How To Stop Windows Defender

And so you want to turn off Microsoft Defender on your PC? Don't worry, as nosotros've got you lot covered.

Fundamentally, there are two ways to go virtually disabling the Microsoft Defender on your PC; you tin can either do it temporarily or permanently— and we've covered both of these methods here.

Let'southward go going then.

Why plough off Microsoft Defender?

Windows Defender, at present rebranded as Microsoft Defender, is an in-congenital antivirus program designed to protect your PC against malware attacks. But every bit good as the security program is, the app is non without its own drawbacks.

In light of this, disabling Microsoft Defender seems a useful option to many people. But before we jump into turning off the Defender right away, though, it's important that we outset make certain if information technology'southward really safe for you to do that.

Here are a few reasons to turn off the Defender:

If you lot'd like to install any 3rd-political party antivirus, say, Kaspersky or Avast, and so keeping Windows Defender turned on will not work in your favor. Often, the antivirus will itself send you a pop-up, request yous to turn off Defender, failing which you won't get whatsoever normal functionality from the new software.
Microsoft Defender is infamous for blocking apps that information technology considers to be unsafe; turning off the Defender can aid in such cases. If you absolutely need to run an app that Defender has bug with, and y'all're sure information technology's safe, you lot may want to plow off Defender.
If you're already using a professional antivirus, it doesn't make sense to keep Microsoft Defender along, as information technology volition simply cause unnecessary bugs and frivolously swallow upwards your PC resources.

And then these are some of the reasons that above make disabling Defender a useful proposition.

Before you become ahead and disable the app, however, it's essential to remember that you must install an alternate antivirus beforehand. Doing otherwise will only be a recipe for disaster, leaving your PC vulnerable to exterior threats.

Thankfully, for a popular operating system like Windows, at that place'south no famine of antivirus solutions, be it Kaspersky, AVG, Norton, etc. Choice an antivirus, install it, and only then you lot should be thinking annihilation remotely like turning off the Defender.

How to disable Windows Defender in Windows 10 or Windows 11

Although you lot can plough off the Defender permanently, in some cases y'all might just desire to try it out for a while, and see how it goes. In Windows eleven, you can exercise that effortlessly, so follow the steps beneath for that:

To get started, get to the Beginning menu search bar, blazon in 'windows security,' and select the Best match.
Click on Virus & threat protection.
From there, click on Manage settings nether Virus & threat protection settings.
Toggle off the switch nether Real-fourth dimension protection.
Click on Yes on the prompt, and the Microsoft Defender will exist turned off for you lot.

virus and threat protection

virus and threat protection settings

turning off the real time protection

This will turn off the Windows Defender from your PC for a fix menstruation of time.

How to plough off Windows Defender permanently

Simply if you're looking for a one-time solution, and so the to a higher place method might not cut it. For that, yous need to employ the Registry Editor. Another gratuitous tool from Microsoft, the Registry Editor is a hierarchical database that keeps a record of all your low-level settings for your operating arrangement. Information technology records data and settings for software, user preferences, and fifty-fifty configuration of your operating systems.

Interestingly, it can also be utilized for turning off the Windows Defender permanently, by modifying the registry settings associated with Defender. Here's how:

Firstly, we have to disable the 'Tamper Protection' from the Security protection app, which is a feature in Microsoft Defender that prevents users or malware from tweaking your Windows Defender settings.

Subsequently you lot've disabled it, open up the Registry Editor past pressing Windows key + R to open up the Run dialog box, type in 'regedit.msc', and hit Enter.

When the Registry Editor is launched, enter the following path in the address bar and hit Enter:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows Defender

Launch the 'DisableAntiSpyware' file, set the Value data to 1 and hit Enter.

If there's no DWORD file in your example, then right-click on the 'Windows Defender' folder on the left navigational panel, select 'New' and then click on 'DWORD (32-chip) Value'.

editing windows registry

From there, rename the new entry to 'DisableAntiSpyware'.

Now open the newly created entry to set its value to 1 as done above. This volition disable your Windows Defender. To finalize the changes, all you have to do is perform a quick restart.

To enable the protection, only delete the 'DisableAntiSpyware' registry cardinal, or set the Value data back to 0 over again.

All about turning off Windows Defender

And these were acme methods that you lot can implement for turning off the Windows Defender on your PC. To reiterate what we've said higher up, the Windows Defender is a useful tool that helps yous keep off intrusive malware, merely sometimes it can brand your accessibility a little express. In those cases, disabling the Defender might probably exist the all-time solution for you.

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