windows defender no longer free?

[bearsboi]

my pc had to reboot after losing power do to a storm and i had previously manually disabled windows update on startup so it never should have happened in the first place, but upon turning my pc back on windows forced an update which apparently now makes windows defender a paid service and not usable unless you pay a subscription fee. did anyone else get this?

if microsoft continues down this road this is especially concerning because most games on steam only work on windows, so this OS monopoly they have, paired with predatory practices like this might make me quit gaming entirely

[NakiBest]

What is your WIndows OS version?

[bearsboi]

Originally posted by NakiBest:

What is your WIndows OS version?

11

[Boblin the Goblin]

Windows defender is free.

[Wolfpig]

Have you might encountered this window?

https://www.pcmag.com/news/wtf-do-i-have-to-pay-for-microsofts-defender-antivirus-now

[Kargor]

windows is getting more complicated and confusing every day -- "Defender" is the virus scanner, right? Seems to work fine for me:

https://i.ibb.co/FBXRzWd/Virus.png

[breadman]

i dunno what's going on in your pc but windows defender is free

maybe your pc is infected with malware

[Crazy Tiger]

It's free, OP, you didn't read the screen properly.

Edit: Read the link Wolfpig gave, it explains things to you. Basically it's an advert for Defender so you know it can also be used on non-Windows systems, and that's paid. Simply put, Defender is free, cross-platform Defender is not.

[Master.Constructor]

Sounds like you've been hacked / compromised / infected with something.

[bearsboi]

Originally posted by Wolfpig:

Have you might encountered this window?

https://www.pcmag.com/news/wtf-do-i-have-to-pay-for-microsofts-defender-antivirus-now

yes this is the window i got and everything on it is saying i now need to purchase defender

[Crashed]

Originally posted by bearsboi:

Originally posted by NakiBest:

What is your WIndows OS version?

11

You must be thinkning of the Microsoft 365 subscription. The basic antivirus is free and will likely remain that way for the forseeable future.

As for most games only working on Windows, the truth is that while most games are written solely for the Win32 API, a large portion of them, even some DirectX 12 titles thanks to a translation layer, can run just fine on Linux, though in my experience the compatibility layers do seem to add stutter from shader recompilation.

[bearsboi]

Originally posted by Crazy Tiger:

It's free, OP, you didn't read the screen properly.

Edit: Read the link Wolfpig gave, it explains things to you. Basically it's an advert for Defender so you know it can also be used on non-Windows systems, and that's paid. Simply put, Defender is free, cross-platform Defender is not.

thats interesting because it doesnt explain that at all, and on the official page it says defender for windows is no longer free and you need to purchase a subscription to use it

[Aachen]

Link to that official page?

[Crazy Tiger]

Originally posted by bearsboi:

Originally posted by Crazy Tiger:

It's free, OP, you didn't read the screen properly.

Edit: Read the link Wolfpig gave, it explains things to you. Basically it's an advert for Defender so you know it can also be used on non-Windows systems, and that's paid. Simply put, Defender is free, cross-platform Defender is not.

thats interesting because it doesnt explain that at all, and on the official page it says defender for windows is no longer free and you need to purchase a subscription to use it

Defender for 365 is paid, the basic Defender in Win10/11 is free. There are different versions of Defender. If you look at the info for the 365 version, then yes you'll find that you need the 365 sub for it.

The article also talks about the basic Defender being free. It's in the "Windows Users Need Not Worry" part of the article.

[Master.Constructor]

There's no way that Microsoft would try to get you to pay for something you didn't have to. That's just not like them at all.

[bearsboi]

Originally posted by Crazy Tiger:

Originally posted by bearsboi:

thats interesting because it doesnt explain that at all, and on the official page it says defender for windows is no longer free and you need to purchase a subscription to use it

Defender for 365 is paid, the basic Defender in Win10/11 is free. There are different versions of Defender. If you look at the info for the 365 version, then yes you'll find that you need the 365 sub for it.

The article also talks about the basic Defender being free. It's in the "Windows Users Need Not Worry" part of the article.

i saw that part in the article but now windows security on my pc doesnt seem to work now and is giving errors about memory integrity being turned off and unable to perform any scans. the update seems to have broken it, then when i tried to launch defender initially is when i got the screen that said i needed to subscribe, it mentioned nothing about a cross platform cloud thing, it just said you must be signed into microsoft 365 to continue with defender