My esteemed listmates,

Thank you Risa, Tim, Erich and Filipe!

This has been an eye opener.

If I may follow up as I get PM's from some others on the list
appreciative that I be the "Forrest Gump" on some issues as they are
reluctant to ask but want to know as well!

Risa.. you shared ... " Windows Defender has a poorer detection
success rate if you don't enable Cloud-based protection..."
<snip>

I'm not certain how to check on that? I clicked on that little shield
icon in the System Tray (taskbar on the bottom) and it opened a window
that doesn't state it was Microsoft Defender it just says Security so
I'm presuming that's the same thing? I have the following checkmarked
-

Virus & Threat Protection
Account Protection
Firewall and Network Protection
App & Browser
Device Security.

Is Firewall and Network Protection = your reference to "Cloud-based protection"?

My apologies for my ignorance!

Philipe - you shared ....https://www.virustotal.com/

So, before you install anything Including free fonts) you copy/paste
the url into https://www.virustotal.com/ to ascertain if there are any
issues? Or do you reserve that action just for executable files or
programs you're considering installing?

Thank you ofr sharing https://www.virustotal.com/ as I was unaware of that tool!

Erich and Tim... Thank you for sharing that prior post I was searching
for and I'm also appreciative of you clarifying the MS's protection by
it's correct name.

I, too, have experienced what all of you have shared re: AVs and
ant-badware. Avast keeps popping up trying to sell its pro version.
asking if I'd like to scan for the umpteenth time. It regularly
interferes with whatever task I'm doing.

If avast, AVG, Malwarebyyes, Bidfener really don't add any additional
protection then it just seems like they're trying to sell me
undercoating

Fear sells - we all know that.

Thank you all for your reasoned replies.

Charles.

Charlotte County Public Library