Window Defender's latest update is causing slowdowns on Win7

[phaolo]

Hello,

since the latest Window Defender update, all my programs are taking various seconds to start (only the first time for each session or for a while).

If I disable the Real Time protection, the system works normally again.

I don't see any weird usage in the various performance monitors, though.

Does anyone else have this problem? I wonder how I could fix this..

Edited March 17, 2021 by phaolo

[mshultz]

I have not noticed this.  Windows 7 x64 is slower to start up and respond than Windows XP x64 was.  Also, Office 2003 seems to be slower to respond than Office XP was when I used Windows XP x64.  Windows XP x64 was considerably faster to respond than Windows XP, and much more stable.

 

[Vistapocalypse]

On 3/16/2021 at 5:14 PM, phaolo said:

since the latest Window Defender update, all my programs are taking [longer?] to start....If I disable the Real Time protection, the system works normally again.

Do you also have an antivirus installed? If so, then I would recommend keeping the old Windows Defender antispyware turned off. If not, then I would suggest installing Microsoft Security Essentials (which would turn off Defender because it’s better).

[WalksInSilence]

In Windows 7 Defender is only an anti-spyware tool. As Vistapocalypse suggests MSE gives a PC far better and wider AV/AM protection.

[phaolo]

Ah, I thought MSE was an obsolete program. And.. are you sure that WD is just an antispyware? O_o
Anyway ok, if the situation doesn't improve with a future update, I'll give MSE a try.
 

[WalksInSilence]

3 hours ago, phaolo said:

Ah, I thought MSE was an obsolete program. And.. are you sure that WD is just an antispyware? O_o
Anyway ok, if the situation doesn't improve with a future update, I'll give MSE a try.
 

https://www.microsoft.com/security/blog/2013/11/14/windows-defender-and-microsoft-security-essentials-which-one-do-i-need/

[Vistapocalypse]

15 hours ago, phaolo said:

I thought MSE was an obsolete program...

I can’t argue with that: the MSE client hasn’t been upgraded since 2016. On the other hand, the old antispyware  version of Defender is something that Win7 inherited from Vista, and is definitely not equivalent to Defender on Win10 or even 8.1.

You have not said whether or not any third-party antivirus program (all of which still support Win7) is installed. I thought your issue might have been a conflict with another real-time security product. Running two or more real-time solutions simultaneously has been known to cause slowdowns, false positives, etc.

[phaolo]

2016.. ugh. What about virus definitions, though?

And no, I haven't installed other antivirus programs since ages. The last one was AVG I think, before it became bloated, annoying and spyware.

I tend to use Virustotal online nowadays, even if some local real time protection would be nice.. I thought I was ok with Defender XD

[mshultz]

For Windows 7, you should use Microsoft Security Essentials, not Windows Defender.  Microsoft is still providing definition updates for MSE on Windows 7.  I just had MSE install today's update as I was typing this response.

 

[Vistapocalypse]

10 hours ago, phaolo said:

What about virus definitions, though? And no, I haven't installed other antivirus programs since ages. The last one was AVG...

Microsoft has said that definition updates will continue until 2023:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/what-is-microsoft-security-essentials-c25ad47a-7d15-8072-1438-b07dffcbbb20

I wonder if you used AVG’s removal tool? If not, then it could be that the darn thing is still running, and you might not be able to install MSE or any other AV. Have you reinstalled Win7 after you stopped using AVG?