The video's argument, turned into a job list. Keep Defender as the engine, then close every door around it - most items take minutes, all are free, and together they are worth more than any antivirus swap.
Work through this list top to bottom on one PC and you will have done more for its real security than any single purchase could. The order is deliberate: first make sure the engine you have is actually on and untampered, then close the gaps engines cannot cover - accounts, updates, phishing, backups. Tick each item off; the whole routine takes about an evening, and most of it is set-and-forget afterwards.
Open Windows Security, then Virus & threat protection, then Manage settings. Confirm three switches: Real-time protection On, Cloud-delivered protection On, Tamper Protection On. Then open Exclusions on the same screen and empty it unless every entry is one you added deliberately and can justify. Run one full scan to set a clean baseline. Technicians can record the engine's own report with Get-MpComputerStatus in PowerShell. This step exists because the commonest Defender failure is not weakness - it is a setting somebody changed and forgot.
In Windows Security, open Ransomware protection and turn on Controlled Folder Access. It blocks untrusted programs from changing files in your Documents, Pictures and other protected folders - the exact folders ransomware encrypts first. Spend the first week allowing the few legitimate programs it blocks, one by one, by name. It is off by default, which is why so few PCs benefit from it. Honest warning: it does not make backups optional; it is a guard on the folder, and the backup below is the insurance if anything ever slips past every guard.
Create a separate administrator account with a strong password, then set your daily account to Standard user in Settings, under Accounts. From now on, anything that wants real power - including anything malicious riding along - must ask for that admin password, and the prompt itself becomes your warning system. Then turn on automatic updates for Windows and your browser and main programs, and check the blunt fact: if the PC still runs Windows 10, it is out of support since October 2025 and no checklist fixes that - plan the move to a supported system as the real step 5.
Turn on multi-factor authentication for your email first - email resets every other password, so it is the master key - then your bank and main accounts. Save the backup codes somewhere offline. If you reuse passwords anywhere (be honest), a password manager - the one in your browser is an acceptable start - ends that habit, and it has the side benefit of refusing to autofill on fake look-alike pages. Phishing bypasses antivirus entirely; this step is the lock on the door it actually uses.
Set up the backup: your important files copied to an external drive or cloud store, plus one copy that is normally disconnected. Then do the part everyone skips - restore three files from it, tonight, to prove it works. Schedule the habit (weekly for most homes) and re-test the restore twice a year. With steps 1 to 6 done and this one tested, your PC has an engine that tests at the top, settings that cannot be quietly switched off, accounts that limit damage, passwords that survive being stolen, and files that survive everything. That is what 'not relying on Defender alone' looks like when it is finished.
See the full argument on screen - what Defender covers, what it does not, and what to add around it.
▶️ Watch Full VideoAbout one evening for the first pass: fifteen minutes on Defender settings and exclusions, ten on Controlled Folder Access, fifteen on accounts, twenty on updates, half an hour on MFA for your main accounts, and the backup setup plus a three-file restore test. Afterwards it is a monthly glance and a twice-yearly restore test.
Yes, for the folders ransomware wants most - Documents and Pictures. It blocks unknown programs from changing those files, and the first week's allow-listing of your legitimate programs is a one-time cost. It does not replace a backup; it is one more guard in front of the files you would restore from that backup.
Then the checklist's honest centre is the operating system itself. Windows 10 left support in October 2025, so it receives no security patches and the update layer cannot be completed on it. Keep the other layers, avoid high-risk use on that machine, and plan its move to a supported system - that upgrade is a security purchase, not a cosmetic one.