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I haven’t run Windows security software in years
I have a confession to make. I haven’t run security software on my Windows PCs in years.
Don’t look at me like that. I’m not some kind of wild, leather-jacket-wearing, helmet-free, motorcycle-riding risk taker. In fact, I’m the opposite.
My systems are protected, but only with what Microsoft gave me and the hundreds of millions of other people around the world running Windows 10: Windows Defender.
Defender started in 2004 as a Microsoft downloadable anti-spyware app called Windows Security Essentials. Over the years, Microsoft upgraded it — and messed with the name more than once — to a security suite that Windows users could download and install on, among others, Windows XP and Windows 7 machines.
In 2012, Microsoft integrated Windows Defender with the ill-fated Windows 8. It was the first time Microsoft included security software with its popular OS, beyond the basic firewall and Security Center introduced with Windows XP Service Pack 2. Doing so made sense. As the world’s most popular OS installed in countless homes and businesses, Windows is a favorite target of hackers and criminals.
Those who run older versions of Windows, especially those that Microsoft is no longer patching (unless forced to by a major attack) are at even greater risk.
