If we use Windows, it is essential to have an antivirus installed on the computer. Especially if we surf the Internet. Although Microsoft has been experimenting with its own security program, Microsoft Security Essential , for many years now, it was not until the arrival of Windows 10 that the company began to take its security seriously. This operating system released a new antivirus, Windows Defender , which in a short time managed to position itself as one of the best when it comes to protecting us from hackers. However, this security software has a problem: Microsoft gives us very little control over it, to the point of not being able to disable it.
Windows Defender antivirus is installed by default together with Windows 10 and the other programs that are part of the operating system. It is not an optional feature, but a mandatory program that comes bundled with the system. In this way, from the first moment, the antivirus is activated and allows users to be protected from hackers and all the malware that lurks on the network.
The only way to deactivate, or turn off, this antivirus is to install another one. In this way, when the operating system detects any other security software, it will deactivate your antivirus to avoid conflicts.
Reasons to disable Windows Defender antivirus
Connecting to the Internet without an antivirus is very risky. There are users who do it, and if we are very careful and use common sense, nothing has to happen. But every so often new attack techniques appear, and new malware that, although we take all the care in the world, can end up infecting our PC and putting all our security in check.
However, there are several situations in which we may need to disable antivirus , at least for a while. For example, if we are trying to run a program that does not get along with the antivirus and cannot do its job because of it, or because a program that we have downloaded from the Internet, and which is theoretically safe, is being blocked by this antivirus software. security . It can also happen that, when installing a third-party antivirus, Windows Defender is not disabled correctly . And, in that case, we will have to give him a hand.
Also, if the computer never connects to the Internet, the probability of ending up infected by malware is very low. Therefore, deactivating the antivirus will allow us to save memory and resources that we can use, for example, to play.
Temporarily disable Windows 10 antivirus
Although from the configuration of this antivirus we will not be able to deactivate Windows Defender completely, in case of having a conflict when opening a program, we can find an option that will allow us to disable the protection shield temporarily.
To do this, what we must do is open the Windows 10 antivirus from the system tray (the icon that appears next to the clock), and within it we will enter the section “antivirus and protection against threats”, to access from there ” antivirus and threat protection settings “.
Within this section we will find an option called ” Real-time protection “. This option will allow us to deactivate, for a short period of time, the antivirus protection. However, as indicated in its description, after a few minutes it will automatically activate again to continue protecting us.
This is enough to add exclusions or run programs that, for some reason, are being blocked by this program. But there is no way to completely disable this antivirus and prevent it from running again. At least an official form.
How to completely turn off Windows antivirus
Until the summer of 2020, there were some tricks that allowed us to disable this antivirus. But one of the most used by users was the modification of a simple registry entry . Inside regedit, in the path HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE> SOFTWARE> Policies> Microsoft> Windows Defender we could find a value “DisableAntiSpyware” that we could modify from “0” (by default) to “1” so that this antivirus would be disabled.
But Microsoft doesn’t like that users can fiddle with its programs. Therefore, with the arrival of version 4.18.2007.8 of Defender, this trick went down in history. However, although this trick no longer works, it is still possible to disable this antivirus using third-party programs for this purpose.
Defender Control, disable Windows Defender with one click
This is one of the simplest programs that we can find to activate or deactivate the Windows 10 antivirus. Defender Control is totally free software basically formatted by an interface and two buttons: one of them to turn off the antivirus, and the other to activate it if you have previously deactivated it.
The program will appear with a green interface when the antivirus is activated, and in red when it is deactivated. You can also safely disable the latest version of this security software. Tampering protection can even be bypassed if we give the program TrustedInstaller permissions. In this way we will not have to endanger our PC by disabling any other security option.
We can download this program for free from here .
ConfigureDefender, turn off Windows antivirus and much more
This is another of the programs that we can find on the Internet that will allow us to disable the Windows 10 antivirus easily. But the ConfigureDefender options go much further. This program will allow us to configure absolutely each of the options that this antivirus offers us, even those that are hidden. Therefore, it is a tool that Windows Defender users cannot miss as well as those who, directly, do not want to use it.
We can download this program from its official repository on GitHub .
