How to turn off Windows Defender in Windows 11 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 11 temporarily and permanently. Show
Windows Defender unable to stop serviceStart Task Manager on Windows 11. 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 Microsoft Windows Defender Antivirus Service. You can see that the following options are greyed out:
Check status Windows Defender in Windows SecurityOpen the Windows Start menu. Type Windows Security. Click on Virus & threat protection. Windows Defender is enabled. If you install a third-party security product, you will see the following screen. Windows Defender will automatically disable and not run if periodic scanning is turned off (which is the default when you install a third-party security product). However, when turning on periodic scanning, Windows Defender will run simultaneously with the third-party security product. Disable Windows Defender in Windows 11 temporarilyIn 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:
How can you disable Windows Defender service completely and keep it disabled after a reboot? Find out in the next step. Step 1. Download Autoruns for WindowsDownload Autoruns for Windows. Extract the zip file. You don’t need to do anything yet. You need Autoruns at a later stage. Step 2. Turn off Real-time protectionAs shown in the previous step, make sure that Real-time protection is Off. Important: Turn off Real-time protection. Step 3. Boot into safe modeClick on Windows Start and search for msconfig. Run System Configuration as administrator. You can also start the program Run. Type msconfig and click on OK. Select the tab Boot. In the section Boot options, enable Safe boot. Click on OK. Click on Restart. Step 4. Check Windows Security in safe modeStart Windows Security and ensure that it’s not loading anything. Step 5. Start Autoruns for WindowsIn the previous step, you already did download and extract Autoruns for Windows. Browse to the Autoruns folder and start the executable Autoruns64.exe. Step 6. Enable Windows Services in AutorunsGo to the tab Services. It will not show many services. That’s because Windows services are not showing by default. Click in the menu bar on Options. Uncheck Hide Windows Entries. It will show the Windows services in the list view. Step 7. Uncheck Windows Defender Antivirus ServiceSearch for WinDefend and uncheck the checkbox. Unchecking will prevent the Windows Defender automatic startup after every reboot. Step 8. Boot into normal startupStart the application msconfig. Select the Normal startup. Click on OK. Click on Restart. Verify that Windows Defender is kept turned off after Windows 11 restartAfter 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. Important: Do not click on the Virus & threat protection tile while it’s fetching information or the status is unknown. If you do that, it will enable Windows Defender. Keep waiting till you see it’s disabled. Give it a couple of minutes. After that, you will see that Virus & threat protection is disabled. Revert the changesSuppose you like to revert the changes. Then, click on the Restart Now button in Windows Security. Another way is to boot into safe mode, start Autoruns, and check the WinDefend service. Keep on reading: Configure Azure AD Password Protection for on-premises » ConclusionYou learned how to turn off Windows Defender in Windows 11 permanently. Make sure to follow the exact steps, as shown in the article. After doing that, Windows Defender will be kept turned off. Did you enjoy this article? You may also like Uninstall Windows Defender on Windows Server. Don’t forget to follow us and share this article. Does Windows 11 have Windows Defender?Microsoft Defender which is built into the Windows 11 provides you a comprehensive and strong protection against malwares and it is free. We recommend users to use it as their default Anti-Malware program.
Why can't I turn Windows Defender off?To turn off Windows Defender: Navigate to Control Panel and then double click on "Windows Defender" to open it. Select "Tools" and then "Options". Scroll to the bottom of the page of options and uncheck the "Use Windows Defender" check box in the "Administrator options" section.
How do I turn on Windows Defender 11?Click Windows Security on the right. Click Open Windows Security. In the Windows Security app, you can select Virus & threat protection and click Manage settings on the right. Then you can toggle the switch on or off under Real-time protection to enable or disable Windows Defender in Windows 11 or 10.
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