like to disable Window Defender from continuously re-adding its notification(MSASCui.exe) to HKLM/Run, just goes to show how much m$ loves to be intrusive in one way or another.

Windows Defender started out being a great addition but MS screwed it up in so many ways. As a default, it is deleted from every installation of Windows I do, along with Internet Explorer[been doing that since Windows 98] and Edge.