Most users will download, install and run Windows Defender and let it do what it does – protect your system from malware. But there is a little know, but very useful tool, that comes with Windows Defender called Software Explorer.

Software Explorer is a pretty powerful tool that lets you monitor

  • whats running on your system
  • networked connected software
  • winsock connected software
  • what will be running at startup

I know that a lot of applications do this but this one

  • groups software by developer
  • offers more information
  • tells whether it was shipped with the operating system
  • and how (on startup applications) it was started

This is worth checking out.

Check out these posts too:

  1. Better late than never with the Windows Defender release
  2. Windows Defender out of beta
  3. Make applications run on Windows startup
  4. Common reason for a slow running computer
  5. Did you have a problem installing Windows Defender?
  6. Free Windows System Explorer
  7. MyComputer – Part II: What's Running