Turn off Windows Defender on Windows 10

Windows Defender is a free antivirus program preinstalled by Microsoft on Windows 10 (and Windows 8.1) to protect your computer from viruses, rootkits, spyware (spyware), and other attacks. Other malicious code.

Windows Defender will automatically run on your computer, but the program will automatically disable itself if there are any other security software installed on your computer. And like Windows Defender built into Windows 8.1, users cannot completely disable this antivirus program on Windows 10.

The drawback of Windows Defender is that the program only protects at the basic level, not as the other 3rd party software. Perhaps that is why users want to disable this program permanently to install a 3rd party antivirus software, increase the security as well as safety for the computer during use.

So how to disable Windows Defender completely on Windows 10? There are several ways to turn off Windows Defender on Windows 10 , please see the detailed instructions below.

Video tutorial to disable Windows Defender

1. Disable Windows Defender with Local Group Policy

If you use Windows 10 Pro or other versions like Windows 10 Enterprise or Windows 10 Education , you can use Local Group Policy Editor to completely disable Windows Defender on your computer.

1. Press the Windows + R key combination to open the Run command window.

2. On the Run command window, enter gpedit.msc there and press Enter or click OK to open the Local Group Policy Editor window.

3. In the Local Group Policy Editor window, navigate to the key:

Computer Configuration> Administrative Templates> Windows Components => Windows Defender

Note: On Windows 10 1803 or later, the Windows Defender option is replaced with Windows Defender Antivirus, choose this and do the same.

4. In the right pane, find and double-click the Turn off Windows Defender option .

5. Select Enabled to disable Windows Defender.

6. Click Apply .

7. Click OK .

After you have completed the steps, if you notice, you will see the Windows Defender icon still displayed in the system tray. To remove this icon, you simply need to reboot your computer.

If you want to re-activate Windows Defender, perform the same steps, and at step 5, select the Not configured option, restart your computer to apply the changes.

2. Disable Windows Defender with the Registry

If you use Windows 10 Home , you cannot access Local Group Policy Editor. However, you can still disable Windows Defender using the Registry .

Note:

Before performing the following steps, you should make a backup of the Registry to avoid a bad situation.

1. Press the Windows + R key combination to open the Run command window, then enter regedit there and press Enter (or click OK) to open the Registry.

2. On the Registry window, navigate to the key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREPoliciesMicrosoftWindows Defender

3. If DWORD DisableAntiSpyware is not found, right-click any space, then select New => DWORD (32-bit) Value .

4. Name this new key DisableAntiSpyware .

5. Double-click the new key you just created, set the value in the Value Data frame from 0 to 1 .

6. Restart your computer to complete the process.

If you want to re-enable Windows Defender, perform the same steps, and in step 5 you set the value in the Value Data frame from 1 to 0 , restart your computer to apply the change.

3. Disable Windows Defender temporarily using the Settings application

From Windows 10 version 1803 or later, follow these instructions to temporarily disable Windows Defender:

Enter Windows Defender Security Center in the search box to open Windows Defender Security Center, click the Settings icon in the lower left corner.

Scroll down and click Virus & threat protection settings :

It is possible to turn off Real-time protection .

If you use the older Windows 10 version and want to disable Windows Defender temporarily, follow the steps below:

1. Open the Settings application.

2. On the Settings window, find and click Update & security .

3. Next click on Windows Defender .

4. Change the Real-time protection option to OFF .

Depending on the habit of using a computer, you can choose to turn off Windows Defender accordingly. However, it should be noted that, although Windows Defender is not a powerful anti-virus software, it also helps detect and prevent some common viruses, so you should only turn off Windows Defender when you try to install the application another virus.

4. Instructions to turn off Windows Defender quickly via software

Besides familiar antivirus software, Windows Defender antivirus is available on Windows Vista or later computers. This tool will take care of your computer in real time, avoiding your computer from viruses or other threats.

However, users don't always need to use Windows Defender, or Windows Defender conflicts with other security tools, so they want to turn them off. Instead of having to manually turn off the Settings interface, we can use Defender Control tool to quickly turn on, turn off Windows Defender through a simple click.

Step 1:

Users access the link below to download Windows Defender tool to the computer.

1. https://www.sordum.org/9480/defender-control-v1-4/

Step 2:

Download the zip file to the computer and extract the file. In the directory unzip the user click the exe file to launch the Defender Control software.

We do not need to perform multiple installation steps like other tools. Under the system tray will also display the Defender Control icon.

The main interface of Defender Control will look like below. With green indicates the status of Windows Defender in action. Disable Windows Defender to turn off security and Enable Windows Defender to turn it back on.

Step 3:

The interface when Windows Defender turns off will turn red .

When you re-check Windows Defender in the Settings interface, users will also see a pop-up message.

If Defender Control 's interface turns yellow , Windows Defender cannot work because real-time protection is turned off on the computer.

Step 4:

Right-click at the Defender Control icon in the system tray, users also have 4 different options.

1. Show Defender Control: open the Defender Control interface.
2. Open Security Center: open the Windows Defender interface on your computer.
3. Enable Windows Defender: turn on Windows Defender again.
4. Disable Windows Defender: turn off Windows Defender.

Step 5:

Also in the tool interface when clicking Open Security Center will quickly open the Windows Defender interface. Click the Menu button and select Defender Settings to open the Windows Defender interface in Settings.

Also here we will have the option to Hide Windows on Startup and Hide When Minimized to hide windows when booting or minimizing.

Defender Control helps users quickly activate Windows Defender right on the interface of the tool that we don't need to activate manually. The software is lightweight and does not need to perform multiple installation steps.

Refer to some of the following articles:

1. Turn off Windows 10 password when logging in for only 10 seconds
2. How to turn off Windows Update on Windows 10

Good luck!