How to completely disable Windows Defender on Windows 10

Windows 10 has a built-in Windows Defender antivirus (“Windows Defender”) that protects your computer and data from unwanted programs: viruses, spyware, ransomware, and many other types of malware and hacker actions.

And although the built-in protection solution is enough for most users, there are situations in which you may not want to use this program. For example, if you are setting up a device that will not go online; if you need to complete a task blocked by this program; if you need to meet your organization’s security policy requirements.
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The only problem is that you cannot completely remove or disable Windows Defender - this system is deeply integrated into Windows 10. However, there are several workarounds with which you can disable antivirus - this is using local Group Policy, the registry or Windows settings in the section "Security" (temporarily).

How to disable Windows Defender through Windows security settings

If you need to perform a specific task, and you do not need to disable the Defender completely, you can do it temporarily. To do this, use the search in the “Start” button to find the “Windows Defender Security Center” section, and select the item “Protection against viruses and threats” in it.



There, go to the "Settings for protection against viruses and other threats" and click on the switch "Real-time protection".



After that, the antivirus disables computer protection in real time, which allows you to install applications or perform a specific task that was not available to you because the antivirus blocked the necessary action.

To re-enable real-time protection, restart the computer or re-go through all the configuration steps, but at the last step, turn on the switch.

This solution is not permanent, but is best suited for disabling the Windows 10 antivirus for performing a specific task.

How to disable Windows Defender through group policies

In versions of Windows 10 Pro and Enterprise, the local group policies editor is available to you, where you can permanently disable Defender as follows:

Through the "Start" button, run the executable script gpedit.msc. The policy editor opens. Go to the following path: Computer Configuration> Administrative Templates> Windows Components> Windows Defender.



Double-click to open the item "Turn off the anti-virus program" Windows Defender "." Select the “Enabled” setting to enable this option, and, accordingly, disable the Defender.



Click OK and restart the computer.

After that, the antivirus will be permanently disabled on your device. But you will notice that the shield icon will remain in the taskbar - this is as it should be, since this icon belongs to the Windows Security application, and not to the antivirus itself.

If you change your mind, you can always re-enable the Defender by repeating these steps, and in the last step, select the “Not set” option, after which you will need to restart the computer again.

How to disable Windows Defender through the registry

If you do not have access to the policy editor, or you have Windows 10 Home installed, you can edit the Windows registry, thereby disabling the Defender.

I remind you that editing the registry is risky, and errors in this matter can cause irreparable damage to the currently installed copy of Windows. It is better to make a backup of the system before starting editing.

In order to completely disable Protector through the registry, launch the regedit program via the Start button, and go there in the following way:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SOFTWARE \ Policies \ Microsoft \ Windows Defender

Tip: This path can be copied and pasted into the address sink of the registry editor.



Then right-click on the key (directory) Windows Defender, select "New" and DWORD (32-bit) Value. Name the new key DisableAntiSpyware and press "Enter". Then double-click to open the key editor and set it to 1.



Click OK, and restart the computer.

After that, Windows Defender will no longer protect your system. If you want to undo these changes, repeat all the steps, but at the end, delete this key or assign it a value of 0.

Recommendations

Despite the presence of several methods of disabling Windows Defender, we do not recommend using a computer without anti-virus programs at all. However, you may encounter situations in which disabling this feature would be the best option. And if you install a third-party anti-virus program, you do not need to disable the Defender manually, because it will automatically turn off during installation.