Microsoft is named a Leader in the 2026 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Endpoint Protection

Microsoft is named a Leader in the 2026 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Endpoint Protection. The post Microsoft is named a Leader in the 2026 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Endpoint Protection appeared first on Microsoft Security Blog .

As threats become more coordinated and faster to execute, endpoint protection has become the proving ground for modern defense. For the seventh consecutive time, Microsoft has been named a Leader in the 2026 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Endpoint Protection . We believe this reflects both the strength of our technology, and the trust customers place in Microsoft Defender. Microsoft Defender delivers industry-leading Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR), powered by global threat intelligence and built for the scale and speed of today’s attacks.

For many of our customers, Defender’s endpoint capabilities are the foundation for a coordinated system of defense that spans endpoints, identities, email, apps, cloud, and data. Bringing these signals together changes what’s possible. It enables earlier detection, stronger prevention, and capabilities like predictive shielding that help stop attacks before they spread. This is the shift underway in security: from isolated tools to a connected system that can see across the environment, understand what’s changing, and take action in real time.

It’s what makes the next generation of AI-driven, agentic security possible and helps defenders stay ahead of threats, not just respond to them. Get started with Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Sustained innovation to stay ahead of changing threats Over the past year, Microsoft has introduced key advancements to endpoint protection that have empowered defenders to stay ahead of evolving cyberthreats, including: Proactive defense during attacks: Attack disruption now expands autonomous protection to predicting and blocking an adversary’s next move during active attacks .

It acts just in time to harden against some of the most common attacker tactics, such as group policy objects (GPOs), Safeboot, and identity compromise, to stop lateral movement and defend dynamically. Custom telemetry: With new custom data collection capabilities , Defender makes it easy for security teams to collect specialized data directly within the Defender portal. It allows organizations to extend their endpoint telemetry beyond the 200+ default signals to support tailored detections and advanced hunting scenarios, such as AMSI for hunting over script content and Kerberos for auth-based and network attacks.

Simplified onboarding: To help security teams onboard simply and securely, we’ve built new Defender deployment tools for Windows and Linux, which handle the entire process for you. Just download a single package and it will dynamically adapt to the operating system, take care of prerequisites, and install the latest version of Defender available as needed for older devices that don’t have it already built in. The Defender deployment tools eliminate friction, automate tricky steps, and provide predictability throughout the onboarding journey.