When comparing Windows Defender vs Ad-Aware Free Antivirus+, the Slant community recommends Windows Defender for most people. In the question“What are the best free anti-viruses for Windows?” Windows Defender is ranked 1st while Ad-Aware Free Antivirus+ is ranked 8th.
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro No Ads
Pro 100% Detection Rate (according to AV-Test)
As of March 2021, Defender has been scoring perfect 6 in AV-Test ratings in all 3 categories for almost a year. The last time it scored a non-perfect score was in April 2020 which was a long time ago.
Pro Part of Windows
Pro Lightweight
Pro Easy to use
Ad Aware Free Antivirus+ has a clean, well designed user interface that's easy to use for anyone. It features a game mode, so that you're not disturbed by any kind of notification or not have your computer's performance weighed down by background scans while gaming.
Pro Real-time protection
This is one of the few good free antivirus solutions that offer real-time protection, stopping malicious processes on your computer at any given time. Ad-Aware Free Antivirus+ also scans downloads for malware.
Pro Solid spyware and virus detection rates
Ad-Aware is a well known veteran in battle against adware and spyware and today still counts as a solid piece of security software on that matter. For virus protection, it gets similar scores as the most trusted paid antivirus solutions without having many false positives.
Cons
Con It doesn't even get anything
Con Harder to set exceptions and restore for false positives
Defender and its options isn't as accessible as other av programs.