This article is not intended to convince you to abandon your current antivirus solutions. In this post I would like to share my observations and ways to improve the effectiveness of Defender.

You don’t need to buy expensive antivirus software. If you are a standard user, surfing the web, you don’t want to install additional software (eg. which can slow down your PC), or you just have other better things to buy, you can definitely use antivirus software built into your Windows operating system. There is no perfect solution, and no mater if you install free or paid antivirus, you can always be infected, if you do not use your own brain. Sometimes it is easier to break a person than their computer security. Then even the most expensive solution will not help.

Unfortunately, no one checks anyone’s skills before buying the first computer or smartphone. If you want to drive a car, you need to get a driving license. If you want to shoot a gun, you need to get a permit. If you want to connect to the internet and interact with it, you don’t have to do anything. Reading some comments on random websites I guess you don’t even need a brain. Every Internet user these days should be careful, check links, verify sources and be aware. Anyone, even a security specialist, can have a weaker day, so somewhere in the background there should be a program running to protect your computer and data.

There are people who boast that they never had an anti virus program. There are some who think free solutions are crap. There are also those who write that you must have an antivirus program and preferably the most expensive one with all functions. In my opinion, you can have whatever you want. But if you have Windows and a built-in antivirus program, which isn’t the worst, better have it turned on and brag about never having to intervene than one day cry about your data being encrypted.

Windows Defender is simple, but very good, built in antivirus and threat protection solution in modern Windows OS. It has account, app & browser control, firewall and network protection and it helps you to keep your device secure. Interface of the software is a little bit different than standard antivirus software GUI you are familiar with. There aren’t too many configuration options here either, but all the available switches are well described.

Defender is not only used at home, but many large companies use Defender in conjunction with Sentinel (SIEM) and ASC as their primary protection. I myself had the opportunity to work in one of these companies and this solution had very good results. Because who, if not Microsoft alone, can defend his system best. Of course, together with colleagues from work, we have often laughed that all global companies that use Defender in production are beta testers (global testing environment) for Microsoft products. As many times as the administration interface changed without any announcement, or the product names evolved, once it was Microsoft Defender, then Windows Defender, sometimes you looked at Defender consoles, then it was Defender for Endpoint and then Defender ATP and Defender Security Center etc. There was a time when I didn’t know where I was logging in and what was its name, I was just analyzing the alerts under the currently working link :)

But today, let’s focus on Defender for the home user. It does not have additional functions that are offered by other commercial solutions, but what it does is enough. However, it is worth enabling some additional functions that are not available from the graphical interface.

The effectiveness of many antivirus programs is tested by sites such as AV Comparatives or AV Test. You can check which antivirus is “the best”. If you take a moment to analyze it, you’ll see that it all changes month to month and year to year. In the past, Defender had poor marks, now it’s better, and so are the products of other companies.

So a