Microsoft introduced automatic installations of the new version of the program malware removal tool and security dashboard Microsoft Defender ON windows devices with active personal Microsoft365 (M365) subscriptions.
Documentation (opens in a new tab) for the new Microsoft Defender (via Windows latest (opens in a new tab)) confirms that M365 subscribers are being used as guinea pigs, stating that other users can expect a change in March 2023, even though they need an M365 subscription to use the service.
But if for some reason you really can’t wait to install the latest update to a largely ineffective security app, you can download it right now from the Microsoft Store via official website (opens in a new tab).
New Microsoft Defender
While the latest Microsoft Defender is not yet available to business users, due to the bizarre requirement to sign in to the app with a Microsoft account and work accounts not yet supported, they probably don’t miss much.
Microsoft Defender itself does very little, acting more as a system security review. On computerWindows Security actually does most of your day-to-day protection, such as detecting files and running periodic system scans.
Even then, TechRadar Pro strongly recommends investing in an alternative, more reliable business antivirus software solution. Microsoft Defender at least makes sense to disable itself if it detects a third-party antivirus offering installed on your system.
For everyone else who insists on staying with Microsoft’s default offering, note that even avoiding Windows 11 at the time of writing the current version of the operating system is not enough, as one Windows Latest commenter wrote that the new Microsoft Defender was installed on their Windows 10 device.