I believe I found the answer to this in searching on here, but just wanted to make sure. I just purchased a new Dell computer and monitor (super deal) with Windows 7. (I’m running XP on my current computer). Anyway. This Windows Defender thing, can it run with avast! free running? Should I turn off Defender’s real-time protection and its auto scan?
As always, thanks for the help!
Pam
Once you install Avast Free Edition on your new purchased Dell computer, Avast will automatically disable Windows Defender. Avast is a whole lot better than Windows Defender. Windows Defender has less protection.
I would check and be sure Windows Defender is disabled.
See http://www.howtogeek.com/173291/goodbye-microsoft-security-essentials-microsoft-now-recommends-you-use-a-third-party-antivirus/
I run Windows Defender, on Win 7 it is not an antivirus (it’s anti spyware and other unwanted programs) and will run quite happily alongside Avast
It’s highly recommended to disable Windows Defender on account of conflicts.
Besides why use an inferior product when avast has your back.
Please read the link I provided above. 
Windows Defender (an anti-spyware) running in real-time should not conflict with avast! AV, at least on Windows operating systems prior to Win 8.
In Windows 8, Microsoft re-badged its antivirus (Microsoft Security Essentials) as “Windows Defender”, which is confusing. With Win 8 you would not want to run Windows Defender AV in real-time alongside of avast! But with Win 7, both can run in real-time. Likewise, the Windows Defender auto-scan is safe to run in Win 7 and should not conflict with avast.
Your link is to MSE which is a different product to Windows Defender on Win 7, please provide a link to where it is “highly recommended” to disable Defender on Windows 7 when running Avast! I have upgraded or re-installed Avast on several occasions since I ran Beta 3 and never has it disabled Defender.
Once I downloaded avast! Free, it definitely did not disable Windows Defender (Windows 7). I disabled the Windows Defender real-time protection and the auto scan myself until I found out if it was okay to run both that and avast free.
It does seem to be anti-spyware as opposed to anti-virus.
From Microsoft’s website: “Applies to Window 7. Windows Defender is your first line of defense against spyware and other unwanted software.”
I don’t normally put 100 percent trust in Wikipedia, but…“Windows Defender, formerly known as Microsoft AntiSpyware, is a software product that helps combat malware. Windows Defender was initially an antispyware program; it is included with Windows Vista and Windows 7 and is available as a free download for Windows XP and Windows Server 2003. In Windows 8, however, it is upgraded to an antivirus program.”
With the varying opinions, still wondering.
(In case anybody wonders…my signature on these posts shows Windows XP because that’s what I’m using on my current computer. The Win7 is the new computer.)
Hello PAM, I am using the latest Avast! Free on Vista Home Premium and my wife has it on Windows 7 Home Premium. Windows Defender also running on both computers with no problems. exakta
No need to keep wondering, Pam.
The info and opinions offered by Para-Noid and Staticguy do not apply to your Win 7 system.
It’s basically the same thing…different name.
WD has been known to cause conflicts.
Again why use junk when you have avast? ???
See http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/t/260844/two-anti-virus/#entry1441638
You are so wrong. WD has been known to cause conflict and false positives while running avast.
The user is always better off “not” using Windows Defender since it is useless.
Well, it has very low detection rates. It uses the MSE defs and Microsoft even admit it’s better to use a third party antivirus. You can keep it running if you wish, however, theirs a slight risk of a conflict with Avast (possible low level drivers) and Avast detects spyware too. In my opinion, it’s useless and you should use Malwarebytes free instead and do weekly/monthly scans as you wish.
Yes, Malwarebytes, even the free version, is better than Windows Defender for Windows 7.
Well, I guess I’ve been told off!
Para-Noid says “WD has been known to cause conflicts.” I’ve used it for years on XP and Win 7 with no conflicts with a variety of AVs, including avast!
As for his characterization of WD as “junk”, I disagree. His link to “bleeping computer” only emphasizes the problems when one uses 2 AVs in real-time, and does not apply to the question here, and does not support his opinion.
Para-Noid says “You are so wrong. WD has been known to cause conflict and false positives while running avast.” Once again I have to ask, are we talking about the same operating system here? With Win 8, I might agree. With Win 7, I would not.
Para-Noid says “Windows Defender … is useless.” I disagree, and challenge him to support this with any documentation other than his own opinion. See:
http://naut.homestead.com/files/Free/castner.html
Para-Noid is wrong on this one. It is perfectly fine to use the Windows Defender that is with Win7. Since Win 8 is using a different program renamed to Windows Defender it would be wise to disable WD if running Win 8. But it is perfectly fine to leave the old WD that is used with Win 7 along with Avast. I have been doing it for years with no problems.
Oh hello Pam J. I misread your 1st post. Since you’re running Windows XP, you install Windows Defender, and install Avast Free Edition. Avast Free Edition won’t automatically disable Windows Defender. It won’t cause conflicts between WD and Avast Free Edition, but from my past experience when I had Windows XP and I had AVG with Windows Defender enabled. WD is totally useless and caused many problems with it i.e. not detecting the malware that AVG detected, slow downs, and etc.
Nevertheless, it’s all about the user and what they wish they want to do with having Windows Defender enabled and using it. It’s all about the user and his/her discretion.
From personal and previous experience. It’s best to uninstall Windows Defender, because it has poor detection rating, not enough protection tools and methods.
Yep, in 7 years of running the antispware version of Window Defender, I only saw one detection, which it quarantined. Malwarebytes Free, in that seven years, saw and detected hundreds of them. My jaw literally dropped to the floor when I saw the warning. Had to do a double-take to look at the warning box again as I did not even recognize it and did not know at first what it was.
The real-time protection of WD is poor because of that, and it also affected how fast certain programs would open when I initiated them.
Whoa! You must live dangerously, mchain.
I’ve used both MBAM Free (and Paid) and Windows Defender since their inception, and neither has detected a single thing over all those years. (I was an original beta tester of MBAM, and was given a free licence to MBAM as a result).
It is interesting how users’ experiences differ. While WD never gave me any trouble running in real-time, I was never able to use MBAM (paid) on my XP/sp3 system , because it always slowed down my system and browser to a crawl. I never did find the source of this conflict. Even with all other real-time protection programs disabled, I could not get MBAM Pro to work in real-time without serious slowdowns.
I have been impressed with how WD always detected systen changes I made over the years.
I continue to use both WD and MBAM in real-time on my Win 7 systems, without problems.
Nope. I do some malware research to help all of us here w/avast! detections. You’ll not see such as I do not need to publish what I do.
WD will not even detect what Malwarebytes does even if you look for the stuff in there. It’s not designed to.