Windows 10 Will Protect You

Uhm, not really. One of the issues with buying a new Windows PC can be the bloatware. PCs are partly subsidized by software put on them when they are produced by the manufacturer. This is a common, and annoying practice. I was with a friend buying a computer at Office Depot a few years ago and he paid for the option to have a third party access the computer and remove the bloatware. Not something I recommend particularly, the third party thing, not the bloatware removal.
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Over the course of owning your PC, it has a tendency to slow down. This is partly normal, but also partly not. Years of updates to all sorts of programs can bring years of apps being installed that you don’t want and likely didn’t even know were being loaded onto your computer. Even “reputable” companies participate in this practice, again, as partially subsidizing a product, free or not.

Obviously, there is also a lot of sneaky stuff inserted that you don’t necessarily know is being installed. So the good news is that Windows Defender has upgraded to a point where it will be blocking somw of these “Possibly Unwanted Programs” or PUPs, aka “Possibly Unwanted Applications” or PUAs.

I have a paid version of MalwareBytes that can help get rid of those, but a new Windows Update will be allowing Windows Defender to automatically block these. I’ve been on computers installing MalwareBytes and when I run it, it can find 20 or 30, but sometimes, it’s found THOUSANDS. You can imagine, that stuff running in the background can really slow a computer down.

One of my gripes about anti-virus programs is just how much they slow a computer down. I find that Windows Defender, which comes with Windows, does not slow a computer down nearly like Norton, Macafee, or many others. So I generally stick with Defender and MalwareBytes. There is an article to read HERE, about Windows Defender and the blocking of PUAs. It’s a bit of hyperbole in the title, but definitely worth the read.  Click to Read