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Turn off Windows Defender in Windows 10 permanently
How to turn off Windows Defender in Windows 10 permanently? Sometimes you want to disable Windows Defender for testing purposes. If you have an Antivirus application running, Windows Defender will be automatically disabled. That’s because your Antivirus software will take over the security from now on. This article will teach you how to turn off Windows Defender in Windows 10 temporarily and permanently.
Table of contents
Windows Defender unable to stop service
Start Task Manager on Windows 10. Find the Windows Defender service that is running. Search for the task name Antimalware Service Executable and the service Windows Defender Antivirus Service.
Right-click the Windows Defender Antivirus Service and click Stop.
An error will show up that the operation could not be completed. Access is denied. It’s unable to stop the service.
Start the application Services and right-click on Windows Defender Antivirus Service. You can see that the following options are greyed out:
- Start
- Stop
- Pause
- Resume
- Restart
Check status Windows Defender in Windows Security
Open the Windows Start menu. Type Windows Security.
Click on Virus & threat protection.
Windows Defender is enabled.
If you installed another security product, you would see the following screen.
Disable Windows Defender in Windows 10 temporarily
In Windows Security, click on Virus & threat protection.
Click on Manage Settings.
Click the toggle button under Real-time protection to turn off Windows Defender Antivirus.
Doing that, you can see that:
- The service is still running in the background
- A reboot will automatically enable Windows Defender
How can you disable Windows Defender service completely and keep it disabled after a reboot? Find out in the next step.
How to turn off Windows Defender in Windows 10 permanently
As shown in the previous step, make sure that Real-time protection is Off.
Autoruns for Windows
Download Autoruns for Windows. Extract the zip file and start the executable Autoruns64.exe. If you are running Windows 10 32-bit, start Autoruns.exe.
Go to the tab Services. There will be not many services shown. That’s because Windows services are not showing by default.
Enable Windows Services in Autoruns
Click in the menu bar on Options. Uncheck Hide Windows Entries. This will show the Windows services in the list view.
Search for WinDefend and uncheck the checkbox. Unchecking will prevent the Windows Defender automatic startup after every reboot.
Restart your Windows 10 system.
Verify that Windows Defender is kept turned off after Windows 10 restart
After a restart, start Task Manager. There is no more Windows Defender service running.
Start Windows Security and have a look at Virus & threat protection. You will see that there is a spinning icon, or the status is showing as unknown. That’s because it’s fetching the information.
Give it a couple of minutes. After that, you will see that Virus & threat protection is disabled.
Revert the changes
If you like to revert the changes, click on the Restart Now button in Windows Security.
Keep on reading: Disable Windows Firewall with PowerShell »
Conclusion
In this article, you learned how to turn off Windows Defender in Windows 10 permanently. Make sure to follow the exact steps, as shown in the article. After doing that, Windows Defender will be kept turned off.
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What Others Are Reading
Still working April 2021 on 20H2 (19042.906).
Boot into safe mode first or it will not work!
This sucks. It doesn’t work anymore. I just want to shut it down as it keeps running in the background when I really don’t need it. It comes with all the stupid shit they put in windows 10 that you want to turn off because you don’t need it but you can’t.
Here’s what i did.
no matter what I’ve tried damn thing always came back. finally, I used the gpedit.exe in safe mode w\network and it worked 😁.
I also used winruns for good measure… pretty much I used everything that was possible and at the end did gpedit.
the damn windows antivirus behaves like virus in itself. several programs stopped running because it removed something on its own.
Unfortunately, it no longer works. You can start autoruns in safe mode and uncheck windefend, but defender still runs.
for anyone getting “access denied” reboot to safemode and try again
yes, help 🙁
worked for me. thx
Yep, it works in the Safe Mode. Thanks!
It worked until now 08/03/2021. Thanks.
as of 8th March 20021 it does not work anymore
Nothin can help..((
But we will wait and believe.
So sad, but even Autorans not helps.. Access denied.
And I sure I didn’t missed any guide steps..
You Sire, are the best, BEST, BESTESSST, BEST !!!!!!!!!
Thanks so much for saving the day 🙂 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Great !!!! It’s the only way I found working !!!!! Congratulations !!
Thanks, it’s only solution that works.
I don’t know.In autorun it shows error that i can’t do it -.-
Thanks again,
Currently in dec 2020, your tip is the only one that works on the entire internet to disable WD permanently
There is one final step which worked
one of these extra steps helped
this is for ver 20h2, other ver may vary
I disabled WD in group policy
in registry under WD 2 keys need to be set to 1
disableantivirus disableantispyware to 1 using ExecTI
your steps kill WD but still some remnants keep running
Finally confirm with app like speccy to see WD disabled
kudos to your tip, without it there was no hope
thanks so much
It’s great that you didn’t give up. That’s what I do like to see! You’re welcome, and thanks for sharing what worked for you. It can help others.
VER 20H2 questionable, speccy app says win def enabled still
I followed all the steps, unchecked in autorun
All of you should verify in speccy or any other similar app
Author please verify and update any solutions
Not working for me. In Autoruns, displaying Access denied.
Fantastic, it didnt work until another reboot. Thanks for your hard work.
Finally, a working solution
Thanks a lot… Am some happy now I can disable anything I feel like ??,,, I mean any thing.. These Autoruns??????
Thanks for the tutorial, finally this worked for me,( P.S i turned off real time protection but after i while it started back, for those with “state denied access”, turn off protection again and start autorun again, everything will work.
Thanks man working like a charm.
Thanks Ali ,
how can we block any Windows Defender Auto-updates ?
Your solution worked thanks
damn man, access is still denied. Is it because of 3rd party antivirus.? I turned real time scanning off, but I am not able to do shit….
Can anyone help…….
Also I have updated the windows…. is it anyway related to october updates????
It worked great!! I shared it with my facebook community. Thank you.
No.. still access denied.
I just tested it on two Windows 10 systems by following the steps in the article. Windows Defender is disabled permanently on both the Windows 10 systems:
Windows 10 version 1909
Windows 10 version 2004
It did work after I restarted my PC but then I shut my PC down and later when I opened again it was still showing on task manager.
thanks,
the policy and registry tweaks don’t work now. but this method worked
That’s right. We used to add a registry or edit the policy. It was not working anymore, and I had to find a solution. You are most welcome.
it still says access is denied…
You did get an access denied message when you missed a step. Take your time and do the steps carefully. It should work.
Thanks Ali tajran, it worked for me