Hello everybody!
Watch this video to find out how to disable Microsoft Defender in Windows 11.
The Microsoft Defender antivirus (previously known as Windows Defender) is a free tool
integrated into Windows 11 to protect your computer from viruses and other malware.
In addition to combating viruses and similar programs, Microsoft Defender also offers you
to secure your account, improve your safety online, monitor your computer’s performance
and health, use parental control options, add a firewall for extra protection, and ensure
network safety.
If you are about to start using some third-party antivirus software, you may want to disable
the built-in system protection and install that latest antivirus hit; and this is when
some difficulties may appear.
In todays’ video, I’ll show you several methods to disable Microsoft Defender, from
easy setup to editing the registry.
Method one.
Disable Microsoft Defender with group policy settings
For starters, disable the system protection and then run the Group Policy Editor.
Click on Start – Settings – Privacy and security – Windows Security – Virus & threat
protection - Manage settings, and disable Tamper Protection here.
Find “Edit group policy” in the search and click on it to run Group Policy Editor.
In the program’s window, go to Computer Configuration - Administrative Templates - Windows
Components - Microsoft Defender Antivirus.
Look to the right to find the setting “Turn off Microsoft Defender Antivirus,” right-click
on it and select “Edit.”
In the window that opens, check the option “Enabled,” then click “Apply” and
OK.
After that, modify the setting “Allow antimalware service to remain running always,” check
the option “Disabled,” click “Apply” and OK.
After that, open the folder “Real-time Protection” and open the setting “Turn off real-time
protection.”
Check the option “Enabled” - click “Apply” - OK.
Now that the group policy is configured, you need to set up Task Scheduler to prevent certain
services from running, and to avoid errors after the Windows 11 antivirus has been disabled.
Use the search feature to find “Task Scheduler” and open it.
Jump to Task Scheduler Library - Microsoft - Windows - Windows Defender.
One after another, disable these four tasks: • Windows Defender Cache Maintenance
• Windows Defender Cleanup • Windows Defender Scheduled Scan
• Windows Defender Verification Right-click on each one and select “Disable.”
After that, update the computer and user policies.
To do it, open the Command Prompt as administrator and run this command:
gpupdate /force After you do it, the Defender will no longer
start together with Windows.
Method two.
Disable it by modifying the registry Another way to disable protection is by modifying
the registry.
Right-click on the Start menu and select Run, and then type “regedit” in the corresponding
field.
In the Registry Editor window that appears, follow this path:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows Defender
To edit or add a value to this folder, you need to change its owner first.
By default, the owner is “System.”
To change it, right-click on the folder and choose “Permissions...”
In the window that opens - “Permissions for Windows Defender” - open the tab “Advanced”
and click “Change” in the “Owner” field.
Another window opens.
Click “Advanced” - “Find Now” - select the Administrator account or the Administrators
group, then click OK, and OK one more time to confirm the changes.
Now check the boxes next to “Replace owner on subcontainers and objects” and “Replace
all child object permission entries with inheritable permission entries from this object,” and
click “Yes” in the Windows Security warning message that appears.
Going back to the Permissions window, grant the users with full control and click “Apply”
and OK to confirm it.
Now you can start editing the registry.
In Windows Defender branch, create DWORD values (32 bit) with the following names: DisableAntiVirus,
DisableAntiSpyware, ServiceStartStates, and change their value data to 1.
After that, close the registry editor and restart the computer.
After the restart, the Defender will be disabled.
If you ever need to start it again, go to “Virus and threat protection” and click
“Turn on.”
Method three.
Disable it with Autoruns for Windows One more method involves using Autoruns for
Windows to disable Microsoft Defender.
Download this utility and extract it from the archive.
You can find the link in the description for this video.
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/autoruns For starters, you need to disable permanent
protection and boot in safe mode.
Open Settings – Privacy and security – Windows Security – Virus & threat protection - Manage
settings, and disable Real-time Protection.
To boot the computer in safe mode, use the search to find “System Configuration,”
open the “Boot” tab, check the box for “Safe boot” - “Minimal” - Apply - OK
- and hit “Restart.”
When the computer boots in safe mode, open Windows Security to check if Microsoft Defender
is running.
Then go to the folder containing Autoruns for Windows and start Autoruns64.exe
In the program’s window, jump to the tab “Services” - by default, Windows services
are hidden.
To make them visible, open “Options” and uncheck the box for “Hide Windows Entries.”
Now search the list of services for Windows Defender and uncheck this box - this will
disable automatic startup for Windows Defender every time the computer reboots.
After that, close the utility and boot the computer into the normal mode.
Open “System Configuration,” check “Normal startup” here - Apply - OK - Restart.
When the computer boots, start Task Manager and check if the Windows Defender service
is running.
Open Settings – Privacy and security – Windows Security – Virus & threat protection - Home.
Here, you can see a circle of loading dots or the protection status is displayed as “Unknown.”
This is when the Defender is checking its settings.
Here’s an important piece of advice.
Don’t click on the Defender tile while it is updating its information or displaying
the unknown status.
If you click on it, the Defender will be enabled again, so wait until it says “Turned off.”
To cancel all changes, click on this button to restart.
Now you know how to turn off Microsoft Defender in Windows 11.
To have the Defender disabled after you restart the computer, make sure to follow carefully
every step of this tutorial.
If all of these methods failed to disable Microsoft Defender, you can try looking for
third-party tools on the Internet - they are quite numerous.
That is all for now!
Hopefully, this video was useful.
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Thank you for watching.
Good luck.