Microsoft has just announced that it’s bringing Windows Defender’s Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) to Windows 7 and 8.1 after previously offering this feature exclusively to Windows 10 users.
Windows Defender ATP is a security tool specifically aimed at system administrators who want to manage their endpoints in a more effective manner, as it can provide warnings, information, and options whenever incidents occur.
Microsoft has been testing Windows Defender ATP for approximately 12 months before rolling it out to everyone, and the company says this release comes in handy until Windows 7 and 8.1 customers upgrade to Windows 10.
“To help customers stay secure while upgrading to Windows 10, we’ve built an EDR solution for Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 that is simple to deploy and seamless to end-users, providing behavioral based threat detection, investigation and response capabilities,” the Windows Defender ATP team explains.
Windows 7 still a popular choice for enterprises
Microsoft will pull support for Windows 7 in January 2020, and users are recommended to upgrade to Windows 10 as soon as possible.
Without security updates, Windows 7 would technically remain vulnerable to attacks, so despite changes like today’s release of Windows Defender ATP on the platform, the upgrade to Windows 10 is the only way to keep data secure.
“With Windows 10 we’ve built the most secure Windows ever, by hardening the platform itself and by developing Windows Defender ATP – a unified endpoint security platform for preventative protection, post-breach detection, and automated investigation & response,” the team adds.
Windows 7 is currently the second most-used desktop operating system with a share that’s over 35 percent, according to third-party data. However, this doesn’t mean that all companies are ready to upgrade to Windows 10 before the January 2020 deadline is reached, so additional security measures are recommended, including limited Internet connectivity on endpoints that no longer receive updates.