How to Turn Off the Antivirus Program on Windows 10

This guide explains how to turn Off the Antivirus Program on Windows 10, with clear steps, practical tips, and important checks before you begin.

1. Turn off Windows Defender in Group Policy

Step 1: Go to search on Windows (1) => search with the keyword "gpedit" (1) => Edit group policy (1) . Or you press Windows + R key combination to open the Run dialog box and enter the keyword " gpedit. msc " and then press OK .

Step 2: Access the following link " Computer Configuration => Administrative Templates => Windows Components => Windows Defender Antivirus ". And click on Turn off Windows Defender Antivirus .

Step 3: Select Enable to disable Windows Defender Antivirus. Then click Apply and OK to save the settings.

2. Disable the antivirus program on Windows 10 through the Registry

Step 1: Go to the search box on Windows 10 (1) => search with the keyword registry (2) => Registry Editor (3) . Or you can press Windows + R key combination to open the Run dialog box and enter the keyword " regedit " and press OK .

Step 2: Access the registry key by following the path " HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREPoliciesMicrosoftWindows Defender ".

Then click on the registry key with the name DisableAntiSpyware .

If you do not see this registry key appear, right-click in the space, select New => DWORD (32 bit) and name the key as above.

Step 3: In that registry key, select Hexadecimal (1) in the Base section and leave the value as 1 in the Value data section (2) . Then click OK to save.

When Windows Defender Antivirus is turned off, the taskbar icon will have a red x.

Windows Defender is quite compact and stable, but sometimes they make your computer slow and work less effectively when we install more anti-virus software on your computer. By turning off the antivirus program on Windows 10 in the article, you can turn them off and help improve computer performance. Good luck!