MS Defender versus Spyware Blaster

Friends, I've been on a campaign to lean down my Win XP Pro to conserve memory for fun things like internet content and DVD's!! Anyway, I"m wondering if MS Windows Defender, which utilizes quite a bit of RAM in the background, is any better than a passive defense i.e. SpywareBlaster?

What do you guys think?

Is there another alternative that is Lean/Mean ??

z

 

Free Tools

* Comodo BOClean Anti-Malware - provides free realtime protection too. Supports all version of Windows!
* Microsoft Windows Defender - (only supports Win XP/2003) also not highly recommended
* SpyWare Guard - was quite useful at one time but now is very out of date
* Spyware Terminator (Without Web Security Guard)

After the fact scanning tools

* AVG Anti-Spyware - Free version if you don't purchase after the trial period
* SpyBot-Search & Destroy (Use the Immunize feature. I don't activate the TeaTimer which does provide realtime protection but has been problematic.)
* SUPERAntiSpyware - free version has no realtime protection but provides a useful scanner. See the below link for a comparison of the free and paid version
o http://www.superantispyware.com/superantispywarefreevspro.html

Non-realtime protection no scanner

* SpyWare Blaster Install it, click Download Latest Protection Updates, Check for Updates, and then Enable All Protection, then exit. SpywareBlaster is not a malware scanner or removal tool and uses no system resources except a little disk space. It does a great job of preventing malware from being installed in the first place! It blocks the popular spyware ActiveX controls, and also prevents the installation of any of them from malicious websites.

What do we recommend ?

* one realtime blocking tool from the list
* Spybot - installed as recommended using SDhelper and Immunize
* SpywareBlaster with all protection enabled.


http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=44525

 

buck & halo
good tips. I guess maybe I'll drop Defender for now and try the other realtimer suggested.

The only tools I use these days [I have thinnned down] are MS Defender, AVAST with its realtime mail etc guards [its a bit of a hog also but works excellently], all the guards "Up" in IE7, and Ad-aware for the occasional cleanup. I do use Ccleaner routinely to clear out the closets but I have not used it as a guide to negating unneeded startups: I did that pretty much the manual way, turning off services that are non-essential. I also cleaup the registry about once a month.... no more than that.

at some time in the past, I used spybot with its realtime tools but it caused trouble. its been awhile so I don't recall the particulars, I just couldn't allow it to continue at that point.

I am curious, however, at the comment downrating MS Defender. What weaknesses hath it? I have put it on a number of machines I had to clean up [i do some consulting] but if its undependable I will change that.

z

 

Microsoft's Windows Defender is the latest re-incarnation of the excellent Giant Antispyware product that Microsoft purchased late in 2004. Based on my tests, Windows Defender is not as effective as its immediate predecessor but still has solid protective capability. I tested it on several drive-by download sites and its multiple real time monitors provided reasonable (though by no means watertight) defense. It appears to be a little vulnerable to polymorphic malware in particular and for this reason I suggest it should be used in combination with regular on-demand scans from the free AVG Anti-Spyware. My other reservation about Windows Defender is that it consumes quite a lot of your processing power. If you have a modern PC this should not be a problem but older machines will definitely suffer a performance hit.

from (item 3):
http://www.techsupportalert.com/best_46_free_utilities.htm