Windows 10: Coming to the dark side

Hi all,
Well it had to happen....I'm leaving the light of W7 and coming to the dark side....... W10
Got full of lunatic soup over the holidays and stupidly told my Grand-kid he could have my computer
So built another one and here I am....Glad to see a few of the whizz kids from W7 forum are here to help out :)
Gotta go now, reading up Shawn's tutorials and trying to make this system as near to W7 as possible
Couple of questions before I go, (first of many I suggest).
I've used Avast A/V for ages, is the W10 "Defender" up to scratch? I also use Malwarebytes, SuperAntiSpyware, Adwcleaner.
Also, I've used Ccleaner for a long time but the Tech who built this computer for me suggested I don't use it and says it "wrecks computers", has "brought him lots of work" etc etc. Any thoughts?

It is strongly recommended that you run only one antivirus program at a time. Having more than one antivirus program active in memory uses additional resources and can result in program conflicts and false virus alerts. If you choose to install more than one antivirus program on your computer, then only one of them should be active in memory at a time.


There is no universal "one size fits all" solution that works for everyone and there is no single best anti-virus. Every vendor's virus lab and program scanning engine is different. Each has has its own strengths and weaknesses and they often use a mix of technologies to detect and remove malware. In many cases choosing an anti-virus is a matter of personal preference and what works best on a particular system. You may need to experiment and find the one most suitable for your needs.


You can use CCleaner but don't use the registry cleaner feature of the CCleaner program. Registry cleaners are extremely powerful applications and their potential for harming your OS far outweighs any small potential for improving your computer's performance.

There are a number of them available and some are more safe than others. Keep in mind that no two registry cleaners work entirely the same way. Each vendor uses different criteria as to what constitutes a "bad" entry. One cleaner may find entries on your system that will not cause a problem when removed, another may not find the same entries, and still another may want to remove entries required for a program to work. Without research into what the registry entry selected for deletion is, a registry cleaner can end up being an automated method to cause problems with the registry.

For routine use by those not familiar with the registry, the benefits to your computer are negligible while the potential risks are great.

lffoar said:

I've used Avast A/V for ages, is the W10 "Defender" up to scratch?...
Also, I've used Ccleaner for a long time but the Tech who built this computer for me suggested I don't use it and says it "wrecks computers"...

FreeBooter said:

It is strongly recommended that you run only one antivirus program at a time....

You can use CCleaner but don't use the registry cleaner feature of the CCleaner program. Registry cleaners are extremely powerful applications and their potential for harming your OS far outweighs any small potential for improving your computer's performance...

I use CCleaner, but just as a convenient way to remove junk files. It's said to be one of the 'safer' registry cleaners, but I agree with FreeBooter - don't use that feature. There's no real evidence that 'cleaning' the registry has any effect on performance, so why risk it?

Windows Defender comes out in tests as being around the industry average. These are the latest test results, but note that these are for 1703's version 4.11, the Fall Creators Update has version 4.12 - yet to be tested.

https://www.av-test.org/en/antivirus...r-4.11-174047/

Defender's protection can be extended by turning on PUA (aka PUP) protection.

Enable or Disable Windows Defender PUA Protection in Windows 10

In the Fall Creators Update Defender get's 'Controlled Folder Access' which can protect your documents from being modified by malware. It's off by default because if you enable it you may well have to grant access to some of your existing apps.

Change Windows Defender Controlled Folder Access Settings - Windows 10

I use just Defender (with the above options turned on) plus an occasional scan with AdwCleaner (which finds nothing). Seems to do the job for me.

Thanks fellers,
I'm aware only one A/V should be used so I'll stick with Defender for a while....Avast was getting a bit clunky anyway.
Don't think I'll reinstall Ccleaner, it doesn't seem to have done any harm in the past but new system, new ways I 'spose
Have installed classic shell so it's starting to look a bit more familiar but more questions in my next post...like now.