Windows Defender opens an entire window just to tell you whether or not threats have been found, while most competitors simply issue a notification on your taskbar.įinally, I thought the Microsoft Defender offline scan was pretty cool, despite having some limitations. It worked well in my tests, but its interface is pretty clunky. Windows Defender’s custom scan lets you right-click suspected files and scan them with one click. When I tested Norton’s full scan, it completed in 40 minutes and found every malware sample. The full scan took over an hour to complete, which is around the industry standard scan time, but it didn’t find every malware sample on my device. Nonetheless, Windows Defender’s quick scan found and removed every malware sample I’d hidden in my critical system drives. The quick scan took about 5 minutes to scan my entire system, which is pretty good. However, it’s not as good as Bitdefender’s quick scan, which took less than a minute to scan my device. I tested each scan by downloading an archive containing 1,000s of malware samples and hiding them on my Windows 11 PC.

Microsoft Defender offline scan - Scans your computer for hidden malware such as rootkits without starting your operating system.

Custom scan - Scans selected files and folders for malware.

Full scan - Scans your entire computer for malware threats.

Quick scan - Scans for malware in critical system folders.

The malware scanner includes 4 types of malware scans: It uses a massive malware database, machine learning, and heuristic analysis to detect new and emerging malware threats, including trojans, worms, cryptojackers, and rootkits. Windows Defender includes a pretty good malware scanner.

Windows Defender Security Features Malware Scanner Again, Norton can do everything Windows Defender can, but it adds a password manager, VPN, dark web monitoring, system optimization tools, identity theft protection for US users, and much more.

It’s the best premium antivirus in 2023, and while it doesn’t offer a free plan, it includes a 60-day money-back guarantee. It can do everything Windows Defender can, but it also includes a performance optimizer, password manager, secure browser, and more. If you want a free antivirus with more features than Windows Defender, you should try Avira Free Security instead. Windows Defender provides all of the fundamental security features to protect you in 2023, but it lacks many worthwhile extras like a VPN and identity theft protection.

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