Microsoft develops software not only for its own Windows operating system, but also for other popular platforms, including Android and macOS. In the Microsoft Store preview of Defender, two of these systems are mentioned.
The Microsoft Store has a preview of Microsoft Defender listed as a Microsoft product. The description of the program says: “Security, simplified. Microsoft Defender is your personal protection against digital threats. Protect your devices on [various] operating systems, including Windows, macOS, and Android”. Windows Defender is an antivirus program for Windows PCs that has grown from a mediocre product to one of the best solutions on the market. And Microsoft seems to want to replicate its success on other platforms.
The Italian website Aggiornamenti Lumia has published promotional slides for Defender, which indicate that the program can be in use to scan files on Mac computers and Android mobile devices. The slides also show the “Web Protection” feature – it may indicate that the antivirus will also scan web pages and evaluate their safety.
Many Microsoft products and services are already available on multiple platforms: Android has Bing, Edge, Office, and Teams enterprise messenger. Office is also available for macOS. Therefore, it is possible that the proprietary antivirus will also become cross-platform.
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— Aggiornamenti Lumia (@ALumia_Italia) January 11, 2022
Microsoft Defender named among the best antivirus for Windows
Microsoft Defender, which ships with Windows 10 and Windows 11, was named one of the best antivirus products in October 2021. This comes in the test data of the independent organization AV-TEST, which compares and evaluates antivirus solutions.
As part of this work, the researchers tested 21 antiviruses, including Microsoft Defender, McAfee, Avira, Avast, AVG, and others. The stability of software solutions against various types of threats was the subject of tests, including malware that exploits zero-day vulnerabilities, phishing emails, cyber-attacks, etc. They considered the most up-to-date versions of antiviruses that are in the public domain. In addition, during testing, applications could get updates and access their own cloud services.
The source notes that AV-TEST adheres to a rigorous testing process; but despite this, Microsoft Defender scored highly on all key dimensions, such as security, performance and user experience. Other antiviruses such as McAfee and Avast also received high ratings; but Microsoft Defender is the only free product on this list.
Thus, AV-TEST tests have shown that Microsoft‘s proprietary antivirus is one of the best antivirus solutions for devices running Windows 10 and Windows 11. At the same time, it comes with the software giant’s OS and is available to all users for free.
