Microsoft sheds more light on the Creators Update's new Windows Defender Security Center

By Dan Thorp-Lancaster
published

In a new blog post, Microsoft has shared some more details on what to expect from the new Windows Defender Security Center coming in the Windows 10 Creators Update later this year.

Overall, the new experience is intended to make keeping an eye on your machine's security status a little easier, and that includes what Microsoft says are its "five pillars" of focus. Here's a look:

  • Virus & threat protection provides a new view of your antivirus protection whether it's Windows Defender Antivirus that comes free with Windows 10 or AV software from one of our ecosystem partners.
  • Device performance & health provides a single view of your latest Windows updates, drivers, battery life and storage capacity. Additionally, you have the option to start fresh with a clean install of Windows using the Refresh Windows feature.
  • Firewall & network protection provides information on the network connections and active Windows Firewall settings, as well as links to network troubleshooting information.
  • App & browser control allows you to adjust settings for SmartScreen for apps and browsers helping you be more informed and stay safer online by warning you of potential malicious sites, downloads and unrecognized apps and files from the Internet.
  • Family options gives you an easy way to connect to the family options available online. This page can link you to information about parental controls, options for setting up good screen time habits, setting up activity reports of your kids' online activity and managing controls for purchasing apps and games. You can also view the health and safety of your family's devices from this centralized location.

Hopefully, these improvements will make it that much easier for users to keep their machines safe. The new Windows Defender Security Center experience will be headed to everyone starting with the Creators Update release later in 2017. Of course, there are a ton of other improvements aimed at Windows 10 users in the Creators Update, all of which are currently under testing in the Windows Insider program.

What's your favorite upcoming feature in the Creators Update? Give us a shout in the comments!

Dan Thorp-Lancaster
Dan Thorp-Lancaster

Dan Thorp-Lancaster is the former Editor-in-Chief of Windows Central. He began working with Windows Central, Android Central, and iMore as a news writer in 2014 and is obsessed with tech of all sorts. You can follow Dan on Twitter @DthorpL and Instagram @heyitsdtl. 

56 Comments
  • i think I will stay with security software i normally use. Getting micrsoft to protect Windows is like leaving a fox to guard the hen house.  
  • this makes no sense.
  • lol
  • Eh? You don't think they want to protect their own software? You think they WANT your computer to be infected? How does that make sense?  
  • Windows own protection is not thjat great, it have been tested time and time again. Also how much data is it letting out to MS? at least with other security systems, there is a way to stop ms spying hopefully.  
  • Yeah go-ahead use the bloatwares....
  • The amount of junk that Ms is sticking in windows 10, makes windows 10 bloatware. so much that is not wanted by everyone and yet ikf we use 10 we are forced to install it, like the spying cortana    
  • "so much that is not wanted by everyone" your speaking for eveyone now...LOL.WOW!!!!!!!!
  • should have been by some people, not eveyone, I was in a bit of a rush.    
  • Disable Your Antivirus Software (Except Microsoft's) http://robert.ocallahan.org/2017/01/disable-your-antivirus-software-exce...  
  • Hell no,  disable MS antivirus and use something trustworthy 
  • I always feel sorry for Microsoft. Google came along and instead of charging for software support it with ads. MS get destroyed because people are cheap and move to Google solutions because they don't see the hidden costs of "free" software. MS can only compete by adopting the same business model as Google, but when they bundle a game with Windows or try to provide useful A.I. based services with Cortana people go mad and act like their liberties are being taken away. They then run off to Google and don't notice the irony. It's not 2000 anymore, everything is connected, MS cannot keep doing things like they used to, they are struggling enough, they have to play on the same field as Google if they've to have any chance.
  • But it is not the same, Windows is a desktop/laptop OS, What Ms have done to Windows now is to make it look like a mobile Os with all the stuff that mobile Os have.  I do not mind if MS want to have these apps or Cortana or any other mobile type  feature, but let us the peopl;e who use  it have a choice what to install anmd not install.and if we want cortana running? People  have a choice if i use an Android phone or not, they can go for a normal non smart phone or an Iphone if they are bothered about privacy, not that hafving a iphone will be that mujch better. But this is what you get with smart phones and we expect it now, but we do not e4xpect it on a desktop Os. A l,ot of people do not have much choice b ut to run Windows if they want to run the software that is available.      
  • I think what you want is Windows 10 Pro, it removes a lot of the mobile crud. Desktops are dying and people expect their laptops to have mobile features. Look at the amount of effort Google are putting into Chromebooks to see the attack on the traditional desktop/laptop market there. Sure MS could keep Windows as a pure desktop OS, but hybrid and 2-in-1 devices are the future and where they need to focus. Windows is struggling enough, if they ignored market needs it'll be gone in 5 years.
  • I did have Windows 10 pro as I had windows 8.1 pro, whihc was an update for a cheaper price from Windows 7 pro. but the mobnile styuff is still there, app and cortana and other stuff like that. Desktops are selling less, so are laptops, people are moving to tabletrs, that is until they realsie they are limited in whyat they can do.  But for heavy work like video editing and audio, desktops are still the best way. Chromebooks arte different, they was produce from the start to be a cloud system and a OS that was to be honest a bit limited, but for what they do they do fine. My problem with windows 10 is that we have less choice, look at updates, they are forced onto people, people have no idea what is in those updates, Cortana, while you can disable it, the software is still running in the background, telemeetry, justy let people have a off switch, simple enough, default apps, stop restting them to windows own apps and stgop chucking advertsing on Windows telling us what we should use. Lock screen, i do not need one on my Pc, so why can i not just get rid of it?  I appreciate that Ms have to try and get into the mobile market, even if they seem to fail there, but let users on desktops have more of a choice.        
  • If you are that paranoid, you have a choice with a desktop OS as well. You can get Linux or a mac. However, people have way more personal information on their cellphone then on their PC. Yet they hold MS to a higher standard than Google. By the way, you can disable Cortana and other features in the settings, if that is your preference. You are railing about Microsoft, but I guarantee that you use an android phone and probably google chrome and search. Google is tracking your activity because that is their whole business model. What information are you worried Microsoft is getting about you that Google doesn't already have? You're porn collection?
  • Mobile feature are mordern features...lets see you make a modern OS...then leave out all the mordern stuff... 
  • But my computer is not a mobile device, not easy to pick up a tower with a 27 inch screen and carry it aropund, so there is no need for mobile stuff on my computer, all I am asking is give us a choice.    
  • Since when did foxes start building henhouses? MS built Windows, they know it better than anyone, it makes sense that they provide a security solution - even though arguably third-party solutions are more comprehensive.
  • I going by the fact that you would not leave a fox  guarding a hen house, because they would kill the hens, so why shoiuld we trust MS with security? Too many backdoors in windows anyway. #
  • Which is why your comment makes no sense. The equivalent analogy of the fox would be to trust a hacker to build your antivirus. The farmer builds the farmhouse, the farmer guards the farmhouse or he'll employ security.
    Microsoft build Windows, Defender guards Windows or a third party tool by a security vendor. There's no fox.
  • Not sure why he's defending his one-sided points so hard..
  • OMG I AM ROTFLMAO....you guys....THIS^
  • Stupid person.
  • And that is really grwon up.,  
  • My favorite upcoming feature is the multitude of UI improvements.
  • Windows Defender has been doing the job very well on every Windows 10 computer I get my hands on... Only wished they could put realtime malware protection in it to in addition to antivirus only...
  • Doesn't Windows Defender already have real-time protection?
  • It sure has for years already!
  • For antivirus but afaik it doesn't do anti-malware so you need something like Malwarebytes in addition...
    Or have I been missing something all that time?
  • I think you have. ^^
  • The malwarebytes of a few years ago is and isn't the same anymore. It will still do a sterling job of scanning and removing malware, but in their latest update you only get "better protection", when you use the pro version. I have used many different anti-malware programs, and at present, i'm running comodo internet security (free version), which has real-time protection, and H.I.P.S, plus a sandbox if unsure. As a second line of defence on demand scanners i use are super anti-spyware, malwarebytes, and spybot s+d.  Just pick what works for you, but advise your first layer of defense includes real-time protection, and anything after is beefing it up on demand.
  • I would not use it as my only protection, use malware byutes now and again just to make sure.  
  • It's very nice and all but I feel it would make more sense if they removed the "Defender" from the name.
  • Agreed! That would make sense.
  • exact! everyone to send feedback
  • why windows central NOT know project neon being worked by microsoft this is outdated, you know this is very very interesting!
  • Ad block option in edge to block all irritating google ads and sign in with microsoft account why always fb?
  • I doubt MS Edge will ever support ad blocking out of the box, for the exact same reason that Google Chrome doesn`t. Just install an adblocking extension (PC only for now) such as Adblock Plus or uBlock Origin, or search for hosts blocking if you want something system-wide.
  • When is the Surface Phone arrivingin the market with full Windows 10 on ARM capabilities??????
  • i am sure people just vote down because they can,. why the hell was this voted down?  
  • Probably because it's completely off topic.
  • Nah,  iot is because they can.  
  • Pretty soon I think. Lenovo is coming out with a notebook that runs on ARM so you can use all Android apps.
  • Will windows 10 mobile support windows defender?
  • Maybe this will be a good idea but for now, I don't know anyone with w10m who has virus on it.
  • I've used Windows defender for years, it was previously called windows security essentials, works great, why wouldn't they want to protect their own products more than anyone else
  • Add blocking would be good, u can get full add/ safe searching for schools bit not home school as we do, hate he crap that comes up in adds, alot not appropriate
  • "Your device is being protected"... yeah, from the rare chinese hacker. Not from all the people who can see everything you do and everything you have on your hard drive because they work for Microsoft or because they have access to one of the backdoors that Microsoft added for them. MS's two-faced, hypocritical attitude towards system security and privacy is extremely offputting.
  • You can thank the US government for that.
  • Look at all the people sticking the heads up MS backside,  It do not matter what anyone says on this site, if you say anything against Ms, you get all of you crying,. pathetic    
  • Then i hope the next update will fix the windows defender casus Windows to be stuck at login screen after I write the password. Really annoying.
  • Crazy how people are all saying how MS is spying on you...How do you know FOR SURE, 100% SURE, that all the "others" are not?? Because you take their word for it? LMAO Ok...Must be some really crooked people to be worrying about that...
  • We could say it the other way, how can you be sure they are not? If MS wanted to get away from the spying lot, then they would allow people to turn off telemetry and kill Cortana.  
  • I'm bored of widows defender ui, Happy to see that coming
  • How often do you see it?  The only time i see my secureity software UI is when it comes up after a scan if it finds something, other than that it runs in the background.