You may still be vulnerable to phishing, adware, and email scams. The problem is that these programs don’t usually cover all the threats out there. 1 As a result of this rise, many devices now come pre-installed with antivirus and/or anti-malware software. From 2009 to 2019, for example, malware infections increased from over 12 million to over 812 million, an increase of more than 6,500 percent. In fact, malware threats are more pervasive now than ever.

It does that through a three-part system:Īs we point out in our digital security guide, your device needs protection from malware in order to stay healthy. In some instances Defender may need you to take some actions such as quarantining or removing the dangerous file or process.As the name indicates, antivirus software is software designed to combat viruses. If Defender finds malware on your device it'll block it, notify you, and try to remove the malware if it can. For more information see How to start a scan for malware in Microsoft Defender What if Defender finds malware? If you're concerned and want to have Microsoft Defender run a scan right now, you can do that by going to the Device protection page from the Microsoft Defender dashboard. If it spots something it will attempt to block it, and alert you so that you can take action if necessary. Microsoft Defender will also run quick scans of your device on a daily basis, in case anything manages to elude the real-time protection.

Microsoft Defender's real-time anti-malware protection runs whenever your device is on, keeping an eye out for malicious activity. When you first set-up Microsoft Defender on your device we'll run an initial scan to make sure you're starting off clean. Note: Microsoft Defender currently offers anti-malware only on Windows, Mac, and Android.

Antimalware program