A really good all-in-one antivirus/malware/threat product
October 01, 2019

A really good all-in-one antivirus/malware/threat product

Anonymous | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with Windows Defender Advanced Threat Protection (Hexadite AIRS)

This is the main threat protection software being used all across the University. It is used to monitor threats/viruses/malware, etc. that occur on users machines. It is pre-configured on all computers that connect to the network. This ensures that users don't really need to worry about installing threat protection software on their individual computers, or worry about configuring settings.

It address the business problem of helping to protect every computer that connects to the network, or that connects to the domain. All policies/settings get pushed down to the clients that are installed on the individual machines. There doesn't need to be user interaction to get this done

Pros

  • It is great at proactively monitoring threats across the network. It works seamlessly with the client to monitor individual user computers, and it has a good real-time scanning engine.
  • On the client side, Windows Defender doesn't require a whole lot of system resources to run, nor will it create unnessary slowdowns of a computer, even while scanning for threats

Cons

  • We've noticed one issue with the SmartScreen filter settings on the client and trying to install programs. If the Administrator sets the setting to Block on the server side, then this might interfere with some programs trying to get installed on the client side. Microsoft should look into this issue, and maybe offer more sub-settings for the Block option
  • Noticed that Windows Defender will occassionally do a system scan on a client during business hours, even though on the server side, scans are set for the middle of the night. This does not occur on all endpoints, or at all times, but tends to be random
  • A positive impact has been to increase productivity for IT staff, as it saves them time from having to install/configure clients on every endpoint.
  • Another positive impact has been on the user/client side, as it helps the user to increase their productivity with working on their computer, as the Windows Defender client uses little resources to run on the system, and has a tendecy to not slowdown systems
As compared to some of the other products we have used in our organization over the years, Windows Defender has been a lot better at not using a lot of system resources when running on the clients. A lot of other commercial threat protection products on the market today, tend to use more system resources while running on a client, and can even slowdown users computers to the point that it would be hard for them to utilize for other things, especially while system scans are running.

Antivirus/malware detection rates have improved a lot over the years with Windows Defender. It used to be they fell behind in detection rates, but not so anymore. The big thing that must be approved upon is the detection of false positives, which other products may have an edge over them in this regard
Overall support is really good for this product. Since it's a Microsoft product, you will get good support from a number of different resources, including knowledgebase articles on the web, support from Microsoft technicians, and documentation (which tends to very thorough). Also, there is a vast user support community for this product, so user support forums would also be another valuable channel to get help if needed. I don't envision too many people will have issues/problems with the product, as it tends to run good overall.

Do you think Microsoft Defender for Endpoint delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with Microsoft Defender for Endpoint's feature set?

Yes

Did Microsoft Defender for Endpoint live up to sales and marketing promises?

Yes

Did implementation of Microsoft Defender for Endpoint go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy Microsoft Defender for Endpoint again?

Yes

Microsoft Office 365, Qualys Cloud Platform (formerly Qualysguard), Skype for Business (formerly Lync), Microsoft Teams, Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager, OneDrive, Oracle VM VirtualBox, RescueAssist, Windows Server, Microsoft Project, WordPress, Freshdesk, BMC Track-It!
It would be well suited in an environment where most all your endpoints are Windows-based computers, as Windows Defender is already built into the operating system, so there is no client to have to worry about installing. It also will make the management of endpoints easier on the server side, if most all machines are Windows-based.

It might be less of ideal solution if a company/organization were looking for something more robust, or had a lot more features/configuration settings. It also might be less ideal for a company/organization that was looking for a product that didn't have a high detection rate of false positives

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