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2,070 Posts
Simple up front answer ......... yes, the inbuilt Firewall and AV that come with Windows 10 & 11 are adequate protection for most people's use.
Please do not confuse the current programs Microsoft pre-installs, with earlier programs of a similar name, the current ones are much more developed and much more effective, and of course since they were developed alongside their host OS, they are much less likely to cause conflicts.
Of course no defensive program will protect you 100%, and the weakest link in your computer's defences are not which programs it has installed to protect it from infection, it's the browsing habits of the person using it, so if you really want to be more secure, then the best thing you can do, is to educate yourself about the threats you're likely to come across when you're online, and if necessary adjust your browsing habits so you don't fall foul of them.
I've been helping people remove malware from their machines (on this and other forums) since 2004, and in that time I've worked on machines with every possible combination of protection programs you can imagine, which kind of proves my point, because the common factor with pretty much all the machines I've worked on, is that it was the User's browsing habits that got them into trouble, and that irrespective of what protection you have installed, if you just go around clicking on everything, without regard, then sooner or later you will get infected.
Please do not confuse the current programs Microsoft pre-installs, with earlier programs of a similar name, the current ones are much more developed and much more effective, and of course since they were developed alongside their host OS, they are much less likely to cause conflicts.
Of course no defensive program will protect you 100%, and the weakest link in your computer's defences are not which programs it has installed to protect it from infection, it's the browsing habits of the person using it, so if you really want to be more secure, then the best thing you can do, is to educate yourself about the threats you're likely to come across when you're online, and if necessary adjust your browsing habits so you don't fall foul of them.
I've been helping people remove malware from their machines (on this and other forums) since 2004, and in that time I've worked on machines with every possible combination of protection programs you can imagine, which kind of proves my point, because the common factor with pretty much all the machines I've worked on, is that it was the User's browsing habits that got them into trouble, and that irrespective of what protection you have installed, if you just go around clicking on everything, without regard, then sooner or later you will get infected.
