Security Policy Errors

How to Get Alerts When Microsoft Defender Settings Change

Huma Ashraf Ch Oct 7, 2026 869 views

Question details

The user needs a reliable monitoring method to receive alerts whenever Microsoft Defender configurations and settings are modified.

How to Get Alerts for Microsoft Defender Setting Changes

Product: Microsoft Defender
Device & OS: Windows
Scenario: Setting up continuous security monitoring to track unauthorized or administrative changes to antivirus and firewall settings.
Observed behavior: Microsoft Defender does not provide native, straightforward email alerts for every configuration change, requiring system administrators to rely on event logs or third-party tools.

Before you start

Ensure you have local administrator privileges on the target machines and access to your organization's SIEM or Windows Event Viewer before adjusting audit policies.

Solution 1Recommended

Enable Audit Policies and Integrate with a SIEM

Configure Windows to log security policy changes and forward these logs to a SIEM for real-time alerting.

Because Microsoft Defender's native severity-based alerts do not automatically cover all configuration changes, the most robust approach is to enable Windows Advanced Audit Policies. This forces the system to log changes, which can then be forwarded and alerted on by a central system.

Open Local Group Policy Editor

Press Win + R, type 'gpedit.msc', and press Enter to launch the Local Group Policy Editor.

Navigate to Advanced Audit Policies

Go to Computer Configuration > Windows Settings > Security Settings > Advanced Audit Policy Configuration > System Audit Policies.

Enable Policy Change Auditing

Select 'Policy Change' and enable auditing for 'Audit Policy Change' and 'Audit Other System Events' for both Success and Failure.

Configure Event Forwarding or SIEM

Set up Windows Event Forwarding (WEF) to send the generated Security event logs to your central log collector or SIEM tool.

Create Custom Alert Rules

In your SIEM dashboard, create custom detection rules targeting the specific Event IDs generated by Defender setting modifications to trigger email alerts.

Enable Audit Policies and Integrate with a SIEM

Custom Alerting: Using a SIEM allows you to granularly filter out noise and only alert your security team about critical configuration changes.

Solution 2

Use Microsoft Defender Advanced Hunting

Leverage Microsoft Defender XDR's advanced hunting capabilities to query and alert on configuration changes in enterprise environments.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Do Microsoft Defender's default email alerts notify me of configuration changes?

No. The default severity-based email alerts in Microsoft Defender are primarily designed to notify administrators about detected threats and malware, not standard administrative configuration changes.

What do Event IDs 4715 and 4719 indicate in Windows logs?

Event IDs 4715 and 4719 primarily relate to changes made to the system's audit policies themselves. While important for overall security monitoring, they do not necessarily represent every specific change made to Microsoft Defender's settings.

Can I use Microsoft Purview to track Defender configuration changes?

Yes. If your environment is licensed for it, you can utilize Microsoft Purview auditing to search the unified audit log for specific administrative changes made to security policies, including those affecting Defender.

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