![]() Even if programs run with limited credentials thanks to UAC, they typically install with Administrator privileges and can do anything they want during installation. If you downloaded and ran a Windows game, it could install drivers on your system, read files from everywhere on your hard drive, and install malware on your computer. On the Windows desktop, applications had full access to your system. Internet Explorer 10 includes improvements that make 75% of the security vulnerabilities reported over the last two years more difficult to exploit.Īpps for Windows 8’s new Modern interface (formerly known as Metro) are sandboxed and restricted in what they can do on your computer.The Windows heap, where Windows applications receive their memory from, includes additional checks to defend against exploit techniques.Mitigations that were once applied to Windows applications are now also applied to the Windows kernel.ASLR (Address Space Layout Randomization) has been extended to more parts of Windows, randomly moving data and code around in memory to make it harder to exploit.Read more about the new SmartScreen filter here. Even new pieces of malware will be detected by the SmartScreen filter as an unknown new program that should be approached with caution. This feature should help less-experienced users from downloading and running malicious programs from the Internet. If it’s new and Windows doesn’t know what it is, Windows will warn you and allow you to bypass the warning. If it’s known-bad, perhaps if it contains malware, Windows will prevent it from running. If the application is known-good, such as the installer for iTunes, Photoshop, or another popular program, Windows will allow it to run. When you download and double-click an EXE file, Windows will scan the file and send its signature to Microsoft’s servers. ![]() It will be used to scan EXE files you download from Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, and other programs. Previously used only in Internet Explorer, the SmartScreen filter is now implemented at the operating system-level. Windows Defender starts earlier in the boot process out-of-the-box, and third-party antivirus vendors can also add the Early-Launch Anti-Malware (ELAM) feature to their products. This helps protect against rootkits that start before the antivirus program and hide from it. In Windows 8, antivirus products can start earlier in the boot-up process to scan the system’s drivers for malware. Best of all, this ensures that all Windows users will finally have antivirus protection out-of-the-box. Fortunately, it's easy enough to disable Windows 8's time-wasting lock. You can easily install any other antivirus you prefer and Windows Defender will be automatically disabled if another antivirus is running, but the integrated antivirus is a capable product. Windows 7 doesn't waste your time by making you swipe away a lock screen before you get to its login prompt. it’s named Windows Defender, but the interface will be immediately familiar to anyone that’s ever used Microsoft Security Essentials – this is Microsoft Security Essentials with a new name. Windows 8 finally includes an integrated antivirus program.
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