Microsoft Defender XDR

Set up your Microsoft Defender XDR trial lab or pilot environment

4 September 2026Doc update+5 / −5 lines

In brief

The article now describes dedicated Microsoft Defender XDR trial lab or pilot setup, including tenant provisioning and subscription activation. References to the pilot guide and configuration phases were updated to use “Microsoft Defender,” and metadata was refreshed.

What Defender admins need to know

Administrators can more easily distinguish lab setup guidance from production pilot guidance. No action is required.

Summaries are generated from the documentation change itself.

Documentation change

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Applies to:

Microsoft Defender XDR

This article guides you to set up a dedicated lab environment. For information on setting up a trial in production, see the new Pilot and deploy Microsoft Defender guide.

Next steps

Phase 3: Configure & Onboard	Configure each Microsoft Defender ~~XDR~~ pillar for your Microsoft Defender ~~XDR~~ trial lab or pilot environment and onboard your endpoints.

@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@ --- title: Set up your Microsoft Defender XDR trial lab or pilot environment-description: Access Microsoft Defender portal then set up your Microsoft Defender XDR trial lab environment+description: Set up a dedicated Microsoft Defender XDR trial lab or pilot environment in the Microsoft Defender portal, including tenant provisioning and subscription activation for a non-production evaluation. search.appverid: met150 ms.service: defender-xdr ms.author: guywild@@ -14,8 +14,8 @@ ms.collection:   - highpri   - tier1 ms.topic: how-to-ms.date: 06/15/2026-ms.custom: sfi-ga-nochange, msecd-doc-authoring-1014+ms.date: 07/02/2026+ms.custom: sfi-ga-nochange, msecd-doc-authoring-1016 ai-usage: ai-assisted --- @@ -26,7 +26,7 @@ ai-usage: ai-assisted **Applies to:** - Microsoft Defender XDR -This article guides you to set up a dedicated lab environment. For information on setting up a trial in production, see the new [Pilot and deploy Microsoft Defender XDR](pilot-deploy-overview.md) guide.+This article guides you to set up a dedicated lab environment. For information on setting up a trial in production, see the new [Pilot and deploy Microsoft Defender](pilot-deploy-overview.md) guide.  > [!IMPORTANT] > Microsoft recommends that you use roles with the fewest permissions. This helps improve security for your organization. Global Administrator is a highly privileged role that should be limited to emergency scenarios when you can't use an existing role.@@ -97,7 +97,7 @@ Perform the following steps to enable your Microsoft 365 trial subscription. <a name="next-step"></a> ## Next steps -|[Phase 3: Configure & Onboard](pilot-deploy-overview.md) | Configure each Microsoft Defender XDR pillar for your Microsoft Defender XDR trial lab or pilot environment and onboard your endpoints.+|[Phase 3: Configure & Onboard](pilot-deploy-overview.md) | Configure each Microsoft Defender pillar for your Microsoft Defender trial lab or pilot environment and onboard your endpoints. |:-------|:-----|