{"id":1070,"date":"2014-02-21T09:14:00","date_gmt":"2014-02-21T17:14:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/marcbook.local\/wds\/playground\/cybertrust\/2014\/02\/21\/how-do-i-know-if-i-already-have-antivirus-software\/"},"modified":"2023-05-16T10:57:15","modified_gmt":"2023-05-16T17:57:15","slug":"how-do-i-know-if-i-already-have-antivirus-software","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/security\/blog\/2014\/02\/21\/how-do-i-know-if-i-already-have-antivirus-software\/","title":{"rendered":"How do I know if I already have antivirus software?"},"content":{"rendered":"<h4><strong>UPDATE:<\/strong> For the most relevant information on antivirus software, learn how to protect your computer by visiting the Microsoft support page on <a href=\"https:\/\/support.microsoft.com\/en-sg\/help\/17464\/windows-defender-help-protect-computer\">Windows Defender<\/a>. We can ensure this page stays updated with the most relevant information on how to help protect your PC with Windows Defender.<\/h4>\n<h2>If your computer is running Windows 8<\/h2>\n<p>If your computer is running Windows 8, you already have antivirus software. Windows 8 includes <a href=\"http:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/security\/pc-security\/windows-defender.aspx\">Windows Defender<\/a>, which helps protect you from viruses, spyware, and other malicious software.<\/p>\n<p>If Windows Defender is turned off and you don\u2019t have another antivirus program installed (or your other antivirus program is not working), you will see a warning in the notification area on your taskbar.<\/p>\n<h2>If your computer is running Windows 7<\/h2>\n<p>Windows 7 includes spyware protection, but to protect against viruses you can download Microsoft Security Essentials for free.<\/p>\n<p><strong>To find out if you already have antivirus software:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ol start=\"1\">\n<li>Open Action Center by clicking the\u00a0<strong>Start<\/strong>\u00a0button\u00a0, clicking\u00a0<strong>Control Panel<\/strong>, and then, under\u00a0<strong>System and Security<\/strong>, clicking <strong>Review your computer&#8217;s status<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>Click the arrow button\u00a0\u00a0next to\u00a0<strong>Security<\/strong>\u00a0to expand the section.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>If Windows can detect your antivirus software, it&#8217;s listed under\u00a0<strong>Virus protection<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>Windows doesn&#8217;t detect all antivirus software, and some antivirus software doesn&#8217;t report its status to Windows. If your antivirus software isn&#8217;t displayed in Action Center and you&#8217;re not sure how to find it, try any of the following:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Type the name of the software or the publisher in the Search box on the <strong>Start<\/strong> menu.<\/li>\n<li>Look for your antivirus program&#8217;s icon in the notification area of the taskbar.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>If your computer is running Windows Vista<\/h2>\n<p>Windows Vista does not include virus protection. To protect against viruses, you can download Microsoft Security Essentials for free.<\/p>\n<p>The status of your antivirus software is typically displayed in Windows Security Center.<\/p>\n<ol start=\"1\">\n<li>Open Security Center by clicking the\u00a0<strong>Start<\/strong>\u00a0button\u00a0, clicking\u00a0<strong>Control Panel<\/strong>, clicking\u00a0<strong>Security<\/strong>, and then clicking\u00a0<strong>Security Center<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>Click\u00a0<strong>Malware protection<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>If Windows can detect your antivirus software, it will be listed under\u00a0<strong>Virus protection<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>Windows does not detect all antivirus software, and some antivirus software doesn&#8217;t report its status to Windows. If your antivirus software is not displayed in Windows Security Center and you&#8217;re not sure how to find it, try any of the following:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Look for the antivirus software in the list of programs on the <strong>Start<\/strong> menu.<\/li>\n<li>Type the name of the software or the publisher in the Search box on the <strong>Start<\/strong> menu.<\/li>\n<li>Look for the icon in the notification area of the taskbar.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>If your computer is running Windows XP<\/h2>\n<p>Click the security icon on the taskbar, or click\u00a0<strong>Start<\/strong>, select\u00a0<strong>Control Panel<\/strong>, and then double-click\u00a0<strong>Security Center<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>On April 8, 2014, Microsoft will end support for Windows XP. This means that after April 8, there will be no new security updates available through automatic updating for computers that are still running Windows XP.<\/p>\n<p>Also on this date, Microsoft will stop providing <a href=\"http:\/\/windows.microsoft.com\/en-us\/windows\/security-essentials-download\">Microsoft Security Essentials<\/a> for download on Windows\u00a0XP. (If you already have Microsoft Security Essentials installed, you will continue to receive antimalware signature updates for a limited time, but this does not mean that your PC will be secure because Microsoft will no longer provide security updates to protect it.)<\/p>\n<p>For more information, see\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/windows.microsoft.com\/en-us\/windows\/end-support-help\">Support is ending soon<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h2>I don\u2019t know what operating system my computer is running<\/h2>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/windows.microsoft.com\/en-us\/windows\/which-operating-system\">Find out what operating system your computer is running<\/a><\/p>\n<div style=\"clear: both;\"><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If your computer is running Windows 8, you already have antivirus software. Windows 8 includes Windows Defender, which helps protect you from viruses, spyware, and other malicious software.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ms_queue_id":[],"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"_classifai_error":"","_classifai_text_to_speech_error":"","footnotes":""},"content-type":[3662],"topic":[3683],"products":[],"threat-intelligence":[],"tags":[3822,3827],"coauthors":[1879],"class_list":["post-1070","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","content-type-news","topic-security-management","tag-microsoft-security-insights","tag-reliability-and-resilience"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>How do I know if I already have antivirus software? | Microsoft Security Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"If your computer is running Windows 8, you already have antivirus software. Windows 8 includes Windows Defender, which helps protect you from viruses, spyware, and other malicious software.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/security\/blog\/2014\/02\/21\/how-do-i-know-if-i-already-have-antivirus-software\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How do I know if I already have antivirus software? | Microsoft Security Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"If your computer is running Windows 8, you already have antivirus software. Windows 8 includes Windows Defender, which helps protect you from viruses, spyware, and other malicious software.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/security\/blog\/2014\/02\/21\/how-do-i-know-if-i-already-have-antivirus-software\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Microsoft Security Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-02-21T17:14:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-05-16T17:57:15+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/security\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/cropped-microsoft_logo_element.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"512\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"512\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Eve Blakemore\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Eve Blakemore\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/security\/blog\/2014\/02\/21\/how-do-i-know-if-i-already-have-antivirus-software\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/security\/blog\/2014\/02\/21\/how-do-i-know-if-i-already-have-antivirus-software\/\"},\"author\":[{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/security\/blog\/author\/eveblakemore\/\",\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@name\":\"Eve Blakemore\"}],\"headline\":\"How do I know if I already have antivirus software?\",\"datePublished\":\"2014-02-21T17:14:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-05-16T17:57:15+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/security\/blog\/2014\/02\/21\/how-do-i-know-if-i-already-have-antivirus-software\/\"},\"wordCount\":578,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/security\/blog\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"Microsoft Security Insights\",\"Reliability and resilience\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/security\/blog\/2014\/02\/21\/how-do-i-know-if-i-already-have-antivirus-software\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/security\/blog\/2014\/02\/21\/how-do-i-know-if-i-already-have-antivirus-software\/\",\"name\":\"How do I know if I already have antivirus software? | Microsoft Security Blog\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/security\/blog\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2014-02-21T17:14:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-05-16T17:57:15+00:00\",\"description\":\"If your computer is running Windows 8, you already have antivirus software. Windows 8 includes Windows Defender, which helps protect you from viruses, spyware, and other malicious software.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/security\/blog\/2014\/02\/21\/how-do-i-know-if-i-already-have-antivirus-software\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/security\/blog\/2014\/02\/21\/how-do-i-know-if-i-already-have-antivirus-software\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/security\/blog\/2014\/02\/21\/how-do-i-know-if-i-already-have-antivirus-software\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/security\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"How do I know if I already have antivirus software?\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/security\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/security\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"Microsoft Security Blog\",\"description\":\"Expert coverage of cybersecurity topics\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/security\/blog\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/security\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/security\/blog\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Microsoft Security Blog\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/security\/blog\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/security\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/security\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/cropped-cropped-microsoft_logo_element.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/security\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/cropped-cropped-microsoft_logo_element.png\",\"width\":512,\"height\":512,\"caption\":\"Microsoft Security Blog\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/security\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"}}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"How do I know if I already have antivirus software? | Microsoft Security Blog","description":"If your computer is running Windows 8, you already have antivirus software. Windows 8 includes Windows Defender, which helps protect you from viruses, spyware, and other malicious software.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/security\/blog\/2014\/02\/21\/how-do-i-know-if-i-already-have-antivirus-software\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"How do I know if I already have antivirus software? | Microsoft Security Blog","og_description":"If your computer is running Windows 8, you already have antivirus software. Windows 8 includes Windows Defender, which helps protect you from viruses, spyware, and other malicious software.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/security\/blog\/2014\/02\/21\/how-do-i-know-if-i-already-have-antivirus-software\/","og_site_name":"Microsoft Security Blog","article_published_time":"2014-02-21T17:14:00+00:00","article_modified_time":"2023-05-16T17:57:15+00:00","og_image":[{"width":512,"height":512,"url":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/security\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/cropped-microsoft_logo_element.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"Eve Blakemore","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Eve Blakemore","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/security\/blog\/2014\/02\/21\/how-do-i-know-if-i-already-have-antivirus-software\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/security\/blog\/2014\/02\/21\/how-do-i-know-if-i-already-have-antivirus-software\/"},"author":[{"@id":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/security\/blog\/author\/eveblakemore\/","@type":"Person","@name":"Eve Blakemore"}],"headline":"How do I know if I already have antivirus software?","datePublished":"2014-02-21T17:14:00+00:00","dateModified":"2023-05-16T17:57:15+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/security\/blog\/2014\/02\/21\/how-do-i-know-if-i-already-have-antivirus-software\/"},"wordCount":578,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/security\/blog\/#organization"},"keywords":["Microsoft Security Insights","Reliability and resilience"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/security\/blog\/2014\/02\/21\/how-do-i-know-if-i-already-have-antivirus-software\/","url":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/security\/blog\/2014\/02\/21\/how-do-i-know-if-i-already-have-antivirus-software\/","name":"How do I know if I already have antivirus software? | Microsoft Security Blog","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/security\/blog\/#website"},"datePublished":"2014-02-21T17:14:00+00:00","dateModified":"2023-05-16T17:57:15+00:00","description":"If your computer is running Windows 8, you already have antivirus software. Windows 8 includes Windows Defender, which helps protect you from viruses, spyware, and other malicious software.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/security\/blog\/2014\/02\/21\/how-do-i-know-if-i-already-have-antivirus-software\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/security\/blog\/2014\/02\/21\/how-do-i-know-if-i-already-have-antivirus-software\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/security\/blog\/2014\/02\/21\/how-do-i-know-if-i-already-have-antivirus-software\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/security\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"How do I know if I already have antivirus software?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/security\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/security\/blog\/","name":"Microsoft Security Blog","description":"Expert coverage of cybersecurity topics","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/security\/blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/security\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/security\/blog\/#organization","name":"Microsoft Security Blog","url":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/security\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/security\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/security\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/cropped-cropped-microsoft_logo_element.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/security\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/cropped-cropped-microsoft_logo_element.png","width":512,"height":512,"caption":"Microsoft Security Blog"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/security\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}}]}},"msxcm_display_generated_audio":false,"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"Microsoft Security Blog","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/security\/blog","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/security\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1070","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/security\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/security\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/security\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/security\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1070"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/security\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1070\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/security\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1070"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"content-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/security\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/content-type?post=1070"},{"taxonomy":"topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/security\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/topic?post=1070"},{"taxonomy":"products","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/security\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/products?post=1070"},{"taxonomy":"threat-intelligence","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/security\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/threat-intelligence?post=1070"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/security\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1070"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/security\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=1070"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}