By
Delia
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update
February 10, 2022
New Microsoft Defender preview released
Free antivirus software is gradually ending the era of paid antivirus software, and the MSE/Defender that comes with Microsoft Windows is putting great pressure on many third-party free antivirus software. Now, Defender in Windows 11 is about to receive another major revision.
Microsoft has now released an early preview of the new version of Windows Defender, and it is clear that it will enter the Windows Insider program in the coming weeks for users to test. You can download the preview version from Microsoft Store or Google Play Store now.
Overview of the new Defender
The new version of Microsoft Defender, based on WebView, has a new Windows 11 design style with personalized gauges. It will help consumers stay on top of antivirus, malware scans, phishing, compromised passwords and more.
Microsoft has been developing cross-platform Microsoft Defender clients for Windows 11, Windows 10, macOS, Android and iOS, so cross-platform will be an important feature of the new version of Defender. The new version of Windows Defender supports account sign-in, allowing users to manage all devices connected to the same Microsoft account and also add family members to it (via QR code invitations), so that relevant users can click on the panel from anywhere to get information about the security status of the connected devices, see the apps and links scanned in the last 24 hours (Android version) or the number of files (Windows version) scanned in the last 24 hours. In the Windows version, users can also view current settings for virus and threat protection, ransomware protection and more.
The new Defender may not completely replace the current one
For now, the preview version of the new Windows Defender version is only available in the U.S. and most of the features are not yet complete, so it's clearly not a product that is ready to go live. It will probably hit the internal previews of Windows 10 and Windows 11 in the coming weeks or months, but the official release date has not yet been set.
Judging from the features available, this new version of Defender may not completely replace the current Windows Defender, as it only covers a variety of basic security features and is more of a status display gauge than a malware removal tool in its own right.
Conceivably, if the new version of Windows Defender runs on Windows systems, the security information will be more comprehensive. Not only current Windows devices, users can also monitor password leaks, malware and other issues for other devices such as Android.
