How to Turn On or Off Microsoft Defender Antivirus in Windows 10  

Brink said:

You could add exclusions to Microsoft Defender if wanted.

Add or Remove Microsoft Defender Antivirus Exclusions in Windows 10

Yes but @Chrysalis doesn't want to exclude anything from scanning past or future, instead when a virus is suspected/detected to warn/log not delete/quarantine straightaway. I think I made it pretty clean what I mean.

Paul Black said:

Stop Windows Defender - NOTE: This is temporary, it will revert to Started on the NEXT Restart or Boot:

Code:

sc stop WinDefend

Microsoft Defender sees the command as a trojan and will block it immediately.

For Windows 10 only. Try this utility called Defender Control. It works for Windows 10, not for Windows 7 (In case you have a legacy PC that can't be upgraded without significant performance issues),

Good evening, to the dark brotherhood of windows 10 tweakers and overall general power users! With the white hot passion of a thousand burning suns, I thank you guys. Turning off windows defender has been a thorn in my side for almost 1.5 years, after all my registry research and attempts failed completely. Good to know that it was the operating system itself thwarting my attempts, and not a mistake or something I made.

With your guys' help, I FINALLY got the damn windows defender turned off, for GOOD on Windows 10 version 1903.

First, I tried the usual registry tweaks. DisableAntiSpyware dword in the registry was deleted on every reboot, so that didn't work. I tried to use Sordum Defender Control, but defender refused to actually let me run the program, and the 'more info' button which usually lets you run a program anyway wasn't showing up. I tried to add an exception, but some other service I turned off must have stopped me from getting access to the virus and threats section of windows security, because that tab wasn't showing up at all. That was strange.

BUT, BUT, BUT!!! I finally saw the message by muchomurka who was talking about using an elevated administrator command prompt! So I opened such a prompt, and did this exactly:

"%programfiles%\Windows Defender\MpCmdRun.exe" -resetplatform

It worked perfectly. Then I restarted into safe mode, as he instructed. Upon getting into safe mode, I went into the registry with regedit and then set WinDefend to start as '4' which means disabled. I then set the image path to blank, and then for good measure also put the DisableAntiSpyware dword back in it's other spot in the registry.

I rebooted back into regular windows 10 (no more safe mode) and voila, defender was off! msmpeng.exe was nowhere to be found in the task manager, and the DisableAntiSpyware dword is still existing between reboots within the registry.

Seriously, you guys are some really brilliant computer specialists! Master level researchers! My hat is off, I am humbled to the floor that I had a chance to browse your discussion. And @muchomurka sir you are really on another level, I am blown away by your knowledge and experience with windows 10. I can tell that you relish the process of computer tweaking. The bargaining, the strategy. A victor is not one who is strong, but one who survives by any means.

"The difference between the master and the novice, is that the master has failed more times than the novice has even tried." - Assassination Classroom

Defender Control

Code:

https://www.sordum.org/9480/defender-control-v1-9/

Is there any chance of getting Option Two reworked for Windows 11?

As they are now, the reg-edits do not work on 11.

No....

Sammy888 said:

For Windows 10 only. Try this utility called Defender Control. It works for Windows 10

It does not work on my Windows 10 Version 20H2. I have clicked on "Disable Windows Defender" multiple times, but Windows Defender is still running as shown below: