Why should you disable Windows Defender FOREVER?

Windows Defender is the “antivirus tool” that the Microsoft operating system has included for many years now, and the truth is that it usually works quite well. However, there are some reasons why you might want to disable this built-in functionality, so in this article we are not only going to tell you what these reasons might be, but we are also going to teach you how to do it permanently and not just temporarily. .

Since Windows Defender is a tool that is integrated into the operating system, deactivating it can be much more complicated than it seems, since the operating system will only allow you to deactivate it temporarily, and then activate it automatically again. But don’t worry, because today we are going to tell you the steps you must follow so that it is permanently deactivated, but not before talking about the reasons that could lead you to make this decision.

disable Windows Defender

Why would you want to disable Windows Defender?

Nowadays, surfing the Internet without antivirus protection is something quite risky, since even if you have the greatest care and all the common sense in the world, it is impossible to be immune to the multiple threats that could infect your computer and spoil all your files.

Skull Virus

Still, there are several situations where you might want to completely disable Windows Defender on your PC, at least for a while:

  • To use a different antivirus software (this is usually the main reason to disable it forever).
  • To run a program that conflicts with the built-in antivirus in Windows.
  • Because you have a security lock on some software.
  • Because it is giving you performance problems .

Be that as it may, and as we have mentioned before, disabling Windows Defender is a “trick”, since the normal method of doing so only allows you to do it temporarily, and the next time you turn on the PC it will be activated again just to keep you protected.

How to disable the built-in antivirus permanently

First of all, you should know that performing this task involves touching Windows files and registries, and if you screw up, the damage could be irreversible. Therefore, the first thing we must tell you is that you do this at your own risk , in fact we do not recommend disabling Windows Defender.

That being said, the first thing to do is make a change to Windows settings, otherwise any registry changes you make will not be saved. We take Windows 11 as an example, and what you should do is click on Start and type “Windows Security” to open the options window.

Seguridad de Windows

In the window that opens, you must select “Antivirus and threat protection” on the left side, and under “Antivirus and threat protection settings”, you must click on “Manage settings”. A new window will appear in which you must go down almost to the bottom and uncheck the “Protection against alterations” option.

Protección contra alteraciones

Now we can proceed with the next step, which involves opening the Windows Registry Editor. To do this, right-click on the Start button and select Run (or simply press the WIN + R key combination) and type “regedit” without the quotes. Click OK and the Windows Registry Editor window will open.

In the window that opens, you should navigate on the left side to the following registry key, although you can also write (or paste) the same thing in the top bar:

ComputerHKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREPoliciesMicrosoftWindows Defender

Regedit

Even if you see that there is a folder called “Policy Manager”, do not click on it, the one we are interested in is the one called Windows Defender, which should be empty on the right side except for that key called (Default). If there you see that there is a registry key called “DisableAntiSpyware” perfect, and if not we will have to create it ourselves.

To do this, right-click on a blank area on the right and select New -> DWORD (32-bit) Value.

Nuevo DWORD

Next you will have to edit its name; make sure it is called exactly DisableAntiSpyware, including capitalization. Now, you must click on it with the right mouse button and select “Modify”, at which point a small window will open. Here you must change the “Value data” field from 0 to 1 and click on OK.

DisableAntiSpyware

Once this is done, you need to close the Registry Editor and restart the PC. Windows Defender will already have been deactivated and, in fact, if you tried to access this tool you should get an error telling you that the application has been deactivated due to group policies, but if this is not the case and some components have been activated, you will have to repeat what you have done before but create the following registry keys along with the one for DisableAntiSpyware, all of them as follows:

  • DisableRealtimeMonitoring (value 1).
  • DisableRoutineklyTakingAction (value 1).
  • DisableAntiVirus (value 1).
  • DisableSpecialRunningModes (value 1).
  • ServiceKeepAlive (value 0).

With this, Windows Defender should have been completely deactivated permanently, although if you want to reactivate it, you simply have to go back to the Registry Editor and delete all these keys that you have created (and restart the PC, of course).