Microsoft’s Windows Defender Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) carrier is now to be had for PCs strolling Windows 7 and Windows eight.1.
The choice to add gadgets powered by way of those running structures became first announced a year in the past. At the time, Microsoft said ATP’s Endpoint Detection & Response (EDR) capability could be to be had for the older OSes by using summer season 2018.
[ Related: Windows 7 to Windows 10 migration guide ]
Windows Defender ATP is a carrier that detects ongoing assaults on company networks, then follows up to analyze the assault or breach and gives response hints and attack remediation. Software baked into Windows 10 detects assaults, at the same time as a valuable control console permits IT directors to monitor the popularity of covered gadgets and react if important. Adding the EDR consumer software to Windows 7 and Windows eight.1 PCs offers corporation IT the equal visibility into the one’s machines because it has had into Windows 10 structures.
Both ultimate 12 months and remaining week, Microsoft explained the extension of ATP coverage as a way for corporations to better protect their environments while they’re component manner through a Windows 10 migration. “To help customers live relaxed while upgrading to Windows 10, we’ve got constructed an EDR answer for Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 that is simple to deploy and seamless to stop-users,” wrote Heike Ritter, a security product manager at the ATP team, in a publish to an organization blog.
Windows Defender ATP is a component inside the most costly Windows 10 licenses, along with those furnished using the subscription-based Windows 10 Enterprise E5 or Microsoft 365 E5. (The business enterprise touts ATP because of the differentiator among the ones SKUs (stock-selling devices) and the tier-decrease bundles.) Microsoft now also sells ATP as an upload-directly to Microsoft 365 E3 – one of those decrease-tier subscriptions – for an additional $12 in keeping with consumer consistent with the month.
Microsoft put into area the Windows 7 integration simply eleven months before the running machine is ready to fall off the agency’s aid list. (Windows eight.1 absolutely doesn’t depend; no longer only become it largely left out by using businesses, its January 2019 consumer share turned into most effective 6% of all Windows PCs.) Given the past due date – again, Microsoft initially had aimed for a mid-2018 launch date for inclusion of Windows 7 – the firm may be primarily relying on adoption via customers who pays for extending Windows 7 assist. That extra support, classified “Windows 7 Extended Security Updates” (ESU), might be offered in a single-12 months increments for up to three years, with costs starting from $25 to $two hundred according to PC per yr.
Because Microsoft wishes customers to migrate as many machines as feasible to Windows 10’s Enterprise – the most high-priced of the running system’s variants – it discounts ESU to subscribers of Windows 10 Enterprise and Microsoft 365 Enterprise. Coincidentally, those are the equal licenses – their E5 variations, in particular – that are required for Windows Defender ATP. Microsoft can be hoping that ATP’s availability will spark off clients to reap Windows 10 Enterprise or Microsoft 365 Enterprise licenses for their Windows 7 machines now, in order that IT can configure the protected PCs now, in preference to later, after help runs out.
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More information approximately ATP and Windows 7, consisting of instructions for which includes Windows 7 PCs in ATP monitoring, is available on Microsoft’s internet site.