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 will be the first to see the changes, and other users will see the new policy in March 2023.
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
Available to M365 Personal or M365 Family users, Microsoft Defender itself does very little, acting more as a system security overview.
On computerit’s actually Windows Security that does most of your day-to-day protection, such as detecting files and running periodic system scans.
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.