Windows 10 comes with Microsoft Windows Defender anti-virus and firewall products pre-installed. Windows Defender is free and provides very good protection against all sorts of threats that Windows users might encounter. It also installs a plugin for Microsoft Edge browser to protect you from malicious and phishing sites. And now Microsoft has finally released the Windows Defender extension for the Chrome web browser.
Just like in the Edge browser, it shows an icon in the Chrome browser’s toolbar. You can click on this icon to view some of the options related to the Windows Defender extension. You can basically toggle them on or off using the option “Safeguard against suspicious and malicious sites”.
When you happen to stumble upon a malicious or phishing website, Windows Defender extension blocks the website and instead displays red colored warning page – “This website has been reported as unsafe”. The Windows Defender icon in the browser toolbar also turns into red color blocking icon.
Microsoft offers two links to test your newly installed Windows Defender extension. You can open these links by clicking on the Windows Defender icon in the browser and then clicking on “Demonstrate this extension’s protection”. You can see a demonstration of how your browser blocks a phishing page or a malware page.
This extension does not require you to have Windows Defender active or enabled. Even if you have some third-party antivirus product installed in your Windows PC, this extension will continue to defend you from various harmful websites.
Since Microsoft has decided to adopt Chromium code for Edge browser, we will perhaps see more extensions designed by Microsoft for Edge working in Chrome web browser too. There is some rumor that Microsoft will be releasing Windows Defender extension for Mozilla Firefox too.
You can get Windows Defender Browser Protection for Chrome browser from https://browserprotection.microsoft.com/.