Disable Windows Defender on Windows
Windows 10 allows a feature to permanently disable Windows Defender, also known as Windows Security, which is a built-in security software for Microsoft Windows 10 and later versions.
If you’re using Windows 10 or Windows 11 so you may be using any other third-party antivirus on your computer along with Windows Defender that is also running on your system and you don’t want to run Windows Defender on your computer while using other security.
In this case, the best way is that, you should turn off defender security from your computer, so you can use other antivirus properly.
In this article, I will show you how you can disable or turn off Windows Defender in Windows 10 and the same steps will work on Windows 11 as well.
Below are two Methods in which you can disable or turn off Windows Defender on a Windows 10 computer, as shown below:
- Using the Registry Editor
- Use Windows Local Group Policies
Method 1 – Turn off Windows Defender Permanently with Registry
To be on the safe side, it is best that you take the backup of your Registry before you start doing the steps below:
[Read: How to Back up Windows Registry?]
Step 1. Press Win + R to open the Run Dialog box.
Type regedit and click the OK button to open the Registry editor.
Step 2. Registry Editor is on your screen now, follow the below given path:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows Defender
Step 3. On the right side, we need to create a key. Right-click on the free space, click on New, and select DWORD (32-bit) Value.
Step 4. Rename it to DisableAntiSpyware.
Then, double click to open and change the value from “1” to “0” and click OK to close.
Alright! All done now. You can still see the Windows Defender icon in your notification area.
We just need to restart the computer to get the changes done. Once your Windows is back up after restarting, you will not see Windows Defender anywhere.
Method 2 – Turn off Defender by using Local Group Policies
Another option to disable Windows Defender is from Windows Local Group Policies.
Just to inform you before you start with local group policies. In Windows 10 Home or Starter, you will not find a local group policy editor on it.
In this case, you can access the registry editor and disable Windows defender from there or you can enable Group Policy Editor.
[Read: Enable Group Policy Editor in Windows 10 Home or Starter Edition]
Follow the steps below:
- You must be signed in as an Administrator
- Local Group Policies are only available on Windows 8 and 8.1 Pro and Enterprise Editions.
In Windows 10, it will only be available in Pro, Enterprise and Education editions. So before you start, make sure what version of Windows you have.
Press Win + R and type msinfo32 to check your Windows version.
Step 1. Press Win + R to open the Run dialog box.
Type in gpedit.msc and click OK to open Group Policy Editor.
Step 2. Now on the left pane, follow the path given below:
Computer Configuration - Administrative Templates - Windows Components - Windows Defender
Step 3. On the right side of the screen, look for Turn off Windows Defender Antivirus and double-click on it to open.
Step 4. A new screen will appear on the computer screen. You have three options on the top left.
Select Enabled and as a result, it will Disable Windows Defender from your computer.
Then, click on Apply and OK to close the Window.
By doing the above steps, we have permanently disabled Windows Defender by using the Group Policy Editor on a Windows 10 and Windows 11.
You just need to restart the computer once, and you will not find Windows security/defender in your computer.
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