The Microsoft Windows Defender Advanced threat protection service is now available for Windows 7, 8.1 clients

In February 2018, Microsoft officials announced their intention to make Windows Defender Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) available for Windows 7 and Windows 8.1. The targeted delivery date for general availability on these platforms was the summer of 2018. On February 22, Microsoft officials published a blog that Windows Defender ATP Endpoint Protection was now available for Windows 7 and later. 8.1.

What was the holdup? I asked Microsoft to comment, but no word has been answered yet. The Feb. 22 blog post announcing availability indicated that since the public preview, Microsoft was working with the customer to "validate, refine, and refine the service." UpdateA spokesman for the company said the statement on his blog was all that Microsoft would share with the calendar.

Here is what we know. Windows Defender ATP can help you detect attacks and investigate supported Windows versions. Windows Defender ATP provides preventative protection; post-violation detection and automated investigation and response. In addition to Windows 10, the current list of supported Windows client versions now includes Windows 7 Service Pack (SP) 1 Enterprise; Windows 7 SP1 Pro; Windows 8.1 Enterprise and Windows 8.1 Pro.

Windows Defender ATP is integrated with Windows 10 Enterprise. Defender ATP is different from Windows Defender, Microsoft's free antivirus service built into various versions of Windows. ATP Defender (codename "Seville") is a post-violation service, designed to help detect threats that have outpaced other defenses, give users a way to investigate violations and propose some answers.

Starting with the Windows 10 Fall Creators update, Microsoft representatives began to describe Windows Defender ATP as a suite of tools including Defender Application Guard, Defender Device Guard, and Defender Antivirus.

Microsoft plans to remove support for Windows 7 on January 14, 2020, but will continue to provide security updates for this version of Windows for an additional three years to customers who purchase extended security updates or who purchase the product. Windows Virtual product still unavailable. Office service. Microsoft will charge users who want to purchase extended security updates per device and will charge more than those running Windows 7 Pro to Windows 7 Enterprise.