As usual MS has created a utility that does its job and does it Very Good. I am a True Beleiver in MS and have been for 30yrs. Since the pc was an 8086. Microsoft has the best help and support, just be an MS user and a Loyal customer.
Windows Defender on Windows 8 is useful for freshly installed systems. It has very little hardware requirements and scans quite quickly. It is non intrusive and definition updates are fairly regular.
My only gripe is the limited functionality it has with web browsers, there is no toolbar or plugin for 3rd party web browsers, it's detection ratio is not the best compared to other Anti Virus systems according to AV-Test's comparison Q4 2013.
I have since changed to Avira Free, which is also free but has a better detection ratio of malware.
Tried to update WD Ver. 1.1.1600 on vista PC to latest Ver 6.1.7600. MS did not allow installation because Vista was "already loaded with WD". Why is it listed by SoftwareInformer as needing to be installed to make it up to date.
My only gripe is the limited functionality it has with web browsers, there is no toolbar or plugin for 3rd party web browsers, it's detection ratio is not the best compared to other Anti Virus systems according to AV-Test's comparison Q4 2013.
I have since changed to Avira Free, which is also free but has a better detection ratio of malware.