STbob

Cpj has some useful advise here. Those are all decent programs to keep your system clean. His suggestions are a better alternative to the topic which is about windows defender.

Please try to stay on topic. The topic is about windows defender.

I can lead a horse to water but I can't make it drink. I stayed on topic which was "is windows defender useless" I stayed within the bounds of the question. Keep running it if it makes you feel secure.

In my testing windows defender is almost useless. On 20 different windows machines over a period of years the logs have shown ZERO threats found. There have been threats some done on purpose. Its made of Swiss cheese. It sucks up resources and does nothing but give a user a false sense of security. Running notepad with the worlds "Anivirus" would be just as good. Turn it off as it only servers as another application that can slow down the computer or cause needed conflicts. Do not listen to these people that say "Its good, i never got a virus so it must be windows defender". These people should not even be posting that as its obvious they do not know what they are talking about.