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Evaluate Microsoft Defender Antivirus with endpoint security policies

Use endpoint security policies in the Microsoft Defender portal to configure and test Microsoft Defender Antivirus and Windows protection features. The evaluation includes real-time protection, cloud-delivered protection, network protection, attack surface reduction (ASR) rules, and tamper protection.

Prerequisites

Before you begin, make sure you have:

Configure evaluation policies

Create separate endpoint security policies for Microsoft Defender Antivirus settings, ASR rules, and tamper protection. For the complete steps to create, assign, save, edit, and verify policies, see Create an endpoint security policy and Edit an endpoint security policy.

Microsoft Defender Antivirus indicates a detection through standard Windows notifications. You can also review Microsoft Defender Antivirus scan results.

The Windows event log also records detection and engine events. For a list of event IDs and their corresponding actions, see Review event logs and error codes to troubleshoot issues with Microsoft Defender Antivirus.

Configure Microsoft Defender Antivirus settings

To configure the antivirus evaluation settings, use a Microsoft Defender Antivirus policy.

When you create the policy on the Windows policies tab of the Endpoint security policies page in the Defender portal at https://security.microsoft.com/policy-inventory?osPlatform=Windows, use these specific settings:

  • Select platform: Select Windows.
  • Select template: Select Microsoft Defender Antivirus.

When you create or modify the policy, configure the following evaluation settings on the Configuration settings tab:

  • Real-time Protection:

    Setting Value
    Allow Realtime Monitoring Allowed. Turns on and runs the real-time monitoring service (default).
    Real Time Scan Direction Monitor all files (bi-directional) (default).
    Allow Behavior Monitoring Allowed. Turns on real-time behavior monitoring (default).
    Allow On Access Protection Allowed (default).
    PUA Protection PUA Protection on. Detected items are blocked. They appear in history along with other threats.
  • Cloud protection features:

    Setting Value
    Allow Cloud Protection Allowed. Turns on cloud protection (default).
    Cloud Block Level High
    Cloud Extended Timeout Configured, 50
    Submit Samples Consent Send all samples automatically

    Standard security intelligence updates can take hours to prepare and deliver. Microsoft cloud-delivered protection can deliver updated protection against emerging threats in seconds. For more information, see Use next-gen technologies in Microsoft Defender Antivirus through cloud-delivered protection.

  • Scans:

    Setting Value
    Allow Email Scanning Allowed. Turns on email scanning.
    Allow scanning of all downloaded files and attachments Allowed (default).
    Allow Script Scanning Allowed (default).
    Allow Archive Scanning Allowed. Scans archive files (default).
    Allow Scanning Network Files Allowed. Scans network files (default).
    Allow Full Scan Removable Drive Scanning Allowed. Scans removable drives.
  • Network Protection:

    Setting Value
    Enable Network Protection Enabled (block mode)
    Allow Network Protection Down Level Network protection will be enabled downlevel.
    Allow Datagram Processing On Win Server Datagram processing on Windows Server is disabled (default).
    Disable DNS over TCP parsing DNS over TCP parsing is enabled (default).
    Disable HTTP parsing HTTP parsing is enabled (default).
    Disable SSH parsing SSH parsing is enabled (default).
    Disable TLS parsing TLS parsing is enabled (default).

    Note

    Keep Allow Datagram Processing On Win Server disabled on server roles with high UDP traffic. Enabling this setting can affect network performance and reliability. For more information, see Configure network protection in Microsoft Defender Antivirus.

  • Security Intelligence updates:

    Setting Value
    Signature Update Interval Configured, 4
    Signature Update Fallback Order
    1. Select Add for as many fallback sources as you want to specify.
    2. Enter one of the following values in each box in the order you want:
      • InternalDefinitionUpdateServer: Your own WSUS server with Microsoft Defender Antivirus updates allowed.
      • MicrosoftUpdateServer: Microsoft Update.
      • MMPC: https://www.microsoft.com/wdsi/definitions

    To remove a fallback source (populated or empty), select the check box next to the box, and then select Remove.
  • Local administrator AV:

    Prevent local administrators from changing Microsoft Defender Antivirus settings such as exclusions. Manage the settings through Defender for Endpoint security settings management.

    Setting Value
    Disable Local Admin Merge Disable Local Admin Merge
  • Threat severity default action:

    Setting Value
    Remediation action for High severity threats Quarantine. Move files to quarantine.
    Remediation action for Severe threats Quarantine. Move files to quarantine.
    Remediation action for Low severity threats Quarantine. Move files to quarantine.
    Remediation action for Moderate severity threats Quarantine. Move files to quarantine.
  • Quarantine options:

    Setting Value
    Days to Retain Cleaned Malware Configured, 60
    Allow User UI Access Allowed. Lets users access the UI (default).

Configure attack surface reduction rules

To configure the ASR rule evaluation settings, use an Attack Surface Reduction Rules policy. For more information about ASR rules, see ASR rules.

For information about the available rule actions, see Modes for ASR rules.

When you create the policy on the Windows policies tab of the Endpoint security policies page in the Defender portal at https://security.microsoft.com/policy-inventory?osPlatform=Windows, use these specific settings:

  • Select platform: Select Windows.
  • Select template: Select Attack Surface Reduction Rules.

When you create or modify the policy, configure the following evaluation settings on the Configuration settings tab:

Setting Value
Block executable content from email client and webmail Audit
Block Adobe Reader from creating child processes Audit
Block execution of potentially obfuscated scripts Audit
Block abuse of exploited vulnerable signed drivers (Device) Audit
Block Win32 API calls from Office macros Audit
Block executable files from running unless they meet a prevalence, age, or trusted list criterion Audit
Block Office communication application from creating child processes Audit
Block all Office applications from creating child processes Audit
Block use of copied or impersonated system tools Audit
Block JavaScript or VBScript from launching downloaded executable content Audit
Block credential stealing from the Windows local security authority subsystem Audit
Block Webshell creation for Servers Audit
Block Office applications from creating executable content Audit
Block untrusted and unsigned processes that run from USB Audit
Block Office applications from injecting code into other processes Audit
Block persistence through WMI event subscription Audit
Use advanced protection against ransomware Audit
Block process creations originating from PSExec and WMI commands Audit
Block rebooting machine in Safe Mode Audit
Enable Controlled Folder Access Audit Mode

Tip

If audit events identify behavior that's acceptable in your organization, add an Attack Surface Reduction Only Exclusions per-rule exclusion. For more information, see File and folder exclusions for ASR rules.

Review the audit events before you enable ASR rules or controlled folder access in block mode. For more information, see Test your ASR rules deployment.

Configure tamper protection

To configure tamper protection, use a Windows Security Experience policy.

When you create the policy on the Windows policies tab of the Endpoint security policies page in the Defender portal at https://security.microsoft.com/policy-inventory?osPlatform=Windows, use these specific settings:

  • Select platform: Select Windows.
  • Select template: Select Windows Security Experience.

When you create or modify the policy, use this specific setting on the Configuration settings tab:

Setting Value
Tamper Protection (Device) Tamper Protection (On)

Validate Microsoft Defender Antivirus protection

Use the following procedures to verify cloud connectivity and update versions on the evaluation devices.

Check cloud protection network connectivity

Cloud protection uses cloud-based machine learning and analysis to provide faster threat detection. The device must be able to reach Microsoft cloud-delivered protection for this feature to work correctly.

The following procedure applies to Windows 10 or later and Windows Server 2019 or later.

Run the following commands in an elevated Command Prompt (a Command Prompt window you opened by selecting Run as administrator):

Tip

The first command changes the directory to the latest version of <antimalware platform version> in %ProgramData%\Microsoft\Windows Defender\Platform\<antimalware platform version>. If that path doesn't exist, it goes to %ProgramFiles%\Windows Defender.

(set "_done=" & if exist "%ProgramData%\Microsoft\Windows Defender\Platform\" (for /f "delims=" %d in ('dir "%ProgramData%\Microsoft\Windows Defender\Platform" /ad /b /o:-n 2^>nul') do if not defined _done (cd /d "%ProgramData%\Microsoft\Windows Defender\Platform\%d" & set _done=1)) else (cd /d "%ProgramFiles%\Windows Defender")) >nul 2>&1

MpCmdRun.exe -ValidateMapsConnection

For more information, see Configure and manage Microsoft Defender Antivirus with the MpCmdRun command-line tool.

Check the platform update version

Run the following command in an elevated PowerShell session to display the Microsoft Defender Antivirus platform version installed on the device:

Get-MPComputerStatus | Format-Table AMProductVersion

Compare the output with the latest production channel version in the Microsoft Update Catalog.

Check the security intelligence update version

Run the following command in an elevated PowerShell session to display the security intelligence version installed on the device:

Get-MPComputerStatus | Format-Table AntivirusSignatureVersion

Compare the output with the Security intelligence update version on the Microsoft Defender Antivirus security intelligence and product updates page.

Check the engine update version

Run the following command in an elevated PowerShell session to display the Microsoft Defender Antivirus engine version installed on the device:

Get-MPComputerStatus | Format-Table AMEngineVersion

Compare the output with the Engine version on the Microsoft Defender Antivirus security intelligence and product updates page.

If you find that your settings aren't taking effect, you might have a conflict. For information on how to resolve conflicts, see Troubleshoot Microsoft Defender Antivirus settings.

Submit missed detections

If Microsoft Defender Antivirus doesn't detect a malicious file or activity during your evaluation, submit the undetected file to Microsoft for analysis: