Configure Microsoft Defender Antivirus features

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Applies to:

• Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Plan 1
• Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Plan 2
• Microsoft 365 Defender
• Microsoft Defender Antivirus

Platforms

• Windows

You can configure Microsoft Defender Antivirus with a number of tools, such as:

• Microsoft Endpoint Manager (which includes Microsoft Intune and Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager)
• Group Policy
• PowerShell cmdlets
• Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI)
• Tenant attach

The following broad categories of features can be configured:

• Cloud-delivered protection. See Cloud-delivered protection and Microsoft Defender Antivirus

• Always-on real-time protection, including behavioral, heuristic, and machine learning-based protection. See Configure behavioral, heuristic, and real-time protection.

• How end users interact with the client on individual endpoints. See the following resources:

  • Prevent users from seeing or interacting with the Microsoft Defender Antivirus user interface
  • Prevent or allow users to locally modify Microsoft Defender Antivirus policy settings

Tip

Review Reference topics for management and configuration tools.

Tip

If you're looking for Antivirus related information for other platforms, see:

• Set preferences for Microsoft Defender for Endpoint on macOS
• Microsoft Defender for Endpoint on Mac
• macOS Antivirus policy settings for Microsoft Defender Antivirus for Intune
• Set preferences for Microsoft Defender for Endpoint on Linux
• Microsoft Defender for Endpoint on Linux
• Configure Defender for Endpoint on Android features
• Configure Microsoft Defender for Endpoint on iOS features