But if you feel your system is slow, try switching to a different antivirus or use Windows Defender. If you’re happy with the AV you pay for, that’s cool. I have been using Windows Defender for about 2 and a half years since ditching Kaspersky Free Antivirus, so I can’t tell if other antivirus programs can offer the lightweight, no frills experience that Defender provides. This sort of marketing aids in drawing non-tech-savvy buyers. Add to that the fact they promote these antivirus suites can fix your computer and make them faster, and display some random stats/graph in a dashboard that can be fixed by using these premium products. These features were added for one reason, to trick users into believing their computer will be insecure without said protection options, to create a false sense of security, if you will. None of these are required to protect the system from malware threat. These AVs added stuff like registry cleaner, internet booster, driver updater, system tuner, VPN, browser cleaner, browser extensions, file recovery software, news feeds, password manager, etc. So, what did these antivirus companies do? They became bloated, they offered more features. Microsoft have set the bar so high, I think other antivirus software can’t compete with Defender. Windows Defender is included in Windows by default, and is completely free to use, which means they have a market share right out of the box on new computers and fresh installs. What the company needed to focus on was the scanning and detection capabilities, and I believe they have done a great job.

Microsoft can integrate its antivirus into its operating system, and optimize it better than third-party programs can. Q: Is Microsoft driving other developers out of the market?

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