You won’t be able to escape Microsoft Defender on Windows soon
And it’s all because of Microsoft 365
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Microsofthas rolled out automatic installs of the new version ofmalware removal tooland security dashboardMicrosoft DefenderonWindowsdevices with active personalMicrosoft 365(M365) subscriptions.
Documentationfor the new Microsoft Defender (viaWindows Latest) confirms that M365 subscribers will be the first to see the changes, with other users set to see the new policy in March 2023.
But if, for some reason, you really can’t wait to install the latest refresh of a largely ineffective security app, you can grab it right now from the Microsoft Store via theofficial website.
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The new Microsoft Defender
Available to M365 Personal or M365 Family users, Microsoft Defender itself does very little, acting more as an overview of a system’s security.
On aPC, it’s actually Windows Security carrying out most of the actual day-to-day security protection like detecting files and performing periodic system scans.
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Microsoft Defender at least has the sense to disable itself if it detects a third-partyantivirusoffering installed on the system.
For everyone else who insists on staying with Microsoft’s default offering, note that even avoidingWindows 11, at time of writing the current version of theoperating system, won’t be enough, as one commenter on Windows Latest wrote that the new Microsoft Defender installed itself on theirWindows 10device.
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Luke Hughes holds the role of Staff Writer at TechRadar Pro, producing news, features and deals content across topics ranging from computing to cloud services, cybersecurity, data privacy and business software.
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