How to Disable Microsoft Defender Antivirus in Windows 11

Microsoft Defender Antivirus is the default antivirus solution in Microsoft’s Windows 11 operating system. It is enabled by default, unless another security solution is installed and recognized as such by the operating system. Previously it was known as Windows Defender.

Most third-party antivirus solutions that support Windows 11 are recognized, but some solutions may not be.

Most Windows 11 users may want to keep Microsoft Defender Antivirus enabled if no other security solutions are installed. Some may want to temporarily or permanently disable Microsoft Defender Antivirus, even if no other solution is installed. Reasons for wanting to do this include high resource usage, Windows Defender Antivirus causing other problems on the system, no requirement for an Antivirus solution, for example, when using a virtual machine image of Windows 11, or simply because you want to decide what is running on the computer and what is not.

Enable or disable real-time protection in Windows 11

Windows Security offers options to disable certain security modules, including real-time protection, in the Settings app.

Real-time protection can be temporarily disabled here, while all other protection modules can be permanently disabled.

Sometimes it may be enough to disable the feature for a short period of time to work around the problems encountered.

Step 1: Open Windows Security in the Settings app

1. Select Start and Settings or use the Windows -I keyboard shortcut to open the Settings app.
2. Select Privacy & Security from the left menu.
3. Select Windows Security on the page that opens.

Step 2: Open Virus & threat protection

1. On the page that opens, select Virus & threat protection from the list of protection zones.

This opens the Windows Security app.

Step 3: Disable real-time protection

1. Select Manage settings under Virus & threat protection settings on the page that opened.
2. Toggle real-time protection to Off.
3. Accept the UAC prompt that appears when you make the change.

Microsoft reminds you on the page that the deactivation is temporary:

Locates and prevents malware from installing or running on your device. You can turn this setting off for a short time before it automatically turns back on.

Tip: Here you can disable other protection modules such as cloud-delivered protection, automatic sample submission, or tamper protection.

Disable Windows Defender Antivirus using Group Policy Editor

To permanently disable Windows Defender Antivirus, you must use the Group Policy Editor or the corresponding registry setting.

Note that it is necessary to disable the Windows Security Tamper Protection feature before making the change. If you don’t, Windows Security may re-enable Windows Defender Antivirus.

Here’s how:

1. Select Start and Settings or use the Windows -I keyboard shortcut to open the Settings app.
2. Select Privacy & Security from the left menu.
3. Select Windows Security on the page that opens.
4. On the page that opens, select Virus & threat protection from the list of protection zones.
5. Select Manage settings under Virus & threat protection settings on the page that opened.
6. Toggle tamper protection to Off on the page.

Disable Microsoft Defender Antivirus using Group Policy Editor

1. Select Start, type gpedit.msc and select the result from the list.
2. Use the hierarchical structure on the left to navigate to Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Microsoft Defender Antivirus.
3. Locate “Turn off Microsoft Defender Antivirus” and double-click the policy. If you have trouble finding it, click on the “setting” column header to sort the list of policies alphabetically.
4. Switch the policy status to Enabled on the page that opens.
5. Select apply then ok to save the change.
6. Restart Windows 11.

Virus and threat protection should be disabled after reboot. Note that you will still see a shield icon in the system tray area because the shield icon is the Windows Security icon, not the Microsoft Defender Antivirus icon.

Note that the feature was called Windows Defender Antivirus on Windows 10.

Other Options

• Use a program such as Defender Control Where Configure defender to manage program status. It is free and compatible with Windows 11.
• Try disabling Windows Defender Task in Task Scheduler Library as suggested here.

Now you: what antivirus solution do you use, if any?

Summary

Article name

How to Disable Microsoft Defender Antivirus in Windows 11

The description

Learn how to disable Microsoft Defender Antivirus on Windows 11 devices.

Author

Martin Brinkman

Editor

Ghacks Technology News

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