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Dear CNET members,

Happy Friday! Before I start this week's topic, I like to apologize to all of you for last week's discussion topic over "Are today's hard drives simply just junk?" It was a great topic that got a lot people talking. However, the discussion quickly got out of hand and became inundated with members posting their e-mail addresses in the thread requesting the enterprise white papers from member Rabear2010. This is my fault; I should've kept a closer eye on it. Since then I have done my best to clean up the discussion, where I removed/edited 100+ posts with people e-mail addresses and also updated member Rabear2010's original post to include the link to the Enterprise-class versus Desktop-class hard drives PDF. I also added a link to his follow-up post. With the discussion cleaned up, I hope it will make your reading of the discussion a bit easier.

In addition to this, I also want to point out that for many of you it was the first time posting in our forums (which is fantastic). And along with that I want to suggest a tip for posting in our forum or any public online space: it's never a good idea to post your e-mail address or any personal information online. It is for your safety and I'm sure no one here needs more junk mail in their inboxes. Again, I apologize for this.

Now on to this week's topic from member Norman: Is Microsoft Defender good enough to protect my Windows 8 computer?

First a quick note to avoid any confusion between Microsoft Security Essential and Windows Defender. Microsoft's Web site notes that "In Windows 8 and Windows RT, Windows Defender provides the same level of protection against malware as Microsoft Security Essentials. You can't use Microsoft Security Essentials with Windows 8 or Windows RT, but you don't need to -- Windows Defender is already included and ready to go." So essentially (no pun intended), Defender is what they are calling it in Windows 8 and is a replacement for MSE.

With many folks out there moving on to Windows 8, you can bet this will be a popular question. By default Windows 8 comes bundled with Microsoft Defender, but is it good enough protection? Well, from reading the answers provided by your fellow members, there really is no verdict yet. Many say they swear by it, giving it the thumbs up, whereas others say they prefer other security apps, and some think it just not good enough. However, regardless of which wins the debate, I would have to say that having something to protect your PC is better than having nothing. And when it boils down to choosing a security application to protect your system, regardless of which company makes it, there is not one security utility that is 100 percent foolproof no matter how high it is rated. And as member waytron pointed out in his reply, to decrease your chances of getting infected altogether, the best protection is a combination of using a trustworthy security app along with your own due diligence, not visiting certain sites, carelessly clicking on links, opening e-mails without thinking, and so on. I have to agree; check out his checklist.

With that said, please give all your fellow members' answers a read, and if you are currently using Windows 8 along with Defender, please share your experience with us! Thanks for your time. Happy safe surfing!

Lee Koo
Community manager

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