How to run Microsoft's Windows Defender on Chrome and Firefox
For now, the protections are only available for Windows Insiders.
- She received the Renau Writing Scholarship in 2016 from the University of Louisville's communication department.
Microsoft is bringing Windows Defender protection to Firefox and Chrome.
Microsoft is making Windows Defender available via extensions for Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome -- because everyone needs protection.
The company said its goal was to extend its antivirus technology to other browsers and give customers a way to protect themselves against browser-based attacks.
The extensions automatically redirect untrusted webpage visits to Windows Defender Application Guard for Microsoft Edge, Windows Insider program head Dona Sokar and senior program manager Brandon LeBlanc said in a blog post.
When you visit a site, Windows Defender checks the URL against a list of trusted sites. If it deems the site malicious, you'll be redirected to an isolated Microsoft Edge session. From there, you can travel to any site that hasn't been defined as trusted without any risk to the rest of your system.
"With our upcoming dynamic switching capability, if the user tries to go to a trusted site while in an isolated Microsoft Edge session, the user is taken back to the default browser," Sokar and LeBlanc said.
For now, the Windows Defender Application Guard extension for Chrome and Firefox is just for Windows Insiders with Windows 10 and Pro SKUs on 1803 or later. Microsoft said it'll be available more generally "very soon."