Vista - Is Windows Defender Working?

I use the Vista Firewall plus AVG Free 8.0 together with Firefox 3.5 Browser with Adblock. I also carry out a periodic manual scan using AdAware Anniversary Edition free.

Vista comes with Windows Defender, but in the 2 years I have had Vista, whenever I have scanned with it, it always reports 'no unwanted or harmful software detected - your computer is running normally!' Very reassuring or what? Does this mean everything else is doing a really good job or could it mean that Windows Defender is really not much use?

Hi longbelly,
I am always very happy when any of my Security Progs report "no unwanted or harmful software detected etc"
Different people will have different opinions on the use of Defender, AVG & so on.
Suffice to say it is part of my security set up & will remain so.
Just in case you are not familiar with the Defender info, [which reads well] refer link below.
IMHO Defender has a lot of good points. It provides a layer of extra security for your computer. It also works well with AVG.
Let us know what you eventually decide to do about Defender.
Windows Defender: Home Page

Thank you for your comment, which I largely agree with. My only puzzle is that to my knowledge - unless Defender is keeping things secret! - it has never even caught an innocuous tracking cookie, even when I knew they were present on my PC and were subsequently picked up by AVG or AdAware.

I must agree with you longbelly, from all the years i have used vista, defender has not once reported a single nasty regardless of what my other stuff has or hasnt found, it may very well be a usless waist of space and time but i suppose i might surprise us all one day, again tho i have never heard of anyone's defender ever finding anything

If I applied the same logic viz 'Defender never finds anything - is it doing it's job?' to my other Security programs, I would have doubts about their usefulness too. Apart from one false positive I have not had any suspicious incident reported ever.
I trust myself absolutely as a first layer of defence - & my Security progs including Defender as a second layer.
Nothing is going to defend you against stupidity.