Defender Functionality Changes With CrowdStrike Falcon

CrowdStrike Falcon Sensor is a next-generation Antivirus and Endpoint protection solution. This product incorporates identification and prevention of known malware, machine learning for unknown malware, and many other advanced protection techniques. Some Falcon features integrate with Windows Defender.

How does Falcon Sensor change the functionality of Windows Defender

Installation of CrowdStrike Falcon Sensor changes some Windows Defender features and makes other features unnecessary. Below are details about how Windows Defender features are modified. By default, Windows Defender features are disabled when Falcon Sensor is installed.

Enabling Windows Defender Features

Windows Defender features can be turned on by switching “Periodic scanning” from Off to On in the Windows Virus & settings pane.

Note:

Re-enabling Defender requires administrator permissions.

Real-time protection

When Falcon Sensor is installed, real-time protection is provided by Falcon instead of Windows Defender. Consequently, the Real-time protection feature for Defender is grayed out and set to off:

Open

Virus Definitions / Security Intelligence Updates

Falcon Sensor doesn’t use the same virus definitions as Windows Defender. Consequently, it’s not important that Windows Defender frequently updates definitions or security intelligence. However, it is possible to manually update Defender security intelligence. This can be useful if you plan to use Defender to perform a custom scan of a file or folder.

To manually force an update for Window Defender security intelligence, open Virus & threat protection, locate Virus & threat protection updates, and click “Check for updates.”

Note: Virus & threat protection updates only affects Windows Defender. Updates for Falcon Sensor are handle automatically.

Perform a full, quick, or custom scan with Windows Defender

To perform a full, quick, or custom scan with Windows Defender open Virus & threat protection. Under Current threats, you can select Scan options:

In Scan options, you can select Quick scan, Full scan, Custom scan, or Windows Defender Offline scan. Custom scan can be used to select specific files or folders.