This brief tutorial will take you through the steps required to disable Windows Defender in Windows 7.
If you’d rather use your own spyware and trojan remover, having Windows Defender also running can be a bit of a moot point. This tutorial will show you how to disable it.
- If you open the Windows Task Manager and select the Services tab, you’ll notice WinDefend is running. This is Windows Defender. There are a couple ways to disable it, but the one I outline will show you how to re-enable it should you need/want to.
- Click the “Start Orb” and type in defender into the text box. Select Windows Defender from the items that appear in the window above.
- Select Tools from the main Windows Defender screen.
- Select Options from the Settings section.
- From the left navigation pane, select Administrator.
- Now remove the check mark from the box labeled Use this program. Click the Save button in the bottom right corner.
- Click Yes when prompted to make the change.
- And now Windows Defender is turned off. You can use the “click here to turn it on” link if you want to re-enable it (just launch Windows Defender the same way you did in step #2 above).
- Now if you check the Services section of the Task Manager you’ll see that Windows Defender has been stopped.
- That’s it – you’re done!
Good info
o.k. fine, I understand but;
my problem is everytime I boot, win7 has a window on my desktop telling me win defender is turned off, click here to turn back on. As well – if I turn back on, everytime I reboot, win7 has a window on my desktop saying win defender service has stopped click here to restart. Its driving me crazy!!! I wish it would go away. I’m using build 7077. I only have like 3 programs installed, including avast! 4.8 home, no other spyware or antivirus or anything like that. Oh and windows firewall if that means anything. Any help? Thanks for your time.
hi,
same annoying thing here about the action center flag.
can anyone help?
sv7 & Odium -
If you follow the steps in this tutorial and make sure to remove the check in the “Spyware and related protection” that should solve the problem. I’d test myself but I’ve uninstalled Windows 7 for the time being..
Hi Ross
The “Spyware and related protection” has been unchecked. This was the first thing I did, thinking it was a conflict with Avast! Checked with Avast!, they said no conflicts, and to leave Windows Defender on. I still have the same problem. Is the ‘Action Center’ booting too late? (after Win Defender) The reason I ask this is because I never even see the notification flag until several minutes after I boot.
Thanks for you help.
Thanks,it works
Hi, all. What if the Tools menu in windows defender is not active (cant click on it) ?? I start the windows defender tab but all the options are not active. actualy i had the same problem on my laptop but it somehow got fixed and i cant seems to figure out how?
worked it out
thank you it was the activation i think
Same problem. But, I’ve gone through the steps above to turn it off, saved it and lo and behold the Action Centre warning still comes up. So it ignores that it’s been turned off. Then I thought well leave it on – how much problem can that be? So I clicked turn it on in the Action Centre box but on next boot the same message so it won’t even remember that it’s been turned on.