When using the Internet from our computer on a day-to-day basis, it is important to have a tool that protects us from any threat in the form of viruses and malware. Microsoft introduced its own free antivirus, Windows Defender, in Windows 10, capable of doing a fairly efficient job. To keep its database up to date, it is updated once every day. If this seems little to us, there is a trick that allows us to update it more frequently.
The importance of having an updated antivirus is very important. Microsoft knows this and frequently updates Windows Defender. However, we can decide for ourselves, how often we want it to be updated, with a few simple steps.
Updates in Windows Defender
Keeping Windows Defender updated is a fundamental task to ensure that our computer has the latest technology and features to be able to deal with any new attack technique and malware. To do this, Microsoft’s antivirus is updated once a day together with Windows Update. This is something that it does by default and from the program’s own settings it cannot be configured or changed.
However, it is possible to accelerate the frequency of your updates, so that it takes care of installing signatures several times a day, as long as they are available. In this way, we almost make sure to be protected almost to the minute from any type of virus or malware that has been released. To make this change we will use a tool built into Windows called Local Group Policy Editor.
Set the time of each update
The Windows group policy editor is a powerful and somewhat unknown tool with which we can modify a lot of options that are half hidden or to which we do not have easy access.
To open it we are going to use the keyboard shortcut “Windows + R” which will open the Run command. We write gpedit.msc and press Enter. This will open a window with the Editor. Next, we must navigate to the following route:
Configuración del equipo / Plantillas administrativas / Componentes de Windows / Antivirus de Microsoft Defender / Actualizaciones de inteligencia de seguridad
Once here, within the options that appear on the right side, we must search and locate the entry “Specify the interval to search for security intelligence updates” . This policy setting allows us to specify the interval in which to check for security intelligence updates, with values between 1 (every hour) and 24 (once a day).
Next, we double click on it and a new window will appear. In it we will mark the “Enabled” box at the top. This will enable the “Options” section to be enabled in the lower left, where we must specify the interval to search for updates. Finally, click on “Apply” and “OK” so that the changes are saved.
From this point on, Windows Defender will receive updates on security intelligence within the time interval that we have configured.
