Yes. It’s a combination of those factors for sure. There are just so many more constant disk hits from 8 and on, and a good deal of them are from Defender. I do

Yes. It’s a combination of those factors for sure. There are just so many more constant disk hits from 8 and on, and a good deal of them are from Defender. I do PC service and repair on the side and tossing in a cheap SSD makes most people happy because the drive being slammed was the only thing “wrong” with their computer. Thankfully we’re largely past that. That said, I rarely see malware on most of the machines I touch. I get more calls about automatically fullscreened browser windows with scare text and a phone number to call than any actual software problems. Defender does work well enough for any average person and I’m happy if only because the vast majority of AV software is sold in the most disgusting way. Just as bad as the malware scare tactics honestly.