Mastering Microsoft 365 Defender

5

Getting Started with Microsoft Defender Antivirus for Windows

Onboarding devices into Microsoft Defender for Endpoint (MDE), as you achieved in the last chapter, is only half the battle. Don’t accept the defaults is advice to live by in IT security, so in this and the next three chapters, you will learn how to configure many of MDE’s Windows security capabilities and good practices to follow.

At the heart of MDE’s protective capabilities on Windows 10/11 and Windows Server 2012 R2 or later is Microsoft Defender Antivirus (MDAV). MDAV is available out of the box for Windows 10/11, including for consumers without MDE. However, devices onboarded to MDE and managed in the enterprise context get additional capabilities. On Windows Server, you’ll ...