Microsoft Defender Antivirus
By Microsoft
The antivirus built into every copy of Windows: cloud-assisted malware prevention and exploit protection with no installation or extra cost. Consistently scores at or near the top of independent AV testing, and serves as the prevention layer under Microsoft Defender for Endpoint in business deployments.
Verified Source: 1
- Product type
- Software
- Deployment
- Agent
- Organization size
- IndividualSMB
- Pricing tier
- Free
Capability checklist
EPPHow Microsoft Defender Antivirus measures up against the full Endpoint Protection Platform taxonomy.
- Malware prevention — supported
- Blocks known and behaviorally suspicious malware before it can execute.
- Device control — not supported
- Restricts or monitors USB drives and other removable media.
- Application control / allowlisting — not supported
- Restricts which programs are permitted to run on a device.
- Exploit prevention — supported
- Blocks techniques attackers use to abuse legitimate software, not just known files.
- Disk encryption management — not supported
- Manages and reports on full-disk encryption status across devices.
- Centralized policy management — not supported
- Applies and audits security policy across the whole endpoint fleet from one console.
Alternatives
Other Endpoint Protection Platform tools with overlapping capabilities, sized for similar teams.
Appears in stacks
Real-world stacks that include Microsoft Defender Antivirus.