# Windows 10 Remove Windows Defender



## Slo2018 (Oct 16, 2018)

Is it possible to completely remove Windows Defender in Windows 10? I don't need it because i have Avast.


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## eidairaman1 (Oct 16, 2018)

Slo2018 said:


> Is it possible to completely remove Windows Defender in Windows 10? I don't need it because i have Avast.




Is it causing you problems?


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## Slo2018 (Oct 16, 2018)

Yes. I always have problems because deleting files.


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## Athlonite (Oct 16, 2018)

Just turn it off it's not that hard


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## eidairaman1 (Oct 16, 2018)

Slo2018 said:


> Yes. I always have problems because deleting files.




Such as? Can you maybe get a snapshot of your Event Viewer?



Athlonite said:


> Just turn it off it's not that hard



https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.wi...ently-disable-windows-defender-windows-10?amp


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## Octopuss (Oct 16, 2018)

From what I understand,
1) you cannot turn it off or remove it, because it does a lot more than what it used to previousl
2) its protection is automatically not used when you have third party antivirus installed.

So, leave it be and don't stress about it.


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## StrayKAT (Oct 16, 2018)

Altogether bad idea to try to get rid of something so tightly integrated into the OS. Even if you don't use it, it's still the only mechanism in Windows that reads BIOS level security stuff, TPMs, etc.. And if you manage to somehow uninstall it, you'll just have hundreds if not thousands of entries in the registry anyhow.


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## Jetster (Oct 16, 2018)

On endpoints and devices that are protected with a non-Microsoft antivirus or antimalware app, Windows Defender Antivirus will automatically disable itself. You can then choose to enable an optional, limited protection feature, called limited periodic scanning.


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## W1zzard (Oct 16, 2018)

```
rem Disable Windows Defender
reg add "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows Defender" /v DisableAntiSpyware /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f
reg add "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows Defender" /v DisableRoutinelyTakingAction /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f
reg delete "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run" /v SecurityHealth /f
```

This works for me. Run in admin-rights cmd shell

Source: https://www.techpowerup.com/forums/threads/windows-10-tweaks-for-vga-benchmark.228698/

As previously mentioned, Defender should get disabled automatically if another antivirus program is installed.


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## GlacierNine (Oct 16, 2018)

There's no need to do any of this, and even if you DID use those shell commands I wouldn't recommend it.

Avast is definitely recognised by windows as a legitimate replacement Antivirus. As soon as windows detects that Avast is running, Windows Defender will turn itself off and only turn back on if Avast stops running.


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## FireFox (Oct 16, 2018)

Octopuss said:


> 1) you cannot turn it off or remove it, because it does a lot more than what it used to previousl



Wrong, i have it off.

Note: and dont forget the internet is full of ideas and solutions for almost everything


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## Octopuss (Oct 16, 2018)

Ok, ok.
But it still doesn't mean it should be done 
I totally did it in Windows 7, but it seems like it's better be left alone in 10.


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## qubit (Oct 16, 2018)

I have Kaspersky and while Defender does indeed get out of the way, I still get definition updates for it, which is a bit irritating, since they're not used. It hasn't irked me enough to try disabling this, though.


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## lexluthermiester (Oct 16, 2018)

Slo2018 said:


> Is it possible to completely remove Windows Defender in Windows 10? I don't need it because i have Avast.


Yes, it is. And while it is a bit of a process, it is still simple to do.

First you'll need to replace Windows Defender with something competent. I personally recommend Comodo as they have the most well rounded and effective antimalware/firewall out there. However Avira has an excellent suite as well.
Below is the offline installer for Comodo;
https://download.comodo.com/cis/download/installs/1000/standalone/cispremium_only_installer.exe
This will install the premium version in trial mode, but will revert to the free mode after 30 days, which is still all you need to remain secure. Though I will say the premium version is worth the price, but you don't have to.
Avira has a host for their free version on Softpedia;
https://www.softpedia.com/get/Antivirus/AntiVir-Personal-Edition.shtml
On that download page click download and select the offline version.

Either one of these are and will remain leaps and bounds better than the irritating nonsense Microsoft calls "Windows Defender". However if you have something already make sure you have an offline installer for it, or have it installed already.

Grab the very excellent bootable utility disc from Gandalf's WinPE page;
http://windowsmatters.com/category/windows-pes/
You can use either the Win7PE or the Win10PE images, it won't matter which for this process.

Image it to a USB drive using Rufus;
https://rufus.ie/

Then boot to that USB drive. You have to do this because Windows protects Windows Defender while it's booted and will not let you modify the following directories. 
Use the file manager to navigate to the following directories;
C:\Program Files\Windows Defender
C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Defender
C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows Defender

In each of those directories you can do one of two things;
1. Create a new folder(you can name it whatever you want though you should keep it short) within each directory and move everything in them to the new folder.
2. You can simply delete everything in each of those folders. 
Either choice will remove Windows Defender ability to run entirely and it will bother you no more. Doing so *will not* cause any instabilities to Windows itself.

Once you've done that, reboot back into Windows, making sure to remain disconnected from the internet. Install your antimalware/security suite unless you already installed it. It's better to do this step last as Defender is known to muck about with security suites that disable it.

And there you are. Windows Defender is gone. Keep in mind a Windows Update might reinstall it, but you can simply use this process to remove it again.


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## RichF (Oct 16, 2018)

Knoxx29 said:


> Wrong, i have it off.
> 
> Note: and dont forget the internet is full of ideas and solutions for almost everything


Microsoft is also famous for giving people the ability to think they've turned things off, only to find them either still on or magically reset when an update patch is installed (or whatever). This isn't just a MS practice but it is the most egregious company that I know of, considering how much money people pay for things like Enterprise features that MS didn't intend to actually function.

People shouldn't have to hope that things they have to hunt for on the web are going to work. They should be able to use the GUI to do it. And, GUI switches should actually work and stick. That's what a modern operating system is supposed to be about. But, people still fail to realize this basic fact, so long after we've all abandoned the full CLI OS experience for good reason.


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## bug (Oct 16, 2018)

The annoying thing is that my user doesn't need real-time protection. But if I disable that in Avast (or whatever), Windows Defender will decide to resurrect itself. There's just no way to free up those resources.


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## lexluthermiester (Oct 16, 2018)

bug said:


> The annoying thing is that my user doesn't need real-time protection. But if I disable that in Avast (or whatever), Windows Defender will decide to resurrect itself. There's just no way to free up those resources.


So use the process I stated above and move all files into new sub-directories. It'll stop it from running until you move everything back.


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## R0H1T (Oct 16, 2018)

StrayKAT said:


> Altogether bad idea to try to get rid of something so tightly integrated into the OS. Even if you don't use it, it's still the only mechanism in Windows that reads BIOS level security stuff, TPMs, etc.. And if you manage to somehow uninstall it, you'll just have hundreds if not thousands of entries in the registry anyhow.


You can't uninstall it, it's possible only via winPE & that's kind of illegal.


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## bug (Oct 16, 2018)

lexluthermiester said:


> So use the process I stated above and move all files into new sub-directories. It'll stop it from running until you move everything back.


Yeah, I can make that easier by booting into Linux and moving those folders.
What I was saying, the decision to auto-activate, while sensible for people that don't know any better, can be pretty annoying at times.

Edit: Also, while I have no trouble using the PC without a running AV, I would never do that to my wife's account. So moving folders is not going to work for me.


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## GlacierNine (Oct 16, 2018)

bug said:


> The annoying thing is that my user doesn't need real-time protection. But if I disable that in Avast (or whatever), Windows Defender will decide to resurrect itself. There's just no way to free up those resources.


I haven't actually noticed any detrimental performance effects to having RTP in any AV for many years. Exactly how necessary even is this?


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## bug (Oct 16, 2018)

GlacierNine said:


> I haven't actually noticed any detrimental performance effects to having RTP in any AV for many years. Exactly how necessary even is this?


On occasion, it will decide your system hasn't been scanned in a while and initiate a scan. Can be quite annoying if you still have mechanical drives in there.


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## FreedomEclipse (Oct 16, 2018)

One of Microsoft's recent updates turned defender back on even when i had it disabled. then kept constantly nagging at me that i had no protection and that my kaspersky was turned off even though it was on all the time.

I had to regedit it to make it shut up. It wasnt till recently where it started to do this.


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## GlacierNine (Oct 16, 2018)

bug said:


> On occasion, it will decide your system hasn't been scanned in a while and initiate a scan. Can be quite annoying if you still have mechanical drives in there.


Which I do, and I've still no experience of a performance hit due to it. I use malwarebytes alongside though, which, as it's not an AV specifically, doesn't turn off Windows Defender even though it offers on-access protection.

In theory that shouldn't work, but it does. I've had issues in the past where Defender and AVG have fought each other for the right to on-access-scan a file, but not on Win10, only Win7


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## lexluthermiester (Oct 16, 2018)

GlacierNine said:


> In theory that shouldn't work, but it does. I've had issues in the past where Defender and AVG have fought each other for the right to on-access-scan a file, but not on Win10


I've been seeing it happen in Windows 10.


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## bug (Oct 16, 2018)

GlacierNine said:


> Which I do, and I've still no experience of a performance hit due to it. I use malwarebytes alongside though, which, as it's not an AV specifically, doesn't turn off Windows Defender even though it offers on-access protection.
> 
> In theory that shouldn't work, but it does. I've had issues in the past where Defender and AVG have fought each other for the right to on-access-scan a file, but not on Win10, only Win7


What can I say, you've got quite a miracle system over there if it can sustain a continuous read of a mechanical drive with no noticeable performance impact.


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## er557 (Oct 16, 2018)

In windows 1809,  The 3rd party AV is required to be run in protected mode/secure mode, and be compatible with such, otherwise windows defender will remain enabled and will run side by side with your AV, which can cause conflicts, false positives, and I find it annoying it updates definitions on it's own and takes the liberty to delete files I need , which it thinks are suspicious, unwanted, or whatever, and needing constantly to get into settings and restore and exclude manually stuff. 
However, no complicated maneuvers are required to disable it, it is quite straightforward. Get winaero tweaker, a free utility to slim down and customize windows 10. Look for windows defender section, and simply click DISABLE WINDOWS DEFENDER. reboot and it should not bother you no more. It's equally easy to re-enable it from the same page in the utility. And this way, you don't tamper with system files or break any built-in consistency. The other protections and the security center will still function, to be able to review your security status and what not.


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## Athlonite (Oct 16, 2018)

Why does your wife need anything other than Windows Defender does she perhaps visit a lot of nefarious porn sites or download a lot of junk from who knows where if the answer is no then stop dicking around and just use Windows Defender and be done with Avast is any better at it's job than Defender anyhow

here are the AVtest.org results for both Avast & Windows Defender

Windows Defender

Avast

Also 





> On occasion, it will decide your system hasn't been scanned in a while and initiate a scan. Can be quite annoying if you still have mechanical drives in there.



shouldn't happen unless the PC is Idle it shouldn't ever happen whilst your using it to do stuff


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## lexluthermiester (Oct 16, 2018)

bug said:


> What can I say, you've got quite a miracle system over there if it can sustain a continuous read of a mechanical drive with no noticeable performance impact.


They could be running RAID5..



er557 said:


> Get winaero tweaker, a free utility to slim down and customize windows 10. Look for windows defender section, and simply click DISABLE WINDOWS DEFENDER.


Unfortunately, Defender is often reenabled by Windows with even a minor update. Removal is the better option.


er557 said:


> And this way, you don't tamper with system files or break any built-in consistency.


Removal does not do this.


er557 said:


> The other protections and the security center will still function, to be able to review your security status and what not.


The Windows Firewall is not a part of Windows Defender and continues untouched. The same with Security Center. Both will continue to function as needed without the presence of Windows Defender.


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## GlacierNine (Oct 16, 2018)

lexluthermiester said:


> They could be running RAID5..


I'm running a 960 Evo system drive, a 1TB applications spinner, and 2x4TB Storage spinners set up as a mirrored volume in Storage Manager.

The Defender process either only scans the SSD, or it simply doesn't hurt me when it scans the HDDs, which are where the VAST bulk of my data is.


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## lexluthermiester (Oct 16, 2018)

GlacierNine said:


> I'm running a 960 Evo system drive, a 1TB applications spinner, and 2x4TB Storage spinners set up as a mirrored volume in Storage Manager.
> 
> The Defender process either only scans the SSD, or it simply doesn't hurt me when it scans the HDDs, which are where the VAST bulk of my data is.


Fair enough.


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## Vayra86 (Oct 16, 2018)

Slo2018 said:


> Is it possible to completely remove Windows Defender in Windows 10? I don't need it because i have Avast.



If you do important stuff on the internet, most notably _banking_ you may want to keep Windows Defender active, because banks have a clause in their terms where you are required to have up to date security.

On top of that, there is no documented, logical reason to disable it. If Defender gets in the way you can make exceptions for applications and files.


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## Axaion (Oct 16, 2018)

make a custom install with it removed using DISM or something.

good way to get rid of crapware

But keep in mind that defender (the windows 10 one, at least) is better than avast anyway


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## lexluthermiester (Oct 16, 2018)

Vayra86 said:


> because banks have a clause in their terms where you are required to have up to date security.


Citation?


Vayra86 said:


> On top of that, there is no documented, logical reason to disable it.


How about the many, many people who have experienced Windows Defender pointlessly and consistently deleting files that it deems threatening when they are not without so much as prompting the user let alone asking permission. Or the fact that it blocks applications that are harmless from running or being installed. Windows Defender is a sloppy and incompentent piece of garbage coding which renders false positives more frequently than it does actual positives and is easily eclipsed in both function and accuracy at protecting systems and users by even the weakest antimalware available.



Axaion said:


> But keep in mind that defender (the windows 10 one, at least) is better than avast anyway


That is opinion not supported by testing and thus patently false.


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## bug (Oct 16, 2018)

lexluthermiester said:


> How about the many, many people who have experienced Windows Defender pointlessly and consistently deleting files that it deems threatening when they are not without so much as prompting the user let alone asking permission. Or the fact that it blocks applications that are harmless from running or being installed. Windows Defender is a sloppy and incompentent piece of garbage coding which renders false positives more frequently than it does actual positives and is easily eclipsed in both function and accuracy at protecting systems and users by even the weakest antimalware available.



Tbh, there's no AV that doesn't trigger a false positive every now and then. Though in my experience, every AV I tried has asked me before deleting anything.


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## R0H1T (Oct 16, 2018)

lexluthermiester said:


> Citation?
> 
> How about the many, many people who have experienced Windows Defender pointlessly and consistently deleting files that it deems threatening when they are not without so much as prompting the user let alone asking permission. Or the fact that it blocks applications that are harmless from running or *being installed*. Windows Defender is a sloppy and incompentent piece of garbage coding which renders false positives more frequently than it does actual positives and is *easily eclipsed in both function and accuracy at protecting systems and users by even the* *weakest antimalware available*.
> 
> ...


That's smartscreen or UAC, not windows defender.

Citation needed.


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## lexluthermiester (Oct 16, 2018)

R0H1T said:


> Citation needed


Google " Windows Defender testing ". Have fun.


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## Kursah (Oct 16, 2018)

qubit said:


> I have Kaspersky and while Defender does indeed get out of the way, I still get definition updates for it, which is a bit irritating, since they're not used. It hasn't irked me enough to try disabling this, though.



Yes but on the flip side of the coin, it is also a good thing in my eyes. If your Kaspersky license expires or you remove it, an updated version of Defender picks up right away. Considering how small the defender updates are, it's worth that piece of mind IMHO. I know some folks are irritated by that, but I see it as a non-issue from a management/sysadmin side. Redundancy is key. 


I also agree with the folks recommended to install your desired AVAM solution (anti-virus anti-malware), let Defender disable and continue to update. Folks are not gaining THAT much by removing or perma-killing it, odds are you're losing more than you're gaining if you step back and look at the whole picture. But I understand that some feel they need to feel in control of their OS, and what they use for security, in that instance run a few commands and be done with it.

Like GlacierNine, I run MBAM Premium and Defender on my systems. They have SSD's for OS and some storage, and they don't scan at the same time. Not that everyone should do it, but again, I believe redundancy is key, and that being said, if you can, you should. Relying on one solution makes little sense to me seeing as every solution has something it fails at or misses. Why leave that to risk? Why assume your single solution is good enough at all times? 

I still stand by running Defender + MBAM Free as a solid AVAM solution for many end-users, AVG, Avast, etc. work well enough too. Add in some OpenDNS, Quad9, CloudFlare, etc. to your router and DHCP server to hand out to devices as well, and some common sense usage practices, many folks would be set. 




W1zzard said:


> ```
> rem Disable Windows Defender
> reg add "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows Defender" /v DisableAntiSpyware /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f
> reg add "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows Defender" /v DisableRoutinelyTakingAction /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f
> ...



Exactly this if you wanna kill Defender, at least in my experience this has got it done. However, I don't recommend doing this, but for those that feel they must for whatever reason, this is the way. 

Considering it is done with a few simple commands in an elevated command prompt that can be copied and pasted, that should take away the frustration of removing it. Granted some feel they shouldn't have to CLI in the modern era, but it still is the best way to administer OSes in certain cases and really isn't that hard (or scary), especially if you follow directions well.


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## rtwjunkie (Oct 16, 2018)

lexluthermiester said:


> I've been seeing it happen in Windows 10.





bug said:


> What can I say, you've got quite a miracle system over there if it can sustain a continuous read of a mechanical drive with no noticeable performance impact.


Actually @GlacierNine is correct.  It’s not a miracle system.  MalwareBytes has been specifically designed to run resident alongside Windows Defender, as well as a handful of other AV software.  There is no continuous read of drives or any noticeable performance hit.


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## INSTG8R (Oct 16, 2018)

How about don’t use pirate software then Defender won’t “delete files”  Sorry but that’s the only case where Defender is “deleting” things.


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## Vayra86 (Oct 16, 2018)

lexluthermiester said:


> Citation?
> 
> How about the many, many people who have experienced Windows Defender pointlessly and consistently deleting files that it deems threatening when they are not without so much as prompting the user let alone asking permission. Or the fact that it blocks applications that are harmless from running or being installed. Windows Defender is a sloppy and incompentent piece of garbage coding which renders false positives more frequently than it does actual positives and is easily eclipsed in both function and accuracy at protecting systems and users by even the weakest antimalware available.



If you don't mind, I'm not going to go past all the banking terms worldwide to figure it out for you. I do know that in my country these clauses exist. And regardless: deleting provided security measures and then getting compromised is simply called negligence and there is no insurance anywhere that allows that.

As for citations on your second bit of text I'll quote you:
That is opinion not supported by testing and thus patently false.

Windows Defender has vastly improved, what you're saying is what was cool during the Windows 7 days.



INSTG8R said:


> How about don’t use pirate software then Defender won’t “delete files”  Sorry but that’s the only case where Defender is “deleting” things.



QFT


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## R0H1T (Oct 16, 2018)

lexluthermiester said:


> Google " Windows Defender testing ". Have fun.


I don't need to, I am a regular beta tester for various applications, including AV, as well as Windows.
Meanwhile you seem to be stuck in some place where everything windows was bad, except everyone's favorite win 7, have fun with your outdated opinions ~


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## Kursah (Oct 16, 2018)

@R0H1T and @lexluthermiester I don't mind disagreements carried out in an appropriate fashion that is constructive, seeing I have to say something it is not trending that way. Let's keep it from getting any more personal moving forward please. Only warning. Thanks!


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## GlacierNine (Oct 16, 2018)

R0H1T said:


> I don't need to, I am a regular beta tester for various applications, including AV, as well as Windows.
> Meanwhile you seem to be stuck in some place where everything windows was bad, except everyone's favorite win 7, have fun with your outdated opinions ~
> View attachment 108797


I've also frequently heard the claim that in 2018, Antivirus programs actually introduce MORE risk, rather than less.

All of the below is *my understanding* and could be wrong, BUT, this is what I've been told:

The explanation I've heard is that because Antivirus Programs need to be given access beyond what a malicious program has, so that those malicious programs can't hide themselves from the AV, most of them run in Ring 0 of the OS (Which is the most powerful, least secure ring, and usually only things like hardware drivers are allowed to access it directly).

This property is why things like Norton and McAfee are so difficult to remove - their Ring 0 access prevents regular uninstallers from fully removing them unless the uninstaller goes to great lengths (Which of course Norton and McAfee's uninstallers don't bother going to, leaving plenty of rubbish on a host system even after uninstallation)

Because compromising a popular AV therefore almost guarantees Ring 0 access to the attacker, they are the prime target for exploits seeking to compromise a system completely, because once you get past one or hijack it's access, your malicious code is running in a privileged state that regular programs don't even see. They also directly interact with almost all of the parts of your PC in some way or another, in order to do their job. As a result they present a huge attack surface compared to other Ring 0 items like hardware drivers.

This is why I've heard a multitude of security professionals recommend ditching AV suites in general unless they only supplement the OS's built in protections rather than replacing them. MBAM is a piece of software that seems to be designed this way.


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## R-T-B (Oct 16, 2018)

Octopuss said:


> you cannot turn it off or remove it, because it does a lot more than what it used to previousl



You can turn it off.



INSTG8R said:


> How about don’t use pirate software then Defender won’t “delete files”  Sorry but that’s the only case where Defender is “deleting” things.



Nope.  Mining too.  Other false positives I've run into over the years as well.


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## lexluthermiester (Oct 16, 2018)

@R0H1T @Vayra86 @rtwjunkie
When my clients and customers bring me systems that are behaving badly and they describe their problems, I troubleshoot. When I discover that something seems to be causing the problem, remove/change that something and the problem goes away, problem solved. In the case of Windows Defender, it is one of the most consistent and ongoing culprits of user problems in all versions of Windows that come with it, mostly Windows 10. Deleting it and replacing it consistently resolves users problems while not compromising their security. The methods I described in the process in the earlier post is exclusive to Windows 10 as the process is different and can be done entirely from within Windows on Windows 7. So the notions that these procedures are outdated or leftovers from a previous version of Windows are entirely incorrect. Additionally, as the graph R0H1T provided shows, there are many competent security suites available from a variety of trustworthy vendors and can handily entirely replace Microsoft's offering, but without all of the irritations. Progress and technology marches on.

Everyone seems gripped with fear of not doing things the Microsoft way. That is not the only way to do things and often isn't even the best way. In the case of antimalware, Windows Defender may be rated well but in practice it shows itself to be more trouble than it's worth. Deleting/replacing it will not magically break a system, nor will it become unstable. Most systems benefit from it's removal and replacement which is why I promote doing so.


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## John Naylor (Oct 16, 2018)

As AV vendors have risen to prominence, it seems they all fall into the Norton tactic of being overly concerned about piracy that they go to such lengths as to make removal of even PC usage unbearable.  I would say that a good 5-10% of the "slow puters" left on my work bench, had their issues resolved by removing the AV.   Given the cost of site licenses these days, it's hard to imagine folks balking at the cost.  I often found myself thanking my lucky stars that there were some good guys out there that a)  had a fully functional 30 day free trial and installation, management and removal is a "piece of pie / easy as cake" (bonus point is ya guess the movie that quote from.

Bitdefender fit that model until the point were I had to sit at each machine and individually d/l and install at each box.... PITA... goodbye.   Then we switched to Kaspersky and the only annoying thing about them was that the initial purchase price was  half the price of the renewal.    So we'd just let the license expire and buy a new one.   But now, 1)  They auto renew your license even when you a) select the dontt renew option b) call them up and make sure thay did it.  10 days before it expired, they renewed me and I had to call and get a refund.

Purchasing new for 5 site licenses and 3 years runs about $4.50 per year per PC (Had my company purchase instead of me) ... as I said, the proverbial no brainer.    However I noticed, uninstalling the old one and installing the new one ... I couldn't find any place to put in the license number.    The next day the program told me I had 6 days left on my 1085 day license.  Was no big deal uninstalling again, "with all saved preferences files" rebooting, cleaning registry, rebooting and reinstalling but it's an unnecessary PITA.   And the other ironic thing ... since we let BitDefender / Old Kaspersky, we keep getting emails for bargain prices, well below their renewal price.  If they just keep the prices low instead of trying to scam folks, they'd all lose less subscribers.  I know BD has a "remove all our crap" removal tool ... haven't had to use Kaspersky one yet.

OS protection has gotten way better ... with the old essentials / Defender i was getting boxes with infections numbering into 4 figures.  In avtest.org's most recent test Windows Defender caught 100% of Win 10 baddies ... beating Avast, Avira and AVG.  However performance was a bit off the mark compared to market leaders.  Win 7, it missed a few.  As it continues to improve I expect the "why spend money" it's just or almost as good argument to become more prevalent.   But until MS loosens the reigns a bit with regard to what users can control and what they are willing to share, I remain mistrustful.


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## INSTG8R (Oct 16, 2018)

R-T-B said:


> You can turn it off.
> 
> 
> 
> Nope.  Mining too.  Other false positives I've run into over the years as well.


All the OPs other threads have strictly been about games, let’s put 2 and 2 together shall we?


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## R-T-B (Oct 16, 2018)

INSTG8R said:


> All the OPs other threads have strictly been about games, let’s put 2 and 2 together shall we?



I don't play the assumption game.  I've run into game utility false positives as well years ago (Joshua.exe in the game SuperPower 2 is a good example, which is both a virus name and the game's exe name), wouldn't surprise me if they are still going on (no idea frankly since I personally stopped using AV a while back when I learned what to click / not click).


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## INSTG8R (Oct 16, 2018)

R-T-B said:


> I don't play the assumption game.  I've run into game utility false positives as well years ago (Joshua.exe in the game SuperPower 2 is a good example, which is both a virus name and the game's exe name), wouldn't surprise me if they are still going on (no idea frankly since I personally stopped using AV a while back when I learned what to click / not click).


Well I’m going too. The OP had been asking about games, next post is about Defender “deleting files” Guess what Defender likes to delete? Cracks  It’s just doing it’s job as intended as they are considered malicious.


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## lexluthermiester (Oct 16, 2018)

INSTG8R said:


> Guess what Defender likes to delete?


Guess what else Defender likes to delete? Pictures, office documents, video transferred from phones/camera's and programs that are known safe like offline antimalware installers and browser setup files.



INSTG8R said:


> Cracks


That's not a great assumption. You have no way of knowing.


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## INSTG8R (Oct 16, 2018)

lexluthermiester said:


> Guess what else Defender likes to delete? Pictures, office documents, video transferred from phones/camera's and programs that are known safe like offline antimalware installers and browser setup files.
> 
> 
> That's not a great assumption. You have no way of knowing.


No like I said All of the OPs post have been posts about games, next post is about Defender deleting files the connection is terribly obvious. 
Also to take a page from your book. Defender deletes personal files?
Citation please?


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## Kursah (Oct 16, 2018)

lexluthermiester said:


> Guess what else Defender likes to delete? Pictures, office documents, video transferred from phones/camera's and programs that are known safe like offline antimalware installers and browser setup files.



Never had that issue for myself or clients with Defender and locally hosted documents, pictures, videos, AV and browser setups. Not saying Defender isn't capable of it (Well hello first release 1809...though I have one system that got 1809 and I lost 0 data there as well, no issues), but I have seen other AVAM solutions do that very thing too with false positives. It's not limited to Defender by any means.


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## GlacierNine (Oct 16, 2018)

Kursah said:


> Never had that issue for myself or clients with Defender and locally hosted documents, pictures, videos, AV and browser setups. Not saying Defender isn't capable of it (Well hello first release 1809...though I have one system that got 1809 and I lost 0 data there as well, no issues), but I have seen other AVAM solutions do that very thing too with false positives. It's not limited to Defender by any means.


I have also literally never seen that behaviour occur in any system I have ever used. Mine or anyone elses.


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## rtwjunkie (Oct 16, 2018)

lexluthermiester said:


> @R0H1T @Vayra86 @rtwjunkie
> When my clients and customers bring me systems that are behaving badly and they describe their problems, I troubleshoot. When I discover that something seems to be causing the problem, remove/change that something and the problem goes away, problem solved. In the case of Windows Defender, it is one of the most consistent and ongoing culprits of user problems in all versions of Windows that come with it, mostly Windows 10. Deleting it and replacing it consistently resolves users problems while not compromising their security. The methods I described in the process in the earlier post is exclusive to Windows 10 as the process is different and can be done entirely from within Windows on Windows 7. So the notions that these procedures are outdated or leftovers from a previous version of Windows are entirely incorrect. Additionally, as the graph R0H1T provided shows, there are many competent security suites available from a variety of trustworthy vendors and can handily entirely replace Microsoft's offering, but without all of the irritations. Progress and technology marches on.
> 
> Everyone seems gripped with fear of not doing things the Microsoft way. That is not the only way to do things and often isn't even the best way. In the case of antimalware, Windows Defender may be rated well but in practice it shows itself to be more trouble than it's worth. Deleting/replacing it will not magically break a system, nor will it become unstable. Most systems benefit from it's removal and replacement which is why I promote doing so.


Hmmmmm, I don’t care what your non-pc savvy customers have problems with. I’ve got MalwareBytes alongside Windows Defender on one, and MalwareBytes alongside Avast on another. No problems on either. No special attention needed on either.


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## Vayra86 (Oct 16, 2018)

lexluthermiester said:


> @R0H1T @Vayra86 @rtwjunkie
> When my clients and customers bring me systems that are behaving badly and they describe their problems, I troubleshoot. When I discover that something seems to be causing the problem, remove/change that something and the problem goes away, problem solved. In the case of Windows Defender, it is one of the most consistent and ongoing culprits of user problems in all versions of Windows that come with it, mostly Windows 10. Deleting it and replacing it consistently resolves users problems while not compromising their security. The methods I described in the process in the earlier post is exclusive to Windows 10 as the process is different and can be done entirely from within Windows on Windows 7. So the notions that these procedures are outdated or leftovers from a previous version of Windows are entirely incorrect. Additionally, as the graph R0H1T provided shows, there are many competent security suites available from a variety of trustworthy vendors and can handily entirely replace Microsoft's offering, but without all of the irritations. Progress and technology marches on.
> 
> Everyone seems gripped with fear of not doing things the Microsoft way. That is not the only way to do things and often isn't even the best way. In the case of antimalware, Windows Defender may be rated well but in practice it shows itself to be more trouble than it's worth. Deleting/replacing it will not magically break a system, nor will it become unstable. Most systems benefit from it's removal and replacement which is why I promote doing so.



If you have an alternate solution that is considered solid and you take measures to implement security of your system and data, all is well in the world. It doesn't need to be Windows Defender, but experience tells us that keeping something up to date is not for everyone.

The point initially was - make sure you have an adequate replacement for Defender. That is all I've got to say about it. Its not 'fear', its minimizing risk and making sure you're not liable for damages. And my other point is: Windows Defender doesn't cause any problems with any sort of normal use of a PC. I haven't had a single issue with it, and I could create exceptions that didn't act funny whenever I wanted. It does everything I need and most of all: I don't need to fiddle with it.

If you see other people's PCs you know just as well as I do that users do all sorts of weird, illogical or downright silly stuff to their OS. 'If I delete Defender, problem goes away' is hardly a conclusive evidence that Defender is the cause. Also, big data proves you wrong. Defender is one of the most widely used applications now and rightly so.


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## Athlonite (Oct 16, 2018)

lexluthermiester said:


> Guess what else Defender likes to delete? Pictures, office documents, video transferred from phones/camera's and programs that are known safe like offline antimalware installers and browser setup files.
> 
> 
> That's not a great assumption. You have no way of knowing.



That's nothing to do with Defender that's a setting in Storage Sense see below






Oh and I've never seen Defender delete pirated anything and I have a shit ton of noCD cracks because I dislike Steam and Origin and battle.net or any other game that requires me to sign into some crap online before I can play a game and I don't play online multi-player and never ever have I had Defender try to delete these. And even if it does it's not gone completely it's in the Vault and can be sent back to where it came from and an exception made to leave it alone just like any other AV program around you just need to set it up appropriately for the situation it's being used in


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## MrGenius (Oct 17, 2018)

Athlonite said:


> Oh and I've never seen Defender delete pirated anything...


Oh it will. Trust me. Try burning a cracked .iso of any version of Windows.  Don't ask me how I know...


Athlonite said:


> ...even if it does it's not gone completely it's in the Vault and can be sent back to where it came from and an exception made to leave it alone just like any other AV program around...


Well...yeah. It'll try at least. But we know what to do to prevent that shit now don't we?


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## StrayKAT (Oct 17, 2018)

I've seen Defender alert/delete "legit" software even, but it was probably for the best. TC4Shell is a compression utility I own, but Defender went crazy with TC4Shell's licensing scheme, where it embeds your license info in undesirable areas on the system. It listed it as a trojan even, that sends back control of your whole machine to the maker of the virus. Either that or Windows didn't like how it integrated compression into the Windows shell/Explorer. I decided to not install it anymore and use 7Zip instead. Kind of sucks though, because I like the Explorer integrated compression for the amount of file types it supports.. but something may very well be shady about the developer (he's a Russian... lol).


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## Athlonite (Oct 17, 2018)

Try Peazip it's free and also supports a lot of compression types


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## lexluthermiester (Oct 17, 2018)

rtwjunkie said:


> Hmmmmm, I don’t care what your non-pc savvy customers have problems with.


I have too. It's my job and I'm exceptionally good at it.


rtwjunkie said:


> I’ve got MalwareBytes alongside Windows Defender on one, and MalwareBytes alongside Avast on another. No problems on either. No special attention needed on either.


That's cool, if that works for you do carry on.


Vayra86 said:


> If you have an alternate solution that is considered solid and you take measures to implement security of your system and data, all is well in the world. It doesn't need to be Windows Defender


That's exactly what I've been saying. Removal *and* replacement.


Vayra86 said:


> The point initially was - make sure you have an adequate replacement for Defender.


Agreed. That was part of the point I made as well. Well known and excellent replacements for it were suggested.


Vayra86 said:


> That is all I've got to say about it. Its not 'fear', its minimizing risk *and making sure you're not liable for damages.*


Like Microsoft?


Vayra86 said:


> 'If I delete Defender, problem goes away' is hardly a conclusive evidence that Defender is the cause.


You're right, there's a great deal more to it than that. However, I didn't feel like a 6 page essay about the exact technical details on the subject was necessary given what the OP was asking for originally.

The OP, @Slo2018, started this thread asking for a way to remove Windows Defender. They did not ask for explanations for it's behavior or ways to disable it, nor for advice on whether removing it is a good or bad idea. A method to remove was provided. Said method works and does not compromise system stability. Included in those instructions was the recommendation for replacement as well as suggestions for known competent and well liked replacements.


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## RCoon (Oct 17, 2018)

OP hasn't returned to any of your responses. Closing thread until we get a PM otherwise.


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