With regard to turning off S Mode do the pros outweigh the cons?

Definitely

Can you elaborate?

Can you?

Microsoft would say switching out of S mode is going to have some negative impact.

Doing so will affect your boot time (but probably not by much so that's not really a concern), but more importantly it will decrease your battery life, although how much of a concern that is depends on how restricted you feel by S mode.

Also, once you swtich out, you can't go back.

If it was me, switching out of S mode would be the first thing I do, being restricted to not using any 3rd party software would simply not be an option.

AsylumUtopia said:

Microsoft would say switching out of S mode is going to have some negative impact.

Doing so will affect your boot time (but probably not by much so that's not really a concern), but more importantly it will decrease your battery life, although how much of a concern that is depends on how restricted you feel by S mode.

Also, once you swtich out, you can't go back.

If it was me, switching out of S mode would be the first thing I do, being restricted to not using any 3rd party software would simply not be an option.

Thank you. My main problem is that I cannot sync with my iPod when in S mode. From what I've read, the pros outweigh the cons, in my case. One article did mention that it can count against you if you have a low-end laptop which I don't think I have. Finally, if I do turn off S mode, will I still have Windows Defender? If not, will Avast work just as well?

rap said:

AsylumUtopia said:

Microsoft would say switching out of S mode is going to have some negative impact.

Doing so will affect your boot time (but probably not by much so that's not really a concern), but more importantly it will decrease your battery life, although how much of a concern that is depends on how restricted you feel by S mode.

Also, once you swtich out, you can't go back.

If it was me, switching out of S mode would be the first thing I do, being restricted to not using any 3rd party software would simply not be an option.

Thank you. My main problem is that I cannot sync with my iPod when in S mode. From what I've read, the pros outweigh the cons, in my case. One article did mention that it can count against you if you have a low-end laptop which I don't think I have. Finally, if I do turn off S mode, will I still have Windows Defender? If not, will Avast work just as well?

Yes, you will still have Windows Defender. The primary function of S mode is to prevent installation of 3rd party apps, it doesn't affect much else (and what Microsoft say about battery life really only applies to lower spec laptops / tablets).

The S stands for Security, so aside from preventing installation of 3rd party apps and shutting down some background services - which will be started up again anyway by anything that needs to use them - it doesn't really do much that will be of any great advantage to you.

As far as Avast is concerned, I haven't used the recent versions, but I did use it for a number of years, and never had any problems, so based on past experience I would say it is most likely as good as if not better than WinDef (although Microsoft's offerings have traditionally not been as good as other available secuurity software, WinDef is bloody good at doing what it's supposed to do, so a little bit or research and reading of other people's experience with recent versions of Avast compared to WinDef would probably be a good idea if you're thinking of switching to it).

AsylumUtopia said:

rap said:

Thank you. My main problem is that I cannot sync with my iPod when in S mode. From what I've read, the pros outweigh the cons, in my case. One article did mention that it can count against you if you have a low-end laptop which I don't think I have. Finally, if I do turn off S mode, will I still have Windows Defender? If not, will Avast work just as well?

Yes, you will still have Windows Defender. The primary function of S mode is to prevent installation of 3rd party apps, it doesn't affect much else (and what Microsoft say about battery life really only applies to lower spec laptops / tablets).

The S stands for Security, so aside from preventing installation of 3rd party apps and shutting down some background services - which will be started up again anyway by anything that needs to use them - it doesn't really do much that will be of any great advantage to you.

As far as Avast is concerned, I haven't used the recent versions, but I did use it for a number of years, and never had any problems, so based on past experience I would say it is most likely as good as if not better than WinDef (although Microsoft's offerings have traditionally not been as good as other available secuurity software, WinDef is bloody good at doing what it's supposed to do, so a little bit or research and reading of other people's experience with recent versions of Avast compared to WinDef would probably be a good idea if you're thinking of switching to it).

Many thanks. I have used the free version of Avast previously, so I will probably go with that again.