Windows Defender also called Microsoft defender is used to keep your computer safe from malware, viruses, etc. If you are using a third-party anti-virus, then windows defender may become a blocker in the third-party software installation or it may not go well with the third-party software and may run into issues. Hence you may want to disable it. For any other reason if you want to disable the Windows defender then here are the well-defined steps to guide you through the disabling process. In this article, we have a few methods to permanently disable the Windows defender on Windows machines. Also if you want to disable it temporarily you can do it as well. So let us start!
Temporarily Enable Or Disable Windows Defender On Windows
Step 1 – Open the Windows settings using Windows + I keys together
Step 2 – Then click on update & security
Step 3 – On the left side, click on windows security
Step 4 – At the right side, click on Virus & threat protection
Step 5 – Scroll down and under Virus & threat protection settings click on manage settings
Step 6 – Scroll down and disable the Tamper protection option by clicking on its toggle bar (blue color should not be present)
Step 7 – A user account control window will appear, click on yes
Step 8 – Then disable all other options like real time protection, cloud delivered protection, automatic sample submission by clicking on their toggle bars. Then it is done.
Here is an example of disabling the real time protection option
Step 9 – If you want to enable them, then click on all the toggle bars again (toggle bars of all the options mentioned in step 8) (a blue mark should be present)
Method 1: Permanently Disable Windows Defender On Windows Using Registry Editor
Step 1 – Open the Windows settings using Windows + I keys together
Step 2 – Then click on update & security
Step 3 – On the left side, click on windows security
Step 4 – At the right side, click on Virus & threat protection
Step 5 – Scroll down and under Virus & threat protection settings click on manage settings
Step 6 – Scroll down and disable the Tamper protection option by clicking on its toggle bar (blue color should not be present)
Step 7 – Open the run prompt using Windows + R keys together
Step 8 – Type regedit in the run prompt and hit enter
Step 9 – A user account control window will appear, click on yes. This will open the registry editor window
Step 10 – Navigate to the following path in the registry
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows Defender
Step 11 – On the right side at the empty space, right click and click on new
Step 12 – Then select DWORD (32-bit) value
Step 13 – Give it a name DisableAntiSpyware. To rename you can just right click on the created value and then click on rename. Or you can just click on the created value once
Step 14 – Double click on DisableAntiSpyware and enter the value as 1 in the value data field
Step 15 – Then click on ok
Step 16 – Restart the system
Step 17 – To check if the Windows defender is permanently off, follow [ Step 1 – Step 5 ]
Step 18 – Then if you try to enable any of the options there by toggle bars it will not be enabled.
Note: If you want to again make work or enable the Windows Defender, then follow the above [ Step 1 – Step 10 ] . Right click on DisableAntiSpyware and click on delete. A confirmation pop up will appear click on yes.
Once done, restart your system and it will be enabled.
Method 2: Permanently Disable Windows Defender On Windows Using Local Group Policy Editor
Step 1 – Open the Windows settings using Windows + I keys together
Step 2 – Then click on update & security
Step 3 – On the left side, click on windows security
Step 4 – At the right side, click on Virus & threat protection
Step 5 – Scroll down and under Virus & threat protection settings click on manage settings
Step 6 – Scroll down and disable the Tamper protection option by clicking on its toggle bar (blue color should not be present)
Step 7 – Open the run prompt using Windows + R keys together and type gpedit.msc in the run prompt
Step 8 – This will open the local group policy editor window. On the left side expand Computer Configuration then likewise navigate to administrative templates -> Windows Components -> Microsoft Defender Antivirus
Step 9 – Click on Microsoft Defender Antivirus then on the right side double click on Turn off Microsoft Defender Antivirus
Step 10 – In the opened window, choose enabled by clicking on the radio button beside it
Step 11 – To save the changes click on apply and ok
Step 12 – Restart your computer and the windows defender will be turned off permanently.
That’s it! I hope the above provided information is helpful and easy to follow. Let us know which of the above methods worked for you. Thank you and happy reading!!