I do have ample personal experience - when government web server was randomly dropping from 2k req/s to 2 req/s we disabled defender and from there we had continuous 2k req/s. You should do your homework :) I am glad when people hint me good info. Personal machine runs NixOS for 90% tasks + Windows dual boot for games without connecting to network because I can't be bothered with disabling Smartscreen and defender every other week.

This is a work machine so I can't control most of Windows behavior. As trusted as it can get, short of compiling myself. Needless to say, my PC runs faster, calmer and is actually malware free because I don't run unauditable things like Smartscreen on it.Įdit: I get WinMerge binary from GitHub repo, and KDiff3 from official website. Naturally I have disabled Smartscreen and Windows defender and admin rights alerts and bajilion things that internet gurus will tell me not to because I don't know what's good for me.

Yes, the binaries can contain malware, but the first principles tell me that trustability score is inverse of what is being reported by MS. Naturally I trust both of them more than so called SmartScreen because unlike Smartscreen, I can inspect their code.

Well, the 'Smart' screen says that WinMerge and KDiff3 are malwares.

Spiceworks decrapifier