How To Turn off Windows Defender in Windows 10

Windows Defender is an antivirus application that is integrated with the Windows 7, 8, and 10 operating systems. So for those of you who have one of these three operating systems, you no longer need to install a third-party antivirus.

Windows Defender is actually a pretty solid and safe antivirus. However, if you feel more comfortable using another antivirus, you should turn off Windows Defender to avoid conflicts.

After all, you don’t actually need to have more than one antivirus because it will slow down your PC later. For this reason, Weblogue will explain how to turn off Windows Defender in Windows 10 below.

How To Turn off Windows Defender

If you want to install something and Windows Defender crashes, you just need to temporarily disable it. Here are the steps.

1. Visit the Windows Security Dashboard

The first thing you have to do, of course, is access the Windows Defender dashboard. Actually there are several ways to access it, but the easiest is via the icon on the System Tray or Task Bar located in the lower right corner.

If you don’t see the Windows Defender icon next to the clock description, you will need to expand the icon area by clicking on the arrow as shown above. Then, look for the Windows Defender or Windows Security logo and double-click the icon.

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2. Select Virus & Threat Protection Menu

After you double click on the Windows Security icon, a window will open containing various menus that control the security side of the PC.

To continue, select the Virus & Threat Protection menu as shown in the image above.

3. Select Menu Manage Settings

In this section, you will see various sections and options such as flash scanning, viewing protection history and so on.

Look for the section that says Virus & Threat Protection Settings, then under it you will see the Manage Settings menu. You just need to click Manage Settings to visit the next page.

4. Turn off the “real-time protection”

Well, on this page you can disable Windows Defender so that it doesn’t always detect viruses or malware that may enter.

Is the switch for Real Time Protection turned on? If so, click once to turn it off until it says Off and you have successfully disabled Windows Defender. You can turn it back on in the same way or by restarting the PC.

How to turn off Windows Defender permanently

This method can only temporarily turn off Windows Defender and it will turn back on automatically. To turn it off permanently, there are several methods that can be done, namely as follows.

Method 1: Through the “Add an Exclusion” feature

The first method that is quite easy to do is to use the Add an Exclusion feature in Windows Defender. Simply put, this feature will insert certain folders into the whitelist. So even if Real Time Protection is on, any folders in the whitelist will not be tracked or tampered with by Windows Defender.

In other words, you can put drive C: \ in the exclusion list so that the antivirus does not try to detect malware on your PC.

1. Select Menu “Add or Remove Exclusions”

If the process starts from the initial steps, then you need to open Windows Security as before by double clicking on the icon in the System Tray. Then select Virus & Threat Protection> Manage Settings.

Swipe down until you find a menu that says Add or remove exclusions. Click on the menu to continue.

2. Click the Add an Exclusion Menu

If you have previously entered a folder or file in the exceptions list, the path of each item will be displayed here.

To put the whole PC on the exclusion list, click on the Add an exclusion option and select the Folder menu.

3. Enter the partition C: \ in the Exclusion List

By default, most operating systems are installed in the C: \ directory so you will need to include them in the exceptions list. If you install Windows on another partition, that letter is selected.

In the window that appears, click on the letter of the partition you want to point to, then click Select folder to confirm. If a User Account Control window appears, just click the Yes button.

If you see the operating system partition in the list, then you have successfully shut down Windows Defender for good, regardless of whether Real Time Protection is back on or not.

This is also a great way if you only want to turn off Windows Defender for certain partitions. By the way, you also did the same process for the other partitions. If you enter the F: \ partition, the attached flash will not be automatically scanned by Windows Defender. To restore conditions to the original, just remove the C: \ partition from exclusion.

Method 2: Via Group Policy

Apart from this method, you can also permanently turn off Windows Defender via Group Policy. But first you have to turn off Tamper Protection first.

1. Turn off Tamper Protection

Open Windows Security and access the menu Virus & Threat protection -> Manage settings.

The Tamper Protection menu is located slightly above the Add or remove exclusions menu. Make sure the toggle on the Tamper Protection menu says On, then click on the toggle until it turns off.

2. Open the Local Group Policy Editor

Now that Tamper Protection has been successfully turned off, you can make edits to the Local Group Policy Editor. The reason is, if Tamper Protection is on, Windows Defender will keep the policy configuration from being modified in any way, including by our hands.

To open the Local Group Policy Editor, click on the Start button in the lower left corner. Then type gpedit in the search field and click on the Edit Group Policy menu.

3. Open the Policy “Turn Off Windows Defender Antivirus”

Once the Edit Group Policy window opens, you need to locate the Windows Defender Antivirus folder.

To find the folder you just need to click on the Computer Configuration folder. Inside this folder is the Administrative Templates folder. Enter this folder and click the Windows Components folder. Scroll down until you find Windows Defender Antivirus. Then, double-click on the Turn Off Windows Defender Antivirus option.

4. Click on the “Enabled” Option

In the pop-up window, you will see Not configured, Disabled, and Enabled options. Select the Enabled option and click OK to confirm.

Well, now the next step is to restart and Windows Defender is permanently disabled. If you want to restore it to how it was before, just change the option from Enabled to Not configured, restart your PC, and turn on Tamper Protection again.

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So, those were the ways to turn off Windows Defender in Windows 10. Now the choice falls on you to temporarily or permanently disable it.

To be sure, try to have at least one antivirus application because nothing can guarantee when your PC will be hit by malware or ransomware attacks.