Our guide to the best antivirus software lists the best commercial security suites, with Kaspersky Internet Security currently topping the pile. Instead, the best way to disable Windows Defender is to install a different security suite, which will replace the protection available here.

If you don’t want to use Windows Defender ever, there is a registry hack that will disable it for good however, we don’t recommend that you do this, as it will leave your computer vulnerable to attack. Note that this setting only turns off for a short time before it turns back on automatically. Use the toggle switch to turn off Real-time protection, which will disable Windows Defender from running automatically and click OK when prompted. In the Virus & threat detection application, click Manage settings under Virus & threat protection settings. This will launch the separate Virus & threat protection tool. Click the Windows Security option to open up the security settings sub-section, and then click Virus & threat protection. Open the security settingsĬlick the Start Menu and click the Settings icon located on the left-hand side. Warnings out of the way, here are the steps that you can take to disable Windows Defender in Windows 10.

We stress that you should have some kind of protection installed and, as our guide to the best free antivirus software shows, Windows Defender is actually pretty good, doing as well as other free software. You may want to do this for a short-term reason, such as to install a bit of software, or long term because you don’t want the tool running.

If you don’t want to use the built-in Windows security tool, we’ll show you how to stop Windows Defender in Windows 10.

How to turn windows security off