An antivirus policy, created from the Endpoint security workload in the Microsoft Intune admin center, is the most direct and purpose-built method for managing Microsoft Defender Antivirus settings. This policy type provides granular control over Defender's configuration, including settings specifically designed to prevent users from altering security features. By configuring the "Allow user access to Microsoft Defender app" setting to "Not allowed" and enabling "Tamper Protection" within this policy, an administrator can effectively prevent users from disabling or modifying Microsoft Defender for Endpoint components on their devices.

A. From the Microsoft Intune admin center, create a security baseline. While a security baseline can configure Defender settings, it is a pre-defined template of recommended settings. An antivirus policy offers more specific and granular control for this particular task.
C. From the Microsoft Entra admin center, create a Conditional Access policy. Conditional Access policies grant or block access to resources based on conditions (like device compliance). They do not configure security settings directly on the endpoint itself.
D. From the Microsoft Intune admin center, create a device compliance policy. A compliance policy evaluates and reports on a device's state (e.g., if antivirus is active) but does not actively enforce the setting or prevent a user from changing it. ---

1. Microsoft Learn | Intune Documentation. "Antivirus policy for endpoint security in Intune." This document explicitly states

"Use endpoint security policies for antivirus to manage the security settings for managed devices." It details the creation of these policies to configure Microsoft Defender Antivirus.

Section: "Create an Antivirus policy" and "Settings for Microsoft Defender Antivirus profiles."

2. Microsoft Learn | Intune Documentation. "Settings for Windows 10/11 Antivirus policy in Microsoft Intune." This page lists the specific settings available in an Antivirus policy.

Section: "Defender"

Specific Setting: "Allow user access to Microsoft Defender app" - The description notes that setting this to 'Not allowed' prevents users from accessing the UI.

3. Microsoft Learn | Intune Documentation. "Protect Microsoft Defender Antivirus with tamper protection." This document explains that Tamper Protection is a key feature to prevent unauthorized changes and is managed through Intune.

Section: "Manage tamper protection for your organization using Microsoft Intune." It specifies using an Endpoint security > Antivirus policy.

4. Microsoft Learn | Intune Documentation. "Use security baselines to configure Windows devices in Intune." This source describes baselines as pre-configured groups of settings

confirming they are templates rather than a tool for granular

specific configuration changes.

Section: "What are security baselines."