Windows Defender sure has come a long way! There was a time when the baseline protection in Windows 10 was just that, baseline protection. Meaning, a third-party security solution was a necessity.
Times have changed, though.
And the Windows 10 OS now comes packed with a highly complex security arsenal at its disposal, the core of which is the highly versatile Windows Defender — a security solution that is soon to be rebranded as Microsoft Defender.
But while we do have an inkling of just how good this antivirus is, thanks to intelligence provided by independent organizations like AV-TEST, we never really found out what kind of an install base this Microsoft solution commands.
Until now.
Talking to ZDNet, Tanmay Ganacharya, general manager of Microsoft ATP security research shed some light on what the software titan is dealing with in term of market share and expectations:
“Windows Defender already has more than a 50% share in the Windows ecosystem. So that’s more than half a billion machines that are running Windows Defender in an active mode as the primary antivirus. And it has grown pretty significantly and is among the best now.
Windows Defender is protecting more than 50% of the Windows ecosystem, so we’re a big target, and everyone wants to evade us to get the maximum number of victims. We’ve predicted this is going to happen, and this is why we invested in this before it happened.”
Not necessarily surprising, this.
Impressive, but not surprising at all.
The evolution of Windows Defender over the years, and the fact that it plays so nicely with other antivirus programs means that this security solution continues to grow in stature. It does the job well enough for most people, and no wonder more than half of them stick with it.
Good stuff.
