Roger Fingas
Reflecting its increasingly platform-agnostic stance, Microsoft on Thursday revealed plans to bring its Defender antivirus software to the Mac, if initially in limited form.
Specifically Macs will get Windows Defender Advanced Threat Protection, renamed to Microsoft Defender Advanced Threat Protection (ATP), the company said. A limited preview is being offered to businesses that operate a mix of Mac and Windows PCs, consistent with ATP's business-only focus.
The software requires macOS Sierra or later. To update Defender, businesses will need Microsoft's custom AutoUpdate tool.
It's not yet known if the standard version of Defender will come to Macs. To date that app has simply been integrated into Windows 10, ensuring a base level of security against viruses and other threats.
Apple has had similar protections built into macOS/OS X since later versions of Snow Leopard, but these typically operate in the background.
Since taking over as CEO in 2014, Satya Nadella has steered Microsoft in an Apple-friendly direction. Many Microsoft products have made the transition to Macs, iPhones, and iPads, more recently even parts of its Xbox gaming platform that should eventually let people play those games without an Xbox at all.
Thomas Sibilly
Marko Zivkovic
Andrew O'Hara
Amber Neely
William Gallagher
Christine McKee
Andrew Orr
34 Comments
If there was any form of anti virus I was less likely to install on my Mac than any of the current crop, it’s Microsoft anti virus.
Why would any Mac owner want anything to do with anything in the way of firewall or antivirus that Microsoft built? Given the problems with Windoz and their updates that don't work crash computers I for one will be staying as far away as possible from any form of security Microsoft offers!