Windows 10: Turn On or Off Windows Defender in Windows 10

If you wanted to uninstall that program, and if it uninstalls properly, WD should be able to be turned back on afterwards.

 

Once I uninstalled ASC, WD opened right away. Thanks for the help.

 

Great news. I'm glad I could help. *Smile

 

Most AV 's will disable WD, Avast AIS did. It also disabled the Windows Firewall as one does not need two AV programs running at the same time and or firewalls. Most say that this is not good. I have zero trust in WD, to me it is akin to the fox guarding the hen house.*Smile

 

In the latest testing by AV-Test, Windows Defender did much better. It even beat or was equal to several third party AV's. Equal to Ahn labs and Comodo and better than something called Quick heal. It almost equaled ESET as well. It also got a AA rating from Dennis technology Labs for the first time.

Microsoft's Antivirus Scores Soar

 

Is this content automatically generated?

 

Hello biorpg, and welcome to Ten Forums. *Smile

There's nothing that needs to be generated since this will only toggle Windows Defender on or off.

 

The german translation doesn't have the "Windows-Defender"-entry either. But I found it. In the german translation it's under "Endpoint Protection".





Hope this could help other languages aswell.

Otherwise try to find it like this, that's how I did it:

Select "All Settings" at the bottom on the left ->



And then look for something like "Deactivate" in your language and look for the Path to the right

 

Thank u for this guide... The stupid update, Windows 10 Pro, version 1511, 10586 reactivated Defender even though I already had an alternative AV installed. Smh

 

I'm glad it could help urbanman. *Smile

 

Hi Brink. I got a link to this forum from a thread I created on the Microsoft answers site. Not sure if this fix will address the issue of Defender definition updates failing to install and generating an error message whenever Windows Update downloads the latest defs. Here is an example of the message:


"Definition Update for Windows Defender - KB2267602 (Definition 1.213.2537.0) - Error 0x80070643"

I have contacted MS 3 times and others have done the same or suggested fixes that they thought might work to no avail. The problem boils down to MS policy in Win 10 to download all updates whether you want them or not. Since I am using Norton Internet Security Defender is turned off but MS insists on downloading the updates and the design is so poor that the updates fail if Defender is off. I have suggested 3 options to MS but all they do is hide the failed update temporarily only to have the next one fail again. As a former programmer it seems to me there are 3 options to stop these error messages:

1- don't try and install definition updates when Defender is off.2- allow the files to be installed even if Defender is off. This would not only not hurt anything but would keep the definitions current so if I ever do decide to switch to Defender I will have the most current definitions available. (seems like the best option to me)
3-if Defender is off just squelch the error message as it is NOT REALLY AN ERROR IT IS DESIGNED TO DO THAT?

My question to you is I don't have a problem with Defender being on or off I have a problem that since it is off I get error messages whenever Update runs. Is this going to stop the error messages or will it just ensure that Defender is off and because of the piss poor design of Update continue to have the definition files fail to install and error messages to be generated? Thanks.

 

Something is not right here. I use Norton 360 on 3 pcs, and Defender is switched off, and I do not get any Defender updates.

 

Hello jawinters, and welcome to Ten Forums. *Smile

You might see if uninstalling Norton Internet Security completely, manually turn off Windows Defender using this tutorial, then reinstalling Norton Internet Security may toggle things to work properly again and not get anymore WD definition updates.

Here's a link to the Norton Removal Tool to help make sure it's completely uninstalled.

https://support.norton.com/sp/en/us/...rProfile_en_us

 

Brink
Just uninstalling Norton and reinstalling it did not work however on the MS forum a user posted a link that he said he got from you-

https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/5...dows-10-a.html

which I downloaded and ran while I had Norton off. Once the .reg file was merged into my registry I reinstalled Norton and so far I have not gotten any Defender updates. I know this is a relatively short time but it is about 20 hours which should be long enough to have had MS issue a definition updates so I believe my problem has been resolved. Thank you for your help.

 

Great news jawinters. Yeah, you would have gotten a definition update by now after 20 hours if it was going to.