Windows 7: Windows Defender With Norton or McAFee ?

Hi,

If I have Norton or McAFee as anti virus and security installed on my PC is there any added benefit in having Windows Defender active or is it safe to turn if off?



Rgds
Auld Bint

I would use only one security suite as your real time protection.

You can set Windows Defender to run manually as a secondary scanner.

Windows defender protects your computer from adware and spyware, it has NO antivirus component. If the Norton or Mcafee you use have builtin antispyware and anti-adware capabilities, you can turn off windows defender.

windows defender won't have any clash with AV i suppose. However having two AV's in one PC might clash

Mcafee 2009 used to disable defender in Vista. If Defender was enabled, an error message used to popup. I dont know whether the problem has been fixed in newer versions or in Windows 7 generally.

Again in Vista NIS 2009 had some features which disliked Defender.

IDK what versions the OP is using. In case there is any issue, just enable the antispyware features of Norton/ Mcafee or try Superantispyware free or Spybot.

OR...

Simply run with Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE), which continues to prove itself as a great realtime anti-malware solution so you can get rid of Norton and McAfee. And note since MSE scans for spyware as well as viruses and other vermin, it automatically replaces, and disables Windows Defender upon installation.

I have been using Windows Firewall, MSE, and IE8 since Windows 7 went final on all my systems - with zero problems - and NONE of the bloat (consuming CPU, RAM, and disk resources) that is associated with Symantec and McAfee.

I have had Windows Defender and Norton Internet Security running in parallel for years now, and there were just a couple of times they both jumped on the same creep, and I solved it simply by canceling Windows Defender action, because NIS usually kiils without questions asked.

Sometimes Defender nabs something NIS doesn't. All in all, no problems so far in their coexistence, only benefits.

Norton is not bloat.

Norton is better than was in past years, but it still takes up a lot of disk space and a large chunk of RAM, and for many, it noticeably degrades overall system performance. But also, like McAfee and most of the other "suites", it includes "features" most users just don't need. Plus, it is not free.

That said, Norton is a very effective anti-malware program - so I don't want to suggest otherwise.

Some (or many) do find that it degrades overall system performance but taking up a large chunk of RAM? With Opera and Firefox open on Windows 7, right now it is using 7MB.

Auld Bint, it's okay to run Windows Defender and McAfee (Edit: Actually, I don't know about McAfee) or Norton 2010 together. There is an added benefit.