The Windows Defender Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) - a unified endpoint security platform that helps stop breaches - is coming to Windows 7 SP1 and Windows 8.1.

Starting this summer, Microsoft's customers moving to Windows 10 can add Windows Defender ATP Endpoint Detection & Response (EDR) functionality to their Windows 7, and Windows 8.1 devices, and get a holistic view across their endpoints.

For Windows 7 and Windows 8.1, Microsoft is building a behavioral based EDR solution to give security teams insights into threats on their endpoints. All detections and events are surfaced in Windows Defender Security Center, the cloud-based console for Windows Defender ATP. Security teams benefit from correlated alerts for known and unknown adversaries, additional threat intelligence, and a detailed machine timeline for further investigations and manual response options.

This solution can run side-by-side with third-party antivirus solutions, although Microsoft says that it is better together with Windows Defender Antivirus. With Windows Defender Antivirus, security teams can see all malware detections and trigger response actions to prevent the spread of malware, in the same console.

Microsoft's customers will get access to a public preview of the down-level EDR solution this spring, allowing security teams to also detect suspicious behavior on their Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 devices - using a single solution.