{"id":49595,"date":"2014-10-28T18:41:43","date_gmt":"2014-10-28T18:41:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pcmatic.com\/blog\/?p=49595"},"modified":"2014-10-28T18:41:43","modified_gmt":"2014-10-28T18:41:43","slug":"updating-windows-8-defender","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pcmatic.com\/blog\/updating-windows-8-defender\/","title":{"rendered":"Updating Windows 8 Defender"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/br><\/p>\n<p><i><font SIZE=\"2\"><strong>How to force an update with Windows Defender.&#8211;PC Pitstop<\/i><\/p>\n<p><\/strong><\/font><\/p>\n<h4>Updating Windows 8 Defender<\/h4>\n<p>By Dave Taylor<\/p>\n<p><i><font SIZE=\"2\"><strong>The Question:<\/strong>I\u2019ve been running Microsoft Windows 8.1 on my new laptop and relying on Windows Defender to keep me virus and spyware free. So far, so good. But how do I update the virus definitions and other data that Windows Defender uses?<br \/>\n<\/i><\/p>\n<p><\/font><\/p>\n<p><strong>Dave&#8217;s Answer: <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>After years and years of leaving us Windows fans to suffer with third-party anti-virus and anti-malware programs of various levels of efficiency, Microsoft finally stepped up to the proverbial plate and included a surprisingly powerful and effective antivirus program with Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 called Windows Defender. What\u2019s amazing is how few people realize that it\u2019s part of the OS, but that might be because they\u2019ve been conditioned to think antivirus = third party. Or it might be because those same third party companies push aggressively to retain their market share. \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n<p>In any case, Microsoft Windows 8 \u2014 \u201cWin8\u2033 \u2014 does its best to keep everything updated on your computer and it should also be updating your virus definitions, etc, for Windows Defender too, but sometimes that doesn\u2019t seem to work.  <\/p>\n<p>No worries, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.askdavetaylor.com\/update-microsoft-windows-8-defender\/\" target=\"_blank\">here\u2019s how to force an update with Windows Defender itself.-Article Continued Here<\/a><\/p>\n<p><i><font SIZE=\"2\"><\/p>\n<p>This post is excerpted with permission from Dave Taylor.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"mailto:www.askdavetaylor.com\">Sign up for Dave&#8217;s emails<\/a> about free tech support and special offers on books, seminars, workshops and more.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>How to force an update with Windows Defender.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":31,"featured_media":49597,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[799],"tags":[4732],"class_list":["post-49595","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ask-dave-taylor","tag-window-8-defender"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - 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