Hi,

How can we add Windows Defender icon to the system tray like we had MSE?

You can pin it to the taskbar if you like.  Perform a search for Defender and when the Windows Defender icon appears, right-click on it and then Pin to Taskbar.

Well, you can't, and that is most unfortunate. Microsoft should make it possible for you do to that. The Taskbar and Start Menu are not the System Tray, and the Action Center flag in the System Tray has several other functions than to indicate the Windows Defender status.

• Edited by groucho43 Friday, February 08, 2013 9:50 AM

Well, you can't, and that is most unfortunate. Microsoft should make it possible for you do to that. The Taskbar and Start Menu are not the System Tray, and the Action Center flag in the System Tray has several other functions than to indicate the Windows Defender status.

• Edited by groucho43 Friday, February 08, 2013 9:50 AM

It is not the "System Tray", it's the "Notification Area". It's Microsoft finally following its own guidelines for the notification area. If there's a problem, you will get notified via this area. Otherwise, your machine is running fine (at least in terms of Defender)

It is not the "System Tray", it's the "Notification Area".

That's being pedantic.

It's commonly known as the system tray and it was obvious what the OP meant.

Microsoft has even been inconsistent in what they call it, e.g. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/162613

It stems from the executable named systray.exe way back in '95.

Common usage trumps definition every time.

If people wanted to call it the 'plorple' and everyone knew that what you meant when you said plorple, then it would be the plorple, no matter what the 'official' name was.

Note: I dislike that the plorple no longer has that 3D indented look it used to...You know what I mean? The one that made it look like a tray.

use a search in destop start button search for defender, create desktop short cut, pin to task bar.

My Icon tray, love icons, Notice over by the start I have a quick launch, also notice the dvd, that launches dvd play in windows media player

flip3d in 8 works too

• Edited by colakid Friday, February 08, 2013 9:00 PM
• Proposed as answer by colakid Friday, February 08, 2013 9:01 PM

Try the tool "Windows Defender Status Manager"

http://www.itknowledge24.com/

use a search in destop start button search for defender, create desktop short cut, pin to task bar.

My Icon tray, love icons, Notice over by the start I have a quick launch, also notice the dvd, that launches dvd play in windows media player

flip3d in 8 works too

• Edited by colakid Friday, February 08, 2013 9:00 PM
• Proposed as answer by colakid Friday, February 08, 2013 9:01 PM

kid can you give us the tip to get 3dflip in 8, this is the best way to pin defender to taskbar.

Wow flip in 8 I need that please.

It is not the "System Tray", it's the "Notification Area". It's Microsoft finally following its own guidelines for the notification area. If there's a problem, you will get notified via this area. Otherwise, your machine is running fine (at least in terms of Defender)

OK, well, then what he's talking about is some kind of "notification" as to the operational status of Defender.  With MSE you got feedback in the systray icon apart from merely letting you know the program was resident and actually monitoring your system--you got feedback when you were doing a scan through the same icon, and in the right-click context file menu you were provided with an option to scan each file or directory or drive, etc., that you might select.  Win8 Defender doesn't provide that, either--I had to hack one into the shell to mimic that same functionality in MSE. When I'm doing a scan with Defender nothing appears in the Action Center to let me know what's going on, etc.

Microsoft is acting as if it's embarrassed about Defender and wants to hide any appearance that the program is present & working...;)   The irony is that although Microsoft claims Defender is better than MSE, Defender's GUI feedback is noticeably inferior to MSE's.  Yet another set of options Microsoft weirdly overlooked for Windows 8. I have a shortcut to Defender on my Win8 desktop, but that's nowhere near as good as the information provided by the MSE systray program icon.   MSE simply does it better in that regard.

indeed, user may think they don't even have an antivirus

another thing is that they've removed right click menu to scan files/folders, needing registry hacks to add it yourself: http://www.howtogeek.com/137083/how-to-add-scan-with-windows-defender-to-the-context-menu-in-windows-8/

Thanks, 'Windows Defender Status Manager' helped me with getting Defender on my tray in Windows 8 x64.

It is not the "System Tray", it's the "Notification Area". It's Microsoft finally following its own guidelines for the notification area. If there's a problem, you will get notified via this area. Otherwise, your machine is running fine (at least in terms of Defender)

OK, well, then what he's talking about is some kind of "notification" as to the operational status of Defender.  With MSE you got feedback in the systray icon apart from merely letting you know the program was resident and actually monitoring your system--you got feedback when you were doing a scan through the same icon, and in the right-click context file menu you were provided with an option to scan each file or directory or drive, etc., that you might select.  Win8 Defender doesn't provide that, either--I had to hack one into the shell to mimic that same functionality in MSE. When I'm doing a scan with Defender nothing appears in the Action Center to let me know what's going on, etc.

Microsoft is acting as if it's embarrassed about Defender and wants to hide any appearance that the program is present & working...;)   The irony is that although Microsoft claims Defender is better than MSE, Defender's GUI feedback is noticeably inferior to MSE's.  Yet another set of options Microsoft weirdly overlooked for Windows 8. I have a shortcut to Defender on my Win8 desktop, but that's nowhere near as good as the information provided by the MSE systray program icon.   MSE simply does it better in that regard.

Two years later, I agree with this completely. I just moved from Windows 7 to Windows 8.1, and the changes between MSE and Windows Defender feels like a step backwards, if only because there is no option for an icon in the system tray notification area (sheesh!).

That was not the original post question.  Of course we can pin a program to taskbar. 

Prior to this version, we could see the security essentials when we wanted in the tray on the right. I liked the feedback in green/orange/red, dependent on the update and connection status.

It is astonishing to me how much the developers and product managers at MS meddle with established solutions for no apparent reason other than meeting fights, under an utter disregard to us, the users.  Lucky me, I can still click on reverse to go back to W7, and have time for the transition to Apple.  Generally: the new windows appearance resembles works of an apprentice without any experience in UI design and cognitive science.   No Classic Windows Scheme, no Windows anymore to me.  Its that simple.  Imagine a car without a steering wheel or customary pedals.  Would you drive that?