&gt;&gt; Installing an AV doesn&#x27;t automatically reduce your defenses. Only if you over-trust it.<p>Recent news might point otherwise and there&#x27;s a debate about it. Does an antivirus really protect you from a real threat? On the other hand, as you&#x27;re running extra software you&#x27;re increasing your attack surface, which makes you more vulnerable.<p>I&#x27;ve seen very clever people pointing to the latter and marketing efforts to make me believe the former. Still, haven&#x27;t made up my own opinion. In any case, I stick to just Windows Defender and EMET (<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;support.microsoft.com&#x2F;en-us&#x2F;kb&#x2F;2458544" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;support.microsoft.com&#x2F;en-us&#x2F;kb&#x2F;2458544</a>) to mitigate.