Microsoft has rolled out automatic installs of the new version of malware removal tool and security dashboard Microsoft Defender on Windows devices with active personal Microsoft 365 (M365) subscriptions.
Documentation (opens in new tab) for the new Microsoft Defender (via Windows Latest (opens in new tab)) 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 the official website (opens in new tab).
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 a PC, 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-party antivirus offering installed on the system.
For everyone else who insists on staying with Microsoft’s default offering, note that even avoiding Windows 11, at time of writing the current version of the operating system, won’t be enough, as one commenter on Windows Latest wrote that the new Microsoft Defender installed itself on their Windows 10 device.
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