Microsoft he said the availability of Windows Defender Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) on devices running Windows 7 or Windows 8.1.
Microsoft first released Advanced Threat Protection in the Fall Creators Update of Windows 10, and at the time it was an exclusive feature for Windows 10.
The company revealed a few months after that it will release Windows Defender Advanced Threat Protection in older versions of Windows 7 and 8.1.
According to the company, the delivery schedule of a first beta was until the spring of 2018 and in the summer of 2018 the final version would be released. Obviously nothing went as planned, except that the company released a preview of Advanced Thread Protection in 2018.
Last week, Microsoft announced that the feature is now available to companies running systems running Windows 7 or Windows 8.1.
However, Advanced Threat Protection remains a feature only for Enterprise and Pro versions. So it can be used on running devices Windows 7 Service Pack 1 Pro ή Enterprise and Windows 8.1 Pro ή Enterprise.
Why does Microsoft have ATP in older versions of Windows?
Microsoft released some features only for Windows 10 when the operating system was released in 2015. So there were applications like Microsoft Edge, which did not work on older but supported versions of Windows.
According to the company, ATP is available in older versions of Windows to "help customers stay safe when upgrading to Windows 10".
Support for Microsoft Windows 7 is running out in January 2020. The customers of the companies can extend the support period up to three years, but the cost of support doubles each year until it reaches a maximum of $ 200 per device in the third year on devices running Windows 7 Pro.
So corporate customers may use Windows 7 until 2023. Support for Microsoft's Windows 8.1 operating system expires in January 2023. Microsoft has not yet announced whether Enterprise Edition customers will be able to expand support period for this operating system.
