Windows Defender: The other new icon in the system tray is Windows Defender. This is possibly the single most irritating software in the entire OS. The reason is that it pops a question for everything. Even if you are running a bundled Microsoft application, such as Display Properties from the Control Panel. The thing will keep irritating you with constant alerts, and questions about whether or not you want to allow the application to run. The problem actually is not so much due to the fact that it asks a question for everything. The problem is that it will ask you a question every time you run the application, which can get hugely bugging. Since this entire OS is in pre-Beta, Microsoft will get away with the benefit of doubt here, but they definitely need to fix this. Note that Windows Defender is over and above the Security Center, which is simply a window controlling all your security software.

Windows defender is the latest tool added to the internal Windows arsenal. It's a pretty neat piece of software, which keeps monitoring your system as well as programs to ensure that no program does any unwanted activities. If you have ever used Norton Internet Security software, you will know that there is a trusted list of programs. Windows Defender adopts the same methodology. The only problem is that since it's still in Beta, you cannot add anything to the trusted list. Perhaps it will start working in the next version, since the current version just nags unendingly.

Clicking on the Tools button in Defender will take you to a screen with multiple options. If you go to General Settings, you can customize Scheduled Scanning, the Default Actions, various real time protection options and of course, you can turn it off altogether.

There is also an "allowed list" which you can view and edit. Presently, you can just remove items from it, since no "add" button has been provided, the entire application becomes redundant. It would perhaps be in a more working state in the next CTP. Everyone seems to be going the community way to get help and Microsoft has caught onto that for sure. It has bundled in a page where you can sign up for the SpyNet community. The function is that when you choose your reactions to software that Defender doesn’t recognize, that information gets communicated to the SpyNet community, thereby making Windows Defender better equipped to understand various programs. It's a great feature except that there's no way to know how SpyNet will figure out if a cracker/hacker keeps allowing a virus to run on his system, so that when he distributes it, Windows Defender community obviously knows the program as "allowed"? This could be a bit far-fetched, but so far, we’ve not seen anything that tells us otherwise.