Need Advice Is ConfigureDefender needed in Windows 11?

[Captain Holly]

I apologize if this has been discussed before, I did search here and Google but did not find my answer. I made the switch to Windows 11 last weekend, so far it works very well, seems more efficient than Windows 10. I am not running any third-party AV now, just the built-in Windows Security/Windows Defender. I am going to try my best to stay out of the third-party AV's this time, using Edge as my default browser with only Ublock Origin and the Malwarebytes Browser Guard extensions active. My question is, do I still need to use Configure Defender with the new Windows 11 Security? I have not used it yet on this new Windows 11 system but if Configure Defender will help improve security like it does in Windows 10 I will download it again. This is on my daily driver laptop with 8 GB RAM and running Windows 11 21H2.

Thanks for any help on this.

C.H.

 

[blackice]

It depends. With good internet hygiene defender at default is going to give you decent protection. Configure defender does improve your security with ASR rules and higher cloud protection (which can come with a slight performance hit).

 

[Andy Ful]

Windows 11 has got by default some security features important in business. But (for now), there is no real difference (for home users) between Windows 10 and Windows 11 in the protection against common malware. So, ConfigureDefender can improve the security on Windows 11 similarly to Windows 10. Another question is if you need it.

 

[Andy Ful]

This can change in the near future due to:

Smart App Control and Enhanced phishing detection and protection with Microsoft Defender SmartScreen can significantly increase the protection of home users (and hybrid work). We will see how useful these new features can be. It is possible that people who will use them and will not install MS Office, can get the protection close to ConfigureDefender settings.

• Smart App Control is a major enhancement to the Windows 11 security model that prevents users from running malicious applications on Windows devices that default blocks untrusted or unsigned applications. Smart App Control goes beyond previous built-in browser protections and is woven directly into the core of the OS at the process level. Using code signing along with AI, our new Smart App Control only allows processes to run that are predicted to be safe based on either code certificates or an AI model for application trust within the Microsoft cloud. Model inference occurs 24 hours a day on the latest threat intelligence that provides trillions of signals. When a new application is run on Windows 11, its core signing and core features are checked against this model, ensuring only known safe applications are allowed to run. This means Windows 11 users can be confident they are using only safe and reliable applications on their new Windows devices. Smart App Control will ship on new devices with Windows 11 installed. Devices running previous versions of Windows 11 will have to be reset and have a clean installation of Windows 11 to take advantage of this feature.
• Enhanced phishing detection and protection with Microsoft Defender SmartScreen: In the last year, we’ve blocked more than 25.6 billion Microsoft Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) brute force authentication attacks and intercepted 35.7 billion phishing emails with Microsoft Defender for Office 365. The enhanced phishing detection and protection built into Windows with Microsoft Defender SmartScreen will help protect users from phishing attacks by identifying and alerting users when they are entering their Microsoft credentials into a malicious application or hacked website. These enhancements will make Windows the world’s first operating system with phishing safeguards built directly into the platform and shipped out-of-box to help users stay productive and secure without having to learn to be their own IT department.

New security features for Windows 11 will help protect hybrid work | Microsoft Security Blog

Attackers haven’t wasted any time capitalizing on the rapid move to hybrid work. Every day cyber criminals and nation states alike have improved their targeting, speed and accuracy as the world adapted to working outside the office.

www.microsoft.com

Post edited.

 

[Captain Holly]

Thanks for the info @Andy Ful and @blackice. So far everything has been fine on 11, I think for now I will leave it as is and wait to see what other security MS might add later on. I did not know anything about Smart App Control or Credential Security. The trick for me is going to be resisting the urge to try a third-party AV, but I will take it one day at a time. I think I am set up pretty well as things are right now and will keep on using common sense online to stay out of any trouble.

Thanks,

C.H.

 

[blackice]

Thanks for the info @Andy Ful and @blackice. So far everything has been fine on 11, I think for now I will leave it as is and wait to see what other security MS might add later on. I did not know anything about Smart App Control or Credential Security. The trick for me is going to be resisting the urge to try a third-party AV, but I will take it one day at a time. I think I am set up pretty well as things are right now and will keep on using common sense online to stay out of any trouble.

Thanks,

C.H.

When in doubt before installing something, VirusTotal is your friend.