Is Defender 'growing up'?

[Jim Wood]

For months after I first installed Defender, it was difficult to tell if it
was even running. Automatic updates to the Defender database were few and
far between; in fact, it was necessary to go to the Defender Website to get
updates. Now Defender seems to update itself with new definitions every
couple of days, making me wonder if it is just now catching up with threats
that actually were there the whole time.

A full, deep scan with Defender never turns up anything untoward, but then
neither does my default antivirus, AVG or Microsoft's Live One Care.
Nonetheless, a 'free trial scan' by some of the other third-party suppliers
of search-and-removal tools seem always to find a nefarious file or two,
although never the same ones. Is it possible that these malware-removal-tool
suppliers "salt the mine" with obscure and innocuous files, only to then find
them and offer a $olution to exorcise them?

 

[Bert Hyman]

In

Nonetheless, a 'free trial scan' by some of the other third-party
suppliers of search-and-removal tools seem always to find a nefarious
file or two, although never the same ones. Is it possible that these
malware-removal-tool suppliers "salt the mine" with obscure and
innocuous files, only to then find them and offer a $olution to
exorcise them?

Well, some of them seem to think that every cookie is a threat and that
Word's list of recently opened files is an invitation to disaster.

 

[Tim Clark]

Just to clarify,

Defender has been updating thru AU twice a week since just about it's
inception.
Originally it was Tuesdays and Thursdays, of late it has been Mondays and
Thursdays, and it's been pretty regular about it.

Tim