How to permanently disable Windows Defender on Windows 10 Pro? Obviously without installing any third-party antivirus.
Mr. X? Are you Muslim as in the civil rights leader Malcolm X? Spoiler No, I'm divorced as in screwed over by the Ex.
It is as simple as running NSudo as System and edit the registry value: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows Defender DisableAntiSpyware REG_DWORD 1 You can double down and edit the Group Policies: Computer Configuration\Windows Components\Microsoft Defender Antivirus\Turn off Microsoft Defender antivirus - Enabled - this will work only AFTER the previous registry edit Computer Configuration\Windows Components\Microsoft Defender Antivirus\Real-time Protection\Turn off real-time protection - Enabled - only this one by itself is good enough for most scenarios, will disable everything you need, less the service Computer Configuration\Windows Components\Windows Security\Notifications\Hide all notifications - Enabled Alternatively, download a tiny tool from Sordum named Defender Control. Or if you are reluctant to use any third party tools, only configure the last 2 Group Policies above and it will be good enough. Test with PowerShell Get-MpComputerStatus Get-MpPreference
@Randy Bobandy In addition to what I said in my previous post and because I notice that you are reluctant to use software which is not transparent for you to verify, instead of NSudo you could use psexec to launch processes as System. This is a Microsoft owned tool and you can't get any more secure other than writing your own software.
I don't know if @BAU script works, chances are that is does and does well. Regardless, it has good information and settings if you decide to apply manually what is inside. There is information on this site in relation to disabling various manufacturers spying on end users, which applies not only to Microsoft but to others as well. I am more interested in performance gains and as someone highly regarded on this forum mentioned many times, telemetry and spying are over-rated and are less intrusive than it is believed, at least for the regular end-user. Using Enterprise versions should give you most of what you need and the settings are well documented on various Microsoft sites. Next best which accepts most of the Enterprise settings is obviously Pro. Home Editions users are out of luck for most of those settings.