Windows 8 Defender

[martinwtaylor]

Is there a way to prevent Lansweeper reporting a Windows 8 workstation running Windows Defender as having no anti-virus product?

[martinwtaylor]

I am trying to detect 'Windows Defender' in Windows 8. This is not like Windows Defender in Vista or 7, which is not a full anti-virus application.

Please have a proper look at Windows Defender in Windows 8 via the Control Panel. It looks exactly like, and behaves exactly like, Microsoft Security Essentials only it is built-in. Effectively, Windows 8 has anti-virus built-in as standard. This is what I want detected as anti-virus installed.

[martinwtaylor]

Thank you. In the long term, will Lansweeper be upgraded to recognise W8 Defender (which is Microsoft Security Essentials for W8) as an anti-virus product?

[Hemoco]

MartinT wrote:
Thank you. In the long term, will Lansweeper be upgraded to recognise W8 Defender (which is Microsoft Security Essentials for W8) as an anti-virus product?

Could you please clarify whether you are trying to detect Windows Defender or Microsoft Security Essentials. These are two different software packages.

- MS Security Essentials should be listed under Add/Remove Programs and will therefore be scanned as part of standard Lansweeper software scanning. It will also be taken into account for anti-virus software reports, as anti-virus reports are generated based on scanned software.
Scanned software is compared against the list found in the Lansweeper configuration console under Configuration\Anti-virus Software, which you can manually add entries to. A machine that has any of the specified software packages installed is deemed to have anti-virus software.

- Windows Defender is not listed under Add/Remove Programs and is therefore not scanned as part of standard Lansweeper software scanning. It must be detected through a custom file or registry scan instead.

[Hemoco]

You would have to perform a registry scan to detect Windows Defender and its status (enabled/disabled) and create a custom report that takes these registry scans into account. More information on registry scanning can be found on page 87 and beyond of our online documentation: http://www.lansweeper.com/documentation.pdf

If you require assistance building the custom report, please contact us at support@lansweeper.com and let us know which registry key you will be scanning.