Forefront Antimalware Support Ends Soon

Many Forefront antimalware products have been discontinued, and support will end Dec. 31, 2015. Microsoft’s Forefront line included several products to protect Windows computers against malware. The rapidly approaching end of support leaves customers needing to seek alternate solutions for protecting Exchange, SharePoint, and Lync servers. Windows clients and servers can remain protected by System Center Endpoint Protection or Windows Defender.

Forefront Discontinued

Microsoft’s Forefront line protected against viruses, worms, Trojans, spam, adware, spyware, and other malware. Some products filtered e-mail and documents for inappropriate or dangerous content, while others provided firewall or access features for corporate networks. The products were generally intended for enterprise use and integrated with other Microsoft software for management and, in some cases, online services. (For example, online protection for e-mail can be used to drastically reduce spam entering an organization’s network.) Network edge products filtered traffic to ensure that sensitive documents did not leave the company or users did not visit malicious Web sites or download malware. Most Forefront products were sold on a subscription basis, since malware signature updates were provided frequently, and several licensing suites were available.