Windows Defender Real-Time Protection: Why It Matters

Maintaining security when connecting to the Internet, using programs and devices, is essential. There are many attacks that we can suffer simply by visiting a website or accessing a platform. But luckily we can have many tools that in one way or another can help us avoid these problems. We speak for example of antivirus, firewall and other similar services. In this article, we are going to talk about how to activate real-time protection in Windows Defender , the default antivirus that comes with Microsoft systems.

Protecting equipment at all times is essential

We can say that security is not just carrying out a scan for viruses from time to time. It is not installing an antivirus and when we remember, give it a scan to see if there is any variety of malware and eliminate it. It is much more than this.

Windows Defender Real-Time Protection

To properly protect our equipment, constant security is essential. We must always preserve the data, make sure that when browsing a malicious file is not downloaded and, in case of a problem, detect it right at the moment. For this it is necessary to have an antivirus that acts in real time.

Keep in mind that many types of malware can act in the shadows. For example logic bomb attacks could even be set to run after a while. This means that we can have malicious software on our computer without our knowing it and, when the time comes, run.

If we have active protection, a good antivirus that constantly analyzes downloaded files, visited pages, the content that we install … We can improve security. It is going to be something that we must apply in our systems.

Windows Defender real-time protection

Without a doubt, Windows Defender is a fundamental antivirus for users of the Microsoft operating system. It comes integrated, it is free and it also has many interesting functions. One of them is real-time protection. This is something that, as we have mentioned, is very useful to avoid problems that could put our equipment at risk.

To activate real-time protection, you simply have to follow a series of steps that we are going to explain. This way we will make sure that the antivirus fulfills its function perfectly and that our system will be protected. One more way to avoid performance-impacting issues.

We have to go to Start. Once there, we go to Windows Security and we give Antivirus and Threat Protection, which is the second option that we will see in the menu on the left.

Protección y virus y amenazas

There we have to give to Manage the configuration . We will see it under the section Antivirus settings and protection against threats.

In this section we will see different options, as we can see in the image. One of them is real-time protection, which is the first to appear. This protection is responsible for searching for malware and preventing it from being installed or executed on our computer.

Protección en tiempo real de Windows Defender

It is important that we have this option activated. Otherwise we would not be fully protected and malware could sneak in. Its function is to interrupt a process as soon as it finds something malicious that could affect us.

Also, as we can see, it is possible to activate cloud-based protection, tampering protection or automatic sample submission.

The antivirus is not enough to be protected

We have seen how to activate Windows Defender real-time protection. A simple and fast process and that we should always have activated, unless a problem has occurred. But it should be noted that just having a good antivirus installed is not enough. It is essential to take other types of measures.

An example that we can mention is the need to always have all the updates installed . In many cases, vulnerabilities appear that can be exploited by hackers and thus launch their attacks. We can correct these bugs through patches and updates.

But without a doubt something that can not be missing is common sense. Most attacks will require some kind of interaction from the victim. Some error, download a file, open an e-mail … Therefore, it is something that we must keep in mind at all times.

We will also show some attacks for which antivirus is not enough. Threats for which it will not be able to protect us or at least not in many cases.

Phishing attacks

Something very present in cyber attacks is Phishing . Cybercriminals use this method to steal credentials and passwords. It basically consists of sending a message, which is usually via SMS or email, for the victim to click and log in.

This data will be sent to a server controlled by the attackers. This is one of the ways they have to steal keys and compromise our privacy. In this case, an antivirus, even though we have real-time protection activated in Windows Defender, could not protect us.

Malicious links on web pages

Nor could they protect us from false links and malicious pages that we access. Similar to Phishing, they could introduce links that lead us to dangerous content, such as forms where they could collect our data.

In this case, common sense will be essential. We must always observe very well what type of page we enter and what information we are going to give. Otherwise our privacy could be compromised.

Vulnerabilities that can be exploited

Without a doubt , vulnerabilities , security flaws, are very present. Cybercriminals could attack these errors to achieve their goal. They could sneak in a back door to access the system, prevent the computer from working properly, steal information … To avoid this there is no better way than to always have all the patches installed, beyond having an antivirus.

Connections in insecure networks

An antivirus will also not be able to protect us when connecting to a public Wi-Fi network and that is insecure. This could cause us to access an unencrypted page and an intruder could steal the information. This is what is known as a Man-in-the-Middle attack. A very common method of compromising privacy is precisely taking advantage of insecure Wi-Fi networks.

For all this, an antivirus is not enough to be completely protected on the network. However, it is a fundamental piece that we cannot ignore. You always have to have security software, regardless of the measures we take.