Security :: How To Completely Disable Windows Defender
Aug 27, 2013
So I've been running the 8.1 Pro Preview since it went live, and I gotta say, I'm pretty happy with it overall, one thing that's bothering me though is that I can't seem to find a way to disable Windows Defender completely through either gpedit.msc or services.msc (it's grayed out).
In 8.0 there was a setting for disabling Defender completely through gpedit.msc, now in 8.1 they added a bunch of new settings in the Defender tab but none that clearly states the disabling of Defender, maybe I'm missing something here?.
Whether or not it is possible to turn the Windows Firewall completely off, so that it does not turn itself on, whenever I join a new public network?
I have tried the following command in the command prompt: "netsh advfirewall set allprofiles state off", which should do the trick, but doesn't. It was run in administrator mode, so that's not the problem.
The reason that I need this done is, that I play as a DJ using Rekordbox connected to the mixer, through an ethernet cable. Now, for some reason my computer identifies this as a public network, every time I connect the 2 devices and then turns on the Windows Firewall (which blocks the computer and mixer from communicating, which is BAD!).
Every time it activates itself, I have to go into the control panel and turn it back off, which is sort of tedious...
I do have my own antivirus and firewall software installed, so I need the Windows part completely off.
this tweak has been floating around but didn't spot it here on EF so just a heads up. This is for those of you who disable UAC on their systems and have been getting annoyed that DP doesn't disable UAC completely even though the slider is pulled all the way down and the user is Admin.
In the right pane look for EnableLUA and modify its value to 0. Close regedit.
Done.
Disclaimer: This is not meant to encourage people to ditch UAC or even to use this method. Peeps who disable UAC are expected to know their way around.
Warning Setting the EnableLUA to 0 will make all metro apps stop working until you set it back to 1 and restart the computer.
See here instead: User Account Control (UAC) - Change Settings in Windows 8
When i play games or do other full screen stuff, and when i press alt+tab to go to desktop, it shows "search pane" and opens me charm bar with search bar only in it... I have classic shell installed, i have disabled all that broken metro stuff, from hot corners, charm bar, to start screen, but that search bar just doesnt go away, how to completely remove it ?
I am doing a demo for my brothers highschool and need to LOCK DOWN windows 8.
First off I need to completely disable the right charm menu. The menu if you were to swipe left from the right hand side of a monitor.
Then the task bar if you were to swipe from the left hand side of a monitor. The thing is I can use taskkill /im /f whatever.exe to kill the process but the recent app sticks in the menu.
I too got rid of Norton, but I still have another a/v suite on my Toshiba laptop. Should Windows Defender be activated? A tech person at the company told me there would be no conflict, but that it's up to me.
In general, is it a good idea to have both running?
I have recently built a PC myself and had no issues whatsoever, until the other day when an Action Centre notification popped up. For some reason, Spyware and Virus protection have both turned off automatically and when I am prompted to turn them back on, I get an error saying "Action Centre can't turn on Windows Defender. Please try again later."
I have tried the services.msc method and tried to activate WinDefend that way, but encounter another error "Windows could not start the WinDefend service on Local Computer. Error 2: The system cannot find the file specified."
I have looked up this issue with no resolution yet - as most of the solutions are for people that have installed third party Protection Programs like AVG, Norton etc.
I haven't installed any programs like that, and have also checked in the Control Panel to make sure one didn't install itself automatically with an install of another program.
Why does Windows Defender want to scan my PC so often? I have it scheduled to scan daily at about 2:30 AM. Sometimes after about 4 hours it says I need to scan.
It's already disabled but it still occupies some space nd maybe it's part still running in background. Once I had some instructions about uninstalling Windows Messenger from XP by hacking come config file and showing the component in Add/remove Windows features dialog. But i don't remember how this was done. Now need the similar thing about Defender and Security Central and UAC if possoble.
I have win 8.1 and use windows defender and have been using the windows firewall but i never get any promps for outbound stuff so was looking for a better firewall to use what is a good one to use with the built in windows defender Someone told me comodo firewall was a good one.
It says it's been turned off and it's not monitoring the computer, I can't turn it on either unless I'm not doing something right. McAfee internet security suite was on the laptop when I brought, is it because of that? Should I just remove it?
Is windows defender good security on it's own or do I need more than just that? I've downloaded malwarebytes anti-malware?
I was using Avast, and I suspected it might be causing me certain issues, so I uninstalled it, and presently I use Windows Defender for active protection, and Malwarebytes free edition for scans.
problem is that Defender periodically turns off, and then I get an error message, and I have to turn it back on again.
I'm using Win 8 Pro and I went to check my Windows Defender via 'all apps'
When I click on it I just get the following message...........
"Windows Defender has been turned off and it isn't monitoring your computer"
I've tried a few things but seem to come up with the same message whichever way I try to start Defender. obviously I'm a bit worried that my machine might be unprotected.
My Windows Defender is turned off. I was able to click around enough until I found an area that told me that McAfee is controlling this. I don't want McAfee. But when I try to bring up or right click on Windows Defender I get a pop up that tells me it is turned off and it won't let me do anything.
I opened Windows Defender, and it said "Potentially Unprotected" scan hasn't been ran in awhile. but I got it set to automatic scans everyday, I ran a scan and it still says the same thing.
how to retrace my steps to manually reactivate. I have gone to Windows 8 forum (Windows Defender - Turn On or Off in Windows 8) & followed the steps...but Windows Defender is not appearing in my action center...when I go here it shows my antivirus & everything on. There's no option to expand the "security" settings to locate windows defender.
Everything else I do turns up a notification that the app is "off"; but it doesn't give me an option for turning it on. Once again I'm lost in the dust of Windows 8 & it's embedded features...where I locate windows defender to turn it back on...otherwise I'll go the simpler route & just leave things "as is" & download iobit malware fighter or something. However, I've found that I have sporadic issues with Iobit Malware fighter where it works for awhile & then for some reason after a time it won't launch.
I find I'm rather routinely having to uninstall & re-install it. Is it a compatibility glitch with Windows 8.1? Cause Iobit website insists that their malware fighter coincides with all versions of Windows 8. Or should I even be concerned about the malware fighter...I have super antispyware...but it's not a program that is automatically active. My windows security center seems to be compensating with AVG antivirus in place of a malware program. I wasn't aware there was any anti-malware or spyware embedded in AVG?
I am currently using Windows Defender in both of my home PCs. My ISP (Cablevision aka Optimum Online) now offers the full McAfee AV suite for free.
Looking at some test data, McAfee is not the greatest, but it has a better protection rates than WD. It is also said to use more system resources than other AV suites.
For some odd reason WD keeps telling me I need to do a scan (it's in orange in WD) even though I do a scan everyday via the Task Scheduler. After any kind of scan it resets itself (I don't need to scan, green in color). Some time period later it tells me a scan is needed.
Is there some option that controls how often WD tells you to do a scan?
This started happening about a week or so ago. I don't have anything running on my system that IMO is doing this.
I have problem with windows defender on Windows 8. When I start system check, it goes to half and a windows defender service stops. It shows error 0x800106ba service stopped. Service is set to start automatically under LocalSystem account.
I just got my Toshiba laptop Tuesday and I'm having a hard time turning Windows Defender on. I saw the tutorial, but I'm almost totally blind and I use the Jaws screen reader, so I can only use the keyboard and not the mouse.
I pressed the windows key, which used to bring up the search box, but now does something weird, and started typing defender, which brought up the Windows Defender app. When I pressed enter, a dialog box, or what sounded like a dialog box, popped up and said Windows Defender has been turned off, but there's no option to enable it, just a message that says to go to action center but doesn't do anything and a close button. I tried to go to Action Center, but it was really confusing. I found something that let me turn it on, but it still says it's off when I go to check it.
Not sure if the Norton the laptop came with is balking me and not letting me use Defender or what. I tried to uninstall the truckload of programs from Norton using add or remove programs, but I assume it opened Norton to do the uninstall because I heard Norton internet security dialog, but that was all it said. I'm not sure if it was uninstalling or what, as Norton doesn't work at all with Jaws. I called Toshiba because I was having a few more problems that they were able to fix, but when I asked about Defender, they transferred me to their paid tech support people who wanted to charge me an arm and a leg to do remote access, when all I wanted were instructions on how to do it myself. Is there any way to turn Defender on without having to mess with Norton or do I need to get someone to uninstall it for me?
Also, is Defender an actual antivirus program or just something to be used along with an antivirus? Security Essentials was recommended to me by an expert in adaptive technology for the blind because it was the most accessible antivirus program there was, but when I attempted to download it I found out you have to use Defender now with Win 8. What confuses me is that the Toshiba tech support worker said Defender wasn't an antivirus program. Can I use that or do I need to go the next best route and get Avast, which I hear is sort of accessible?
I just uninstalled the trial version of Norton and I am unable to turn on Windows Defender. I have seen this problem repeatedly in the forum, but I'm still not sure how to get it corrected. Windows 8.
Lenovo laptop with Win 8.1. I uninstalled the pre-installed McAfee anti-virus with:
- Uninstall McAfee in Programs and features - Reboot - Run the MCPR McAfee uninstall utility - Reboot (many times)
With that Windows Defender shows it is running, but there is no Icon in the notification area.Should there be an Icon in the Win 8 notification area, like Security Essentials in Win 7?
I would like to basically do this to my Windows 8: Add Scan With Windows Defender To Windows 8 Context Menu as I feel it's a feature that is missing from Windows Defender when they had it in MSE in Windows 7. I've tried doing that but it doesn't seem to work so I am guessing it doesn't work on the latest version/build of 8. How to get it to work?
Today, when I opened the windows defender i saw my PC status at risk and when i tried to update it's virus definitions I couldn't complete, it says network connection but i could connect to website download anything without any interruption. I even tried to update virus definitions through windows update control panel but it was of no use. I had installed MSE on windows 7(i have a dual booting) . Did this action affect my windows 8 OS and how do i get rid of it.
for whatever reason windows defender decided to stop working e couple of days ago... whether a quick scan or full scan it stops about 2/3 the way through and reports the following error. i have no other av installed, no remnants of another av on my system, scannow shows no problems, dism health test checks out just fine, etc., etc. also, fwiw, there is nothing in defender's history files, all clean... as a result windows defender has an orange format, instead of green, which is apparently the default color scheme when it is not able to protect the system adequately.
Windows Defender won't update its anti malware definitions... as of now they are a few days old. Manually pressing the "update" button won't do a thing. Also, when trying to update from the cmd prompt, I am told that no update is needed since everything is up-to-date.
