BitDefender remorse

[88V8]

On multiple recommendations from Computer Which in recent editions, I removed MS Essentials, and installed the Free edition of BitDefender.
Hmmmph.

The Protection Shield, whatever that is, won't turn on.
I can't control when the updates happen so it periodically slows the computer to a crawl.

And when I went to the website seeking assistance, oh dear, a Live Chat that clearly isn't, and an obstacle course before one can send an email query.

Must say, MSE felt much more friendly..

Is it just me?

V8

[Slarti]

BitDefender used to be good but a few updates ago they basically destroyed its usability.

Therefore, after looking at things recommended in threads here, I dumped it and went to MSE, which seems to work just fine, to me.

Slarti

[88V8]

Which derate MSE because they say it's ineffective. I have no way of judging. It's never detected anything in seven years, but perhaps there's been nothing for it to detect.
They also pour cold water on Malwarebytes. That at least did pop up now and again and tell me it had prevented some disaster.

BitDefender is 389mb. Around 16% of my total installed programmes. I do have the impression that it has slowed things down.

V8

[didds]

BitDefender is 389mb. Around 16% of my total installed programmes. I do have the impression that it has slowed things down.

Is that disk space - or memory use?

disk space usage shouldn't slow your sstyem down unless you are operating at very high 90%s full - maybe...

didds

[88V8]

It's the size of the programme that shows up in Task Manager. I have a total of 2.14gb installed programmes, of which BitDefender is 389mb.
Perhaps this is what's sometimes known as 'bloatware'.

V8

[Slarti]

Which derate MSE because they say it's ineffective. I have no way of judging. It's never detected anything in seven years, but perhaps there's been nothing for it to detect.

https://www.av-test.org/en/antivirus/home-windows/ Isn't showing MSE as Top at the moment, but that isn't because if failed to detect things.

I can't remember why it was, but I fell out with Which? as far as computing went, quite some years ago.
Whatever it was they were talking rubbish, probably saying Macs were worth the extra money and that there was nothing that you'd want to run that wouldn't run on them, which was just plain wrong at the time.

Slarti

[Howard]

Which derate MSE because they say it's ineffective. I have no way of judging. It's never detected anything in seven years, but perhaps there's been nothing for it to detect.
They also pour cold water on Malwarebytes. That at least did pop up now and again and tell me it had prevented some disaster.

BitDefender is 389mb. Around 16% of my total installed programmes. I do have the impression that it has slowed things down.

V8

Are you sure you are quoting "Which" correctly. In December 2018 they said:

Which? verdict
Windows Defender is now a real contender rating 73%

Pros: Decent protection including ransomware, built into Windows 10 so nothing to download, tune-up and back-up tools, simple to use

Cons: Struggles with phishing attacks, limited help or support options

Which seems a pretty fair review to me.

Why clutter your computer with something which only scored a fraction higher in their tests?

regards

Howard

[Infrasonic]

Why clutter your computer with something which only scored a fraction higher in their tests?

Exactly.
If you have an SSD boot drive MSE/WD background scans become invisible effectively (and inaudible )

Another W10 machine I look after has paid for Norton and every time it does anything like updates/scans there are system slowdowns, but the owner refuses to let it go and have WD as the default, so hum ho...

[JonE]

If you have an SSD boot drive MSE/WD background scans become invisible effectively

It may well be as good as any and better than most but my experience doesn't confirm your assertion as I most certainly notice the Antimalware Service Executable slowing down my access to some programs (yes, on the SSD).

Enough of an annoyance that I briefly tried to find a way to turn it off completely but Win10Home (which I've only fairly recently encountered) apparently knows best and, seemingly, will only allow temporary deactivation. At some point soon I'll get gpedit activated (as suggested elsewhere) and hope that gets the job done.

Cheers!

[88V8]

I'm not looking forward to W10.
A year away, so they say.
They also say I'll 'need' a new PC. Good racket, this.

I prefer the abacus of W7.

V8

[Breelander]

I'm not looking forward to W10.
A year away, so they say.

Technically W10 is now quite mature at three and a half years old. What is coming on January 14, 2020 is end of support for Windows 7 (so no more security updates after that date).
https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/hel ... fact-sheet

...They also say I'll 'need' a new PC. Good racket, this.

Are the 'they' you talk of PC salesfolk by any chance? In my experience Windows 10 is very good at running on older hardware. 1GB RAM is the minimum requirement for 32-bit W10, but it will run much better in 2GB. For 64-bit the minimum is 2GB, but for practical purpose 4GB is enough.

My lowest spec machine is my 'travelling/holiday' laptop, a little Netbook with a 1.6 Ghz 2nd Gen Intel Atom and 2GB RAM, but it runs 32-bit W10 1809 at least as well, if not better, than it ran the original Windows 7 Starter it came with. Is your machine a higher spec than mine? If so, you should have no problems. I have one of these: https://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-Ac ... 534.0.html

I prefer the abacus of W7.

I went from W7 to W10 back in 2015. It took about a week to get over the novelty and feel as much at home as I did in W7. I still have at least one machine on W7, so I'm used to using both. I see a lot more similarities than differences, TBH.

So if you fancy trying it out after all, then make a system image of your current machine to an external HDD with Macrium Reflect Free. Then you could download the Media Creation Tool from Microsoft, use it to make the install USB, then from within W7 run the Setup.exe you'll find on the usb to start the upgrade. Despite what you may have heard to the contrary, you will still get a digital licence from Microsoft and an activated W10 that way.

And if, after all that, you still prefer W7, then you have 10 days in which you can roll back to your previous Windows, or the Macrium image that can be restored any time you want.

[Infrasonic]

If you have an SSD boot drive MSE/WD background scans become invisible effectively

It may well be as good as any and better than most but my experience doesn't confirm your assertion as I most certainly notice the Antimalware Service Executable slowing down my access to some programs (yes, on the SSD).

Enough of an annoyance that I briefly tried to find a way to turn it off completely but Win10Home (which I've only fairly recently encountered) apparently knows best and, seemingly, will only allow temporary deactivation. At some point soon I'll get gpedit activated (as suggested elsewhere) and hope that gets the job done.

Cheers!

If you want to control updates et al just switch it to metered.
W10 Security Updates will still download but not install until you give permission, Feature Updates and others are all under user control for download and install. WD updates won't download or install, but I think the WD engine updates will (although again it's never been an issue for me).
Additionally it cuts down on other network traffic related to W10 apps and telemetry, so if you are getting slowdowns it may well help.

[JonE]

If you want to control updates et al just switch it to metered.

I'd seen that enough times here that it was probably the very first twiddle I applied when installing Win10 - but why is that relevant? We were talking about the background scans being effectively 'invisible' (or, as far as I'm concerned, not).

Cheers!

[Infrasonic]

If you want to control updates et al just switch it to metered.

I'd seen that enough times here that it was probably the very first twiddle I applied when installing Win10 - but why is that relevant? We were talking about the background scans being effectively 'invisible' (or, as far as I'm concerned, not).

Cheers!

Additionally it cuts down on other network traffic related to W10 apps and telemetry, so if you are getting slowdowns it may well help

I've done it as an A/B on several W10 machines (metered on/off), different specs, SSD/HDD, multiboot et al. It helps on all of them.
It's entirely up to you if you want to take it on board or not, I couldn't care less.

[JonE]

If you want to control updates et al just switch it to metered.

I'd seen that enough times here that it was probably the very first twiddle I applied when installing Win10 - but why is that relevant? We were talking about the background scans being effectively 'invisible' (or, as far as I'm concerned, not).

Cheers!

Additionally it cuts down on other network traffic related to W10 apps and telemetry, so if you are getting slowdowns it may well help

I've done it as an A/B on several W10 machines (metered on/off), different specs, SSD/HDD, multiboot et al. It helps on all of them.
It's entirely up to you if you want to take it on board or not, I couldn't care less.

Some sort of communication breakdown, it seems. I thought you were suggesting that I tell Win10 that I have a metered connection and this would prevent WD slowing down my access to programs - but I already had Win10 set to metered (and had choked other telemetry where I can) and I can watch the antimalware executable kick-in in Task Manager when I try to launch a program.

Cheers!

[88V8]

In my experience Windows 10 is very good at running on older hardware. 1GB RAM is the minimum requirement for 32-bit W10, but it will run much better in 2GB. For 64-bit the minimum is 2GB, but for practical purpose 4GB is enough.

I have a 2.7GHz Pentium and 2GB. Running 64-bit W7 Pro. Perhaps it would be OK then. I don't ask it to do anything very demanding.

I went from W7 to W10 back in 2015. It took about a week to get over the novelty and feel as much at home as I did in W7.

Ahhh, but you're a boffin. I picture you as Brains in Thunderbirds.
I'm more akin to Fred in the Flintstones.

V8

[Howard]

In my experience Windows 10 is very good at running on older hardware. 1GB RAM is the minimum requirement for 32-bit W10, but it will run much better in 2GB. For 64-bit the minimum is 2GB, but for practical purpose 4GB is enough.

I have a 2.7GHz Pentium and 2GB. Running 64-bit W7 Pro. Perhaps it would be OK then. I don't ask it to do anything very demanding.

I went from W7 to W10 back in 2015. It took about a week to get over the novelty and feel as much at home as I did in W7.

Ahhh, but you're a boffin. I picture you as Brains in Thunderbirds.
I'm more akin to Fred in the Flintstones.

V8

Why do you mess about with strange antivirus programmes then? Surely just accept W10 and its security like millions of others?

[Breelander]

.... I picture you as Brains in Thunderbirds.

99% of the time I use my laptop for browsing the web and posting on this (and other) sites, just like everyone else. It's only the other 1% of the time that I do 'demanding' stuff

I have a 2.7GHz Pentium and 2GB. Running 64-bit W7 Pro. Perhaps it would be OK then. I don't ask it to do anything very demanding.

That narrows it down a bit, I can only find four Pentiums that ran at 2.7Ghz, all of them for desktops. Three of them are in this table:

https://www.cpubenchmark.net/compare/In ... 2350vs1109

For comparison, my main workhorse is a laptop with a Pentium B950 @ 2.1Ghz. This table compares it to the slowest of the Pentiums from the previous table which had a CPU benchmark of 1598. At 1715 mine is hardly any faster, but it runs 64-bit W10 quite fast enough for most of my needs. It was upgraded from its original W7 which, if anything, felt a bit slower in use.

https://www.cpubenchmark.net/compare/In ... 1099vs1094

It does have 4GB RAM though, which helps. But it's easy enough to upgrade a desktop's ram, so that shouldn't put you off. Your 2GB should be fine as long as you don't try doing too many things at the same time. I'd avoid using Chrome and opening dozens of tabs - that's reputed to need a lot of memory and would exercise your swapfile (but that applies equally to using Chrome in W7).

As I said before, the very first thing you should do is make a system image of your current machine to an external HDD with Macrium Reflect Free. The second thing would be to make the Macrium bootable recovery usb. Armed with those you can put your machine back to exactly how it was when you made the system image.

In fact, if you take nothing else from this post at least look at making a system image. It's your insurance policy should your hard drive die on you. You can replace the drive, restore the image and carry on as if nothing had happened.

[88V8]

...if you take nothing else from this post at least look at making a system image. It's your insurance policy should your hard drive die on you. You can replace the drive, restore the image and carry on as if nothing had happened.

Thankyou.

It did die, seven years ago. I use Norton Ghost and an external HDD as backup, run only for weekly backup then switched off, but transferring to the new PC was a right pain.

The Pentium is a G630, so middling.

Yes, no more W7 support as from Jan 2020. That will be my cue for some urgent procrastination.

V8

[Slarti]

I have a 2.7GHz Pentium and 2GB. Running 64-bit W7 Pro. Perhaps it would be OK then. I don't ask it to do anything very demanding

With Windows 7 you also need Microsoft Security Essentials https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/downloa ... px?id=5201
It is an easy download and, after you've removed your existing AV software, install.

Seems to work OK

Slarti