Managing Defender Antivirus

• Organizations may want to consider replacing existing third-party antivirus or antimalware solutions with Windows Defender Antivirus (Defender AV).
• Defender AV benefits from Microsoft’s analysis of all Windows devices on the Internet.
• Large-scale Defender AV use requires central management and additional licensing.

Windows Defender Antivirus (Defender AV) is an endpoint antivirus and antimalware solution that comes included with all editions of Windows 10. Compared with third-party AV, Defender AV benefits from inclusion in Windows, through which it leverages Microsoft’s view of malware attacks that target all the Windows devices on the Internet, providing insights not available to other AV solutions. Organizations must add tools to centrally manage Defender AV, which may require additional licenses and cost. Although Defender AV provides protection for all editions of Windows 10, it is also a component of Microsoft Defender Advanced Threat Protection (ATP), which has tighter integration with the Windows 10 Enterprise E5 edition.