Lowell is the founder và CEO of How-To Geek. He’s been running the show since creating the site baông xã in 2006. Over the last decade, Lowell has personally written more than 1000 articles which have been viewed by over 250 million people. Prior to lớn starting How-To Geek, Lowell spent 15 years working in IT doing consulting, cybersecurity, database management, và programming work. Read more...
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If you’re already running a full anti-malware suite, you might not even realize that Windows Defender is already installed with Windows, & is probably wasting precious resources. Here’s how lớn get rid of it.
Now, just khổng lồ be clear, we’re not saying that we hate Windows Defender. Some spyware protection is better than none, and it’s built in và free! But… if you are already running something that provides great anti-malware protection, there’s no need khổng lồ have more than one application running at a time.
In Windows 10, go lớn Settings > Update & Security > Windows Defender, và turn off the “Real-time protection” option.In Windows 7 & 8, open Windows Defender, head khổng lồ Options > Administrator, và turn off the “Use this program” option.Windows Defender is a reasonably solid antivi khuẩn tiện ích that comes built into lớn Windows 7, 8, & 10. It may not be the best antivirut app in terms of the pure number of threats it stops, but Defender arguably does have sầu a security advantage in being so tightly integrated into lớn Windows and in being well-behaved when it comes to lớn other important apps.
That said, what you use is up lớn you. Most other antivi khuẩn apps are pretty good about turning Defender off when you install them, và turning it back on if you uninstall them. It never hurts khổng lồ make sure, though. Running more than one real-time protection phầm mềm can cause conflicts và waste system resources.
Run Malwarebytes Alongside Your Antivi khuẩn for Maximum Protection
Before you go ahead và disable Windows Defender for good, it’s worth pointing out that these days the really active sầu threats are from spyware, adware, crapware, và the worst of all: ransomware. That’s where Malwarebytes comes in.
Malwarebytes not only protects your computer from malware, but does a better job of cleaning up an infected computer than anything else on the market.
And to protect your browser against zero-day exploits, Malwarebytes also includes Anti-Exploit và Anti-Ransomware features, which can stop drive-by attacks cold. And best of all, you can run Malwarebytes alongside your existing antivirut to lớn keep yourself fully protected.
How lớn Disable Windows Defender in Windows 10
Starting with the Windows 10 Anniversary Update in the Summer of năm 2016, Windows Defender can actually run alongside another antivi khuẩn ứng dụng. When you install another phầm mềm, Windows Defender itself isn’t disabled—just its real-time protection component is. That means your third-tiệc nhỏ phầm mềm handles real-time protection, but you can still run a manual scan with Defender whenever you want.
RELATED: How to Use the Built-in Windows Defender Antivi khuẩn on Windows 10
If you want to make sure that Windows Defender’s real-time protection is disabled—or re-enabled after uninstalling a third-các buổi tiệc nhỏ antivirut app—hit Start, type “defender,” và then select “Windows Defender.”

In the main “Windows Defender” window, clichồng the “Settings” button in the top right of the window.

You’ll be presented with the “Settings window.” cảnh báo that you can also get here from Settings > Update & Security > Windows Defender. Just make sure that the “Real-time protection” toggle is phối the way you want.
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There is one more thing you should be aware of regarding Windows 10’s real-time protection. If you disable it and have sầu no other antivirus ứng dụng installed, Defender will turn real-time protection back on automatically when you restart Windows. This does not happen if you’re running a third-buổi tiệc nhỏ antivirut ứng dụng. There’s no real fix for this, but if for whatever reason you vày want khổng lồ keep real-time protection off, but we vì have a kind of work-around for you. You can simply exclude your entire system drive from being scanned.
Head to lớn Settings > Update và Security > Windows Defender và cliông chồng the “Add an exclusion” link. Tap the “Exclude a Folder” button and select your C: drive sầu.
And if you have sầu additional drives on your PC, you can exclude those, too.
Please note that this is something we don’t really recommend. Excluding those drives is basically like turning off antivirut protection. But, it’s there if you need it.
Disable Windows Defender in Windows 7 or 8
In Windows 7 and 8, you have sầu to lớn completely disable Windows Defender when you want khổng lồ run another antivi khuẩn ứng dụng. You can’t just disable real-time protection the way you can in Windows 10. Again, Defender should get disabled automatically when you install a third-tiệc ngọt ứng dụng and re-enabled should you uninstall that ứng dụng later. But it doesn’t hurt to lớn make sure.
xuất hiện up Windows Defender by hitting start, typing “defender,” và then clicking “Windows Defender.”

Switch khổng lồ the “Tools” page on the menu, and then cliông chồng the “Options” liên kết.

Switch khổng lồ the “Administrator” tab in the left-hvà pane, and then toggle the “Use this program” kiểm tra box however you want. When you’re done, clichồng the “Save” button.

Windows Defender then confirms that you’ve sầu turned it off. Awesome!

Stopping the Windows Defender Service or Uninstalling Defender
There are tips floating around out there for stopping the Windows Defender service from starting automatically when you start your PC, and even a complicated process for completely uninstalling Windows Defender altogether. We don’t recommkết thúc them. Here’s why.
First, if you disable Defender—or it gets automatically disabled when you install a third-tiệc ngọt app—it actually uses very few system resources. There’s really not much point in stopping the service. This is particularly true in Windows 10 where you can disable the real-time protection, but still have sầu the added safety of using Defender for manual scanning as a baông chồng up to your regular antivirus ứng dụng.
RELATED: 7 Ways To Free Up Hard Disk Space On Windows
Second, if you stop the service—or go through the process of uninstalling it—any Windows update is likely to lớn restore Windows Defender & unbởi vì all that work anyway. Plus, Defender takes up very little disk space & there are better ways lớn không lấy phí up disk space on Windows.
Make Sure You’re Still Using Antivirus (and Anti-Malware)

RELATED: Do I Really Need Antivirus If I Browse Carefully and Use Common Sense?
While it’s handy being able to lớn enable và disable Windows Defender, please do make sure that you’re still running a good antivirut tiện ích. Many people will tell you that you can go without antivirus if you’re careful, và that just isn’t true. If you really hate antivi khuẩn, Windows Defender is the least intrusive program you can use—so you should probably leave it on.
In fact, we recommover everyone also use a good anti-malware and anti-exploit app lượt thích MalwareBytes in addition to antivirus—it’ll help protect you from against exploits và vulnerabilities that antivirut apps don’t cover, which are arguably more prevalent on the website today.
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Lowell HeddingsLowell is the founder & CEO of How-To Geek. He’s been running the show since creating the site baông xã in 2006. Over the last decade, Lowell has personally written more than 1000 articles which have sầu been viewed by over 250 million people. Prior lớn starting How-To Geek, Lowell spent 15 years working in IT doing consulting, cybersecurity, database management, và programming work. Read Full Bio »