Fast, light and powerful free protection. Both the 32- and 64-bit versions, excluding Starter and RT editions. It is almost as bad as confusion between Office Outlook and the new replacing Hotmail. In fact, its a good idea to augment Windows Defender with a good third-party antivirus program, and Avast is a good one. All you need is a PC with Windows 10, 8.1, 8 or 7, 1 GB RAM and 2 GB of hard disk space. Windows Defender also checks for new definitions (files that are used to determine if software is spyware) and automatically removes any detected item that has a recommended removal action. When Windows Defender is on, you're notified when spyware or other potentially unwanted software tries to install itself or run on your computer. Or you clicked a suspicious link online or in an email message.Īnd this is for Windows Defender in Vista and Windows 7: However, you can use it anytime to scan for malware if your computer isn’t working properly Windows Defender runs in the background and notifies you when you need to take specific action. In Windows 8, Windows Defender replaces Microsoft Security Essentials.
Here are the links explaing the difference:
It is a pity Microsoft still kept the name Windows Defender for use in Windows 8 it does cause a lot of confusion.
