– Comes built-in with Windows 8 and 10, but includes a virus scanner. Can be used with Microsoft Security Essentials. – Comes built-in with Windows Vista and Windows 7 and only protects against spyware. So here’s the current state of Windows Defender: It might have made more sense to just keep the name Microsoft Security Essentials in Windows 8/10, but they decided to stay with the Windows Defender name, which causes some of the confusion. It also uses the same virus definitions and the user interface is pretty much exactly the same. It pretty much is the same scanner as the one in Microsoft Security Essentials and that is the reason why Microsoft does not allow you to install Security Essentials on Windows 8/10. In Windows 8 and Windows 10, Windows Defender was upgraded to be able to do virus scans also. Again, it won’t catch viruses, just spyware. You can use Windows Defender Offline to scan for viruses before the operating system boots up, which can greatly help your chances of removing a very sneaky piece of malware or spyware. Windows Defender Offline is basically exactly what the name suggests: an offline version of Windows Defender that you download and run off a CD, DVD or USB drive. Once installed, it would disable Windows Defender altogether. Microsoft Security Essentials could be downloaded to replace Windows Defender since it could catch spyware and scan for viruses. That’s why you always needed another separate anti-virus program in Windows 7 and earlier. The main thing to note about Windows Defender is that it only protects against spyware in Windows 7 and below. You can still download Windows Defender Offline, which is different than Windows Defender and I’ll explain more below. You could also download Windows Defender for Windows XP and Windows Server 2003, though it seems that now you can’t anymore. Windows Defender was originally known as Microsoft AntiSpyware and was eventually included with Windows Vista and Windows 7. Thankfully, things are clearer in Windows 10. No joke.In this article, I’ll explain the differences between the different anti-virus tools in Windows 7 and Windows 8 and where you can use each tool. So, if you’re a Microsoft 365 subscriber and you want something to keep an eye on your Mac, you could do worse than Microsoft Defender. Even when it was doing a full scan, it failed to break into the top five memory users. For comparison, top-of-the-list Dropbox is using 447MB. I’ve just checked the Mac Activity Monitor and it’s halfway down the list, nibbling on 60MB of RAM. It sits in the background and doesn’t consume significant resources. Oddly, you have to enter your macOS password to find out exactly what the malware is, but I think that’s a macOS restriction more than a Microsoft one.ĭefender is pretty lightweight, too. I ran a full scan on my MacBook Pro yesterday, and after 20 minutes of probing it found two Trojans (both in my email app) and offered to put them both in quarantine. If macOS’s own security tools don’t intervene first. But if you clicked on an attachment that was trying to install something nasty, Defender promises to get in the way. Defender doesn’t throw itself in front of the truck, begging you not to open or reply to the mail. There’s no active email scanning, for example, and I get plenty of malicious emails: fake delivery scams, offers from Saudi princes, spoof Amazon emails. It’s not a marketing prank, although you suspect there was a degree of sniggering in the Microsoft press office when this was released.ĭoes Microsoft Defender do its job? Well, it’s not the most proactive of security suites. Parents, for example, can open the Defender app on their phone and get a reassuring reminder that all of the family’s other computing devices are protected. Microsoft is positioning Defender as a security dashboard for all of your devices. It’s part of the company’s all-encompassing Microsoft 365 package, which includes the Office products and now Defender for PC, Mac, Android and even iOS. So now Microsoft Defender has landed on the Mac. Defender for Mac scans for viruses, but not a lot else Barry Collins
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