Turn off Windows Defender on Windows 10

Ways to turn off Windows Defender on Windows 10

1. Disable Windows Defender with Local Group Policy
2. Disable Windows Defender with the Registry
3. Temporarily disable Windows Defender using the Settings application
4. Quick to enable and disable Windows Defender via software

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 the 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, type gpedit.msc into it, 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 following key:

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

Note: On Windows 10 version 1803 and above, the Windows Defender option is replaced by Windows Defender Antivirus, select 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 completing the steps, if you notice you will see the Windows Defender icon still displayed in the system tray. To remove this icon, simply restart your computer.

If you want to reactivate Windows Defender, follow the same steps, and in step 5 select the Not configured option, restart your computer to apply the changes.

2. Disable Windows Defender with the Registry

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

Note:

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

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

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

   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SOFTWARE \ Policies \ Microsoft \ Windows Defender

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

4. Name this new key DisableAntiSpyware.

5. Double click on 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 reactivate Windows Defender, do the same steps, and in step 5, set the value in the Value Data frame from 1 to 0, restart your computer to apply the changes.

3. Temporarily disable Windows Defender using the Settings application

From Windows 10 version 1803 and above, 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 on Virus & threat protection settings:

Turn off Real-time protection.

In case you have Windows 10 older versions and want to temporarily disable Windows Defender, 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. Switch the status of the Real-time protection option to OFF.

Depending on your computer usage habits, you can choose for yourself how to turn off Windows Defender appropriately. However, it should be noted that although Windows Defender is not a powerful antivirus software, it also helps detect and prevent some common viruses, so you should only turn off Windows Defender when you intend to install anti-virus applications. other viruses.

4. Quick to enable and disable Windows Defender via software

Besides the familiar antivirus software, the Windows Defender antivirus engine is available on Windows Vista and above. This tool will conduct computer protection in real time, avoiding the computer from viruses or other threats.

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

Step 1:

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

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

Step 2:

Download the zip file to your computer and extract the file. In the unzipped folder, click on the exe file to launch the Defender Control software.

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

The main interface of Defender Control will be as below. The green indicates Windows Defender is active. Disable Windows Defender to turn off security and Enable Windows Defender to turn it back on.

Step 3:

The interface when Windows Defender is turned off will turn red.

When re-checking Windows Defender in the Settings interface, users will also see a message to turn the tool back on.

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

Step 4:

When right-clicking on the Defender Control icon in the system tray, users also have 4 different options.

– Show Defender Control: open the Defender Control interface.
– Open Security Center: Open the Windows Defender interface on the computer.
– Enable Windows Defender: re-enable Windows Defender.
– Disable Windows Defender: Disable Windows Defender.

 

Step 5:

In addition, 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 of Hide Windows on Startup and Hide When Minimized to hide the window at startup or when minimized.

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