Microsoft Defender Antivirus: All you need to know about Windows’ inbuilt antivirus software

Different kinds of viruses and malware can affect your laptops and desktops in different ways. While some may cause it to lag, others may bring up annoying pop-ups every few seconds, making it nearly impossible for you to work. Others still, may even steal sensitive files and data stored on your device. They can enter your system in several ways – through an infected pen drive or external hard drive, infected files from pirated apps, or even via phishing emails.

Protecting your system against them though, is fortunately not rocket science. All you need is a good antivirus program installed and enabled, and you’re all set. Third-party antivirus software such as McAfee and Kaspersky, there’s no denying then, are essentials for our laptops and desktops today, to keep them protected from viruses and malware at all times.

However, most of their real-time protection features are behind a paywall, and hence may not be preferable for everyone. Well luckily, Windows systems come with their own free-of-cost in-built antivirus program – namely, Windows Defender. Or as it came to be called with the rollout of Windows 10 version 1703 – Microsoft Defender Antivirus. Here’s everything you need to know about it.

What is Microsoft Defender Antivirus, and what does it do?

Microsoft Defender Antivirus is the company’s in-built antivirus software for Windows-powered desktops and laptops. The software, like any other antivirus program, offers real-time protection for your system against malware, viruses, spyware, as well as phishing attacks. However, unlike the latter, Microsoft Defender Antivirus comes pre-installed on your systems and is activated by default.

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What’s more, it is also free of cost and suffices for most everyday use cases. What’s cool is, it does so in the background without consuming excessive resources, which may happen in the case of other antivirus programs. That’s not all. It can also automatically download and install system and security updates to ensure it can identify and combat any threats which may crop up, over time.

Microsoft Defender Antivirus vs Microsoft Defender

While Windows Defender Antivirus is included with Windows 10 and Windows 11 free of cost, Microsoft also has a separate, paid antivirus tool in the form of Microsoft Defender, which is included with the Microsoft 365 subscription. These two are not to be confused.

Microsoft Defender offers antivirus and anti-phishing protection for up to five devices at a time, identity theft monitoring for over 60 different forms of personal data, VPN access, and up to 6TB of cloud storage, depending on which plan you choose. There is also advanced file and photo protection on OneDrive, as well as Outlook.

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For home use, Microsoft Defender is available in two plans – Microsoft 365 personal and Microsoft 365 family, priced at Rs 489 and Rs 619 per month, respectively. However, there are also Enterprise plans for business users.

Can Microsoft Defender Antivirus be turned off?

As mentioned earlier, Microsoft Defender Antivirus is enabled on your systems by default. Now you can turn it off as well. However, it is generally not recommended to do so as it leaves your PC vulnerable to security threats. Hence, you should consider doing so only under certain circumstances such as installing another antivirus software, in case of any software conflicts, wherein it mistakenly flags legitimate software as a threat, while performing resource-intensive tasks such as gaming, and so on. Having said that, it is generally a good idea to turn it back on, right after you’re done.