Vince, LOL
hats off to you good Sir :)

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A huge diatribe of a comment may have yet to reach you, short version and tbh all that's now relevant - although the recomendations for bloatware removal and OS tweak tools remain strong.

begain (ish) :-
"may I recommend, 100% FREE, NO ADS, NO NONSENSE utilities should you wish to remain with MicroSofts Defender et el, to seek out such utilities as Defender Control v2.1 & Firewall App Blocker (Fab) v1.9 - at Sordum."

I have removed the then & now incomplete link but either the size or it's inclusion in the comment flagged it for moderator approval..... google will know where or duck duck go or :)

Hopefully 26H2 out this September/October incremental addresses issues 99.99999999%r of users are rightfully complaining about thanks to this imposed migration to an inferior, slow, buggy, blue screening mess of an OS but I have little faith, so little I have a thumbdrive loaded with Ventoy ready to reinstall Win 10 & dual boot alongside Nobaru (maybe Mint aswell) nix distro(S). (Mint an instal and leave variant, Nobaru a tinkerers sold distro. Both creator & gaming suitable.

sorry hard not to rant on this topic but...

I genuinally hadn't seen a beachball in years, (XP days as I WAS an OS9.0 - OSX user until my last, thankfully, 24" iMac purchase (their first flat screen variant. htough I still own long retired Apple Pismo laptop (the Framework precursor when Apple were worth their claims), 1st gen mac mini & the very last in the line of bubble iMac, an iMac SE Graphite (worth more than I paid for it brand new, only needs a CR2320 motherboard battery to run.). Uncharacteristically :) I digress.

As said, no beachballs until win11 AND I've debloated it using WINHANCE (did use Chris Titus's Tool on a secondary Win 11 instal, yet to compare due to a holiday but back now...
Both removed the unrequested junk, but can't polish a turd.

I shan't go on. (Hooray he shouts)

Good Luck on the Win 11 quest microbrains have assigned us.

Vince, LOL..... Yes, maybe someone will explain that!

Daniel Pieniak, - That's easy!

Do you write programs? Play games?

Testing programs you wrote (or one friends wrote) all too often leads to arguments with defender over untrusted authors, etc. can't ever tell it to ALWAYS trust this author, especially when there is no certificate because it's a beta and that just doesn't happen.

gaming communities have subgroups that like to "Mod" games but applying the patches they create uses the same tools hackers use (it is technically hacking the game) but despite being legal and most often sanctioned or endorsed by the game's creators, defender gives people a hard time.

This tool is easier that manually disabling it for these moments. (and others)

Hope that helps!

Vince, other anti virus exists - some are easier and have better ui than microsofts but if you are a hnads off kind of pc user then micrososfts defender is perfectly adequate BUT if it were to quarantine a file or program that you know is safe but defender doesn't due to false positives or being over zealous then... good luck getting it back, it's possible, sometimes but MUCh easier with utilities that are user friendly.

I wouldn't, for a second claim microsofts defender to be user friendly, reliable, yes, for now but has gotten less accessable since win7. Win 10 was ok but now.... i doubt we'll be seeing2things" getting better for those who wish to tinker under the hood of their (not microsofts) operating system set up.

Thankfully linux exists. Mint or Nobaru (Mint for those who wish it to just work, Nubaro for those who like a solid os but like to "tinker". Both great os's for gamers and creatives a like. (I digress).

TL;DR - Microsofts Defender is good, for most users, BUT independant, dedicated [paid for] anti-virus softwares are better in many aspects though both achieve the same end goal of keeping your computer virus free. (as best they can.)

When an alternate Anit-Virus is installed IT takes the reigns and defender is "set aside" as having two anti virus apps you might think would be double the protection when in fact together they will cause issues.

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Hope that clarifies.

Vince, Daniel Pieniak - explanation for you. WinBlow$ Defender is a piece of sh!t, last 2 weeks emerges security alerts about 4 issues with WinBlow$ Defender that can be used to take control of your PC with windoze. Maybe some of you are Bill fanatical followers, but most of th1nking mankind does NOT belive micro$$ux marketing and does not like WinBlow$ Defender or even WinBlow$ 10 / WinBlow$ 11 dictatorship. Than If its no possible to instal Windows 7 on AM4 B550 or better PC - and you're forced to install bloatware 10/11 than you want to disable ATTACK vectors or even remove all micro$$$ux crap they put inside OS after Win 8 + Windows Phone marriage. I recommend O&O ShutUp10, and Win11Debloat with heavily edited Appslist to nuke more than 125+ "apps" needed by sheeple .

Vince, while you can debate how good/bad Defender is compared to 3rd party solutions, one thing they do that Defender cannot is allow the user to easily control them, turning individual features on/off. That's what XenArmor Windows Defender Manager Pro Basic Edition 2026 [Wow, long name] does, plus adds a few bonus features.

Why would you? One quick example, some apps, often free & open source, are known to trigger anti virus software -- they'll usually document that on their site explaining why. So you turn the AV software off, get the app squared away, add an AV exception to the file(s) at their installed location, and turn the AV back on. Otherwise you might have to deal with finding whatever files in their quarantined location and try to convince the AV software to let you use it.

David Jaynes, you can tell windows defender to ignore an entire folder hierarchy where you build your games or programs to, you can also disable cloud delivered protection to avoid unwanted scaremongers opinion on developers tools, admittedly periodically windows defender tries to suggest there is a security risk in not accepting cloud delivered protection no mater how many times you dismiss the warning ... a few months later the alert pops up again... No need to delve into PowerShell or rent 3rd party programs that override windows tamper protections like malware does.
You don't have to disable windows defender to allow exceptions in known locations.
TK

TK, true, but in my experience windows updates reset that sort of thing and yo have to do it all over again.

I do not trust windows with a lot of aspects of the internet and use many tools to block things and protect myself. I don't even like their operating system, but too many of the programs I need are exclusive to them - so it's a necessary evil.

David Jaynes, I can assure you that all the settings I have mentioned have so far survived years of Microsoft updates, I do not trust Microsoft so I do check and use different firewall GUI and policies to reveal when new executables including those signed by Microsoft require network access... and block them if I feel appropriate.
TK

PSA : TL;DR = remain ignorant.

Vince, may I recommend, 100% FREE, NO ADS, NO NONSENSE utilities should you wish to remain with MicroSofts Defender et el, and suggest you seek out such utilities as "Defender Control v2.1" & "Firewall App Blocker (Fab) v1.9" - at Sordum[dot]org as a bare minimum.

(No affiliation or anything to gain; in fact, I lost over an hour writing this... they are just worth (non religiously) proselytizing, unlike ... nvm.)

As with ALL their offerings, 100% FREE, NO ADS, NO MALEWARE, NO NONSENSE just practicle tools, of which those above enable easy addition & removal of apps you wish to be "ignored" or targeted, saved or temporarily - no microsft obfuscation.
Equally I'd suggest "W.U.B." - Windows Update Blocker.
Why block updates? 24H2 is as far as I go for now, subsequent updates have broken numerous paid for apps & a set up that has taken a decade to tweak rolling over from Win 7 through Win 10 to be blindly trashed by Win 11's enforcement requiring weeks of workarounds, fixes & alts to appear similar yet with a side salad of poor performance, blue screens & good old buggy crap & a healthy dollop of unrequested, warranted additions & removals with the obvious end goal of taking 1 page out of apples think differently, closed minded, closed ecosystem/infrastructure to in time, rinse us of cash being locked into their form of apples
Thus, I recommend holding off on updating until at least Win11 incremental 26H2 slated for release september/october this year (2026).

Although I have little faith it will be the Windows fix so desperately needed (for both user and microsoft brain alike).
So little I already have a thumbdrive poised with Nobaro nix distro & Win 10 to dual boot instead of bothering with this Win11 mess.
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Returning to topic,.
After witnessing the plethora of utilities made accessibly plausible * + **
I defy anyone to not consider at least 10 of sordums utilities (I can't, around 25+ thus far in regular use, as sordum are consistently updating & evolving those tools that require it, yet many are perfectly adequate to the point of having earnt the term (near) perfect :P ).

*Simply put the tools are merely settings with a UI, avoiding the maze of arbitrary obfuscation b0ll0x microsoft has forced upon us making it impractical for busy people or those who understandably don't wish to or don't work in the field, with hands in the air submittance, ignore going under the hood of THEIR own (not microsofts) barely-Operating System.

**These tools make so many options available with an easy to understand UI, a web page explaining & showing EXACTLY how you could do the same with in Windows (if you're that masochistic) should you have a spare hour+ PER TOOL (combo of research & implementation) to navigate said maze of obfuscatary dross, thus sordum offering an intuitive method from basic tasks as changing your drives allocation/letter to folder icon colouring & icon replacement, saving your icon desktop layouts (yes multiple layouts), restarting explorer or restarting the start menu (for what use it is now) avoiding a full restart, having additional, extremely Easy contextual menu additions (SendTo) to many more in-depth tasks made accessible to all.
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I genuinely wish sordum would charge for their tools - better yet create a similar all encompassing updater for those wishing to donate and remain up to date.
Having installed or ran portably, around 30 of their utilities I'd happily pay to click an update button for the privilege of avoiding regular update checks. (I must request this feature, they deseve some form of monetary encouragement).
Similar to UniGetUI (a tool that monitors 99% of your instals and updates on YOUR say, not microsofts etc).
2 more recommendations (or 7 depending on how you see it) :
"Winaero",
"ClassicExplorer",
"WinSetView",
"StartIsBack"
& a superior alternative to explorer :-
"Everything"
ALL 100% free, no ads, no nonsense.
+ 1 paid for but has a free option
"Snip-Do" (ex "Pantherbar" whose name indicates its origin being one of many pages from Apple's OS which Microsoft would do well & should just stfu and adopt, saving us so much unecessary headaches.)

Lastly - WINDOWS BLOAT removal.

Chris titus's Tool OR (not both) WINHANCe by a you tuber nd channel name "Memory" available on github so legitatmate and safe.

Removing Copilot, AI, Edge, Internet Explorer and more
(all choice related, you may wish to keep notepad (I do I also use Notepad++) or remove paint (although why when paint.net exists etc etc.

All to free up unecessary pc cycles, ram clog, boot detours and such.
With the aim or returning speeds seen in a debloated Win 10, but, of course, you can't polish a turd.

------------------
I could easily add more but I doubt ANYONE read even half this comment. C'est la vie.

Apolgies for the length of this - luckily GOTD gaveaway a text to mp3 creator recently :) as finding it in Win 11 is of course a ..... easy to find (hahahaha) "built-in accessibility feature"

So accessible I had to search the exact path...

"Text-to-Speech (TTS) in Windows 11 is a built-in accessibility feature that converts written text into spoken audio, accessible via Settings > Accessibility > Speech for global voice and speed adjustments, or through the Narrator screen reader (activated with Win + Ctrl + Enter) for reading entire screens."

We all knew that, its so obviously visible.... (smh)


Good Luck with your Win 11 quest.

Darren.

typo time : "NOBARA" NOT nobaro

David Jaynes, may I recommend you use "Windows Update Blocker v1.8" - see sordum org
or
a huge comment below :)

mkl_6te_net,
"Chris Titus's Tool" or Memory's "Winhance" equally an option and have a you tuber channel providing regular support, streams for those of an inquoiring nature, git hub hosted for assurance and equally importantly user friendly and accessible for those with limited time or interest in looking under the hood.

Thnakfully there's always more than 1 way to skin a cr4p OS, and choices are a wondeful thing.

Peter Henderson, I wonder if it's GOTD effect, as I can't currently open their homepage.

Peter Henderson, It requires you to allow outside powershell scripts to run, a Big NO NO if you want to keep safe, so a BIG Pass for me. Won't go into the settings for it here; but you want to keep tighter restrictions, and not allow this to be installed.

Rick Duncan, XenArmor.com opens fine.

Rick Duncan, likely.
A temp means to enable the giveaway without changing their own registration methods that may open their system up giving free access to bad actors post giveaway.

Peter Henderson, Not knowing your set up, I'd be making many suggestions and likely still not be correct, I recommend you simply use your comment itself, edited to be a question & then copy pasted asking for a work around/fix into google/duck duck go or whatever search engine you use.

edit.

Their site opened fine for me though. Maybe temporary due to heavy traffic.