I use Avast and MBAM. AdwCleaner from time time. I only have MBAM on my MacBook. Should I ditch Avast and use the inbuilt Windows Defender? Thing is, I don’t trust the inbuilt one enough to actually be effective. Will I get a performance gain doing this?
While MS did have a poor reputation years ago, these days Defender gets a 'Top Product' rating. In fact, Defender has identical scores to Avast in the latest (August) results.
Test antivirus software for Windows 10 - August 2018 | AV-TEST
Been toying with the idea of Ditching Avast myself here, been using it for last ohh 10-11 or more years, started using Avast in late 2005, been testing how i like Defender on a newer I7 based laptop, so far i don't mind it, though when i tried it on Desktop, had a weird thing where it said -7437 Threats found. switch swapped back to Avast on Desktop, but i might try Defender again soon.
Performance wise in gaming it seemed to work just as well as Avast, on Laptop runs perfectly fine
It's just a matter of taste these days, and what your comfortable with i feel
I've used nothing but Windows built-in antivirus for 9 years now - since Windows 7. Never had a virus. On some of my "click happy" family member computers there has been the occasional annoying pop-up window type malware, but those have been easily removed with a routing drive cleanup deleting temporary internet files. So it is only Windows Defender for me.
I've had no problems just using Defender plus offline scans with AdWCleaner & Malwarebytes Free
Really can't (or won't) tell you what to do here. But I dumped McAfee and then Norton and opted to stick with Windows Defender and Firewall with MBAM and AdwCleaner. I am a bit careful where I go on the internet and that's a factor here, but I've had no problems and see no reason to change my current protection here on this Desktop. G's a member of "click Happy" group mentioned by @NavyLCDR and this same system has kept her machine safe.
I used Avast for many years but switched to Windows Defender with Windows 10 a couple of years ago. Works just fine. Run MBAM and a few other scans from time to time. Never had a problem.
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