Microsoft Defender is in Windows 11 the default anti-virus/malware solution just like it was in Windows 10. It protects your computer against malware and virus threats. Even though it’s one of the best antivirus solutions on the market today, you still might want to turn off Windows Defender for testing purposes or on devices that are not connected to the internet. Show
Keep in mind that Windows Defender is turned off automatically when you install another antivirus application. So you don’t need to worry about that. In this article, I will explain how you can fully turn off Windows Defender in Windows 11 and how to stop it temporarily. Turn Off Windows Defender TemporarilyWe are first going to take a look at how to stop Windows Defender temporarily. In Windows 11 we will need to open the Windows Security app for this.
We can now disable the Real-time protection which should be enough for most testing purposes. When you turn it off you will get a warning, just click yes to disable the Windows Defender. The Real-time protection will automatically turn back on after a short time. If you open the task manager you will see that the Microsoft Defender Antivirus service is still running. Also when you reboot your computer the process is automatically started again. Permanently disabling Windows Defender can be challenging. Methods that worked in Windows 10 don’t seem to work in Windows 11 anymore. I have tested pretty much every possible method that was described for Windows 10, but every time Windows Defender was able to automatically start up again. I have tried disabling Windows Defender with:
I have two options that seem to work and last. The first is through taking ownership of the Windows Defender executable and removing all permissions from it. This way the system principal can’t start the Microsoft Defender services. The second option is by editing a couple of registry items, which disable the startup of services related to Windows Defender. Step 1 – Boot into Safe ModeThe first step is to boot into Safe Mode. Without Safe Mode, we can’t take ownership of the MsMpEng.exe file.
Step 2 – Take Ownership of DefenderThe next step is to take ownership of the Windows Defender application folder. This way we can hopefully also prevent any updates from Defender.
Step 3 – Remove All PermissionsWe now have ownership of the Windows Defender application. All we now need to do is remove all users/principals from the list.
Step 4 – Disable Safe boot and rebootTo reboot back to the normal version of Windows 11 we need to disable the safe boot option. Open MSConfig again and remove the safe boot option:
If you now open the Windows Security app in Windows 11 you will see that Virus & Threat Protection is completely gone. Using RegEdit to disable Windows Defender in Windows 11An alternative way to disable Windows Defender in Windows 10 or 11 is to use the registry. For this, you will also need to boot into safe mode. Follow step 1 from the previous chapter to boot into safe mode. Once booted in safe mode:
Follow step 4 from the previous chapter to reboot Windows back to normal mode. Revert the changeIf you no longer want to disable Windows Defender you can easily revert the change. You will need to restart into safe mode again and give System and TrustedInstaller full access permission on the Platform folder. When you used the registry method, then restore the values to:
Wrapping UpKeep in mind that you are vulnerable to virus and malware infection without an antivirus application. I don’t recommend disabling defender purely because it takes too much CPU. If you find that Windows Defender is consuming too many resources then try another antivirus solution. How do I permanently uninstall Windows Defender?To disable Microsoft Defender Antivirus permanently on Windows 10, use these steps:. Open Start.. Search for gpedit. ... . Browse the following path: Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Microsoft Defender Antivirus.. Double-click the "Turn off Microsoft Defender Antivirus" policy.. Where is Windows Defender win 11?Turn Microsoft Defender Antivirus real-time protection on or off. Select Start > Settings > Update & Security > Windows Security and then Virus & threat protection > Manage settings. ... . Switch the Real-time protection setting to Off and choose Yes to verify.. Is defender enough for Windows 11?If you're comfortable with all this — and in our experience, Edge is lighter and faster than Chrome — then Microsoft Defender Antivirus and the related protections built into Windows 10 and 11 should absolutely be good enough to protect you from malware infection, and give you a few useful extra security features as ...
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