All modern versions of Windows will have Microsoft’s Defender antivirus/malware protection turned on by default. That means you incur a penalty every time a file is accessed from disk, or a process is launched, or a library loaded, or sockets are used or certain APIs are called.
It’s better than most 3rd party AV software but it’s still a performance overhead that could be turned off.
I mean… you can turn it off. I wouldn’t, but you can.
I just haven’t heard it referred to as “antivirus programs” in ages, it sounds so 20th century to me. Say what you will about MS’s monopolistic tendencies, but at least they killed the parasitic “antivirus” industry with that one.
I think Windows Defender is a fantastic line of defence and it’s definitely better than installing garbage from Trend, McAfee etc. That said, Lenovo, HP, MSI, Dell etc still preinstall crapware on their new machines from Norton or their ilk threatening that my machine is “at risk” if I don’t pay them money.
I wouldn’t turn it off unless I knew that I was only installing games from Steam. But if I did I think performance would improve. A game from Steam could still contain malware so you have to exercise some common sense. Even on SteamOS a game could be malicious but since its containerized the scope for damage is limited but not necessarily impossible to break out.
All modern versions of Windows will have Microsoft’s Defender antivirus/malware protection turned on by default. That means you incur a penalty every time a file is accessed from disk, or a process is launched, or a library loaded, or sockets are used or certain APIs are called.
It’s better than most 3rd party AV software but it’s still a performance overhead that could be turned off.
I mean… you can turn it off. I wouldn’t, but you can.
I just haven’t heard it referred to as “antivirus programs” in ages, it sounds so 20th century to me. Say what you will about MS’s monopolistic tendencies, but at least they killed the parasitic “antivirus” industry with that one.
I think Windows Defender is a fantastic line of defence and it’s definitely better than installing garbage from Trend, McAfee etc. That said, Lenovo, HP, MSI, Dell etc still preinstall crapware on their new machines from Norton or their ilk threatening that my machine is “at risk” if I don’t pay them money.
I wouldn’t turn it off unless I knew that I was only installing games from Steam. But if I did I think performance would improve. A game from Steam could still contain malware so you have to exercise some common sense. Even on SteamOS a game could be malicious but since its containerized the scope for damage is limited but not necessarily impossible to break out.