Defender

[WalksInSilence]

This bothers me: I'm setting up a virgin PC with Win7 and had to activate the OS using the licence key. I decided to do this online and so thought it prudent to at least have Windows Defender activated. Ironically you can not actually do that unless you're online but that is not the issue I have.

The question is why is finding Defender on a Win7 PC such an effort? It is not listed as an installed program or under accessories and if it is accessible via the Control Panel its damned well hidden.

If you use the system search and put in "Defender" up it comes at the top of the result. Bizarrely if you change the Control Panel > View display setting from Category to either Large or Small icons it magically appears in the menu list. So its somewhere in the Control Panel but not visible in Category view...........ummmm: why?

When the OS is installed Windows Defender IS shown as an installed program in Programs but except by putting in a shortcut to the .exe there's no way to launch it. So even if it kicks in automatically if you go online without other anti-virus (there's no evidence it does) there's no other ways of accessing the GUI which includes manual scan options etc.

This all seems a set of very weird methods of accessing a potentially important security tool.

Any ideas why they did it like this and why it was not improved as part of SP1 or any of the other Win7 updates over the years?    

[pangoomis]

Windows Defender in Windows 7 and Windows Vista is anti-spyware only. In Windows 7 it is more hidden than in Windows Vista, why? I don't really know.

It doesn't even show up in the taskbar IIRC.

Using built-in Windows Defender only in Windows 7/Vista is not really recommended, as it is considered deprecated.

Microsoft expects you to install Microsoft Security Essentials to get full anti-virus like experience like you see in Windows 8/8.1/10. And make it easier to actually find it. And it will be in the taskbar.

More information here:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-my/help/14210/security-essentials-download

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Security_Essentials

Edited August 18, 2019 by MrMateczko

[WalksInSilence]

I was using MSE on a XP VM until support for that use was torpedoed by MS. A temporary solution for that was actually why I signed up here.

However: back on topic I'd always assumed "Defender" was the same sort of thing as MSE but bundled with the newer than XP OS ie. Win7>. But I've checked and you're right, the Windows Defender I've been talking about is just an anti-spyware program unlike Windows Defender packaged with Win 8/8.1 which is the full monty. Nice of MS to make that so clear.

Thanks for the information; very helpful.