The Windows 10 operating system comes standard with Microsoft Defender Antivirus. This program protects your device and files against viruses, ransomware, spyware, rootkits, hackers and malware. But sometimes you have to disable the program for whatever reason. How do you do that?
Microsoft Defender Antivirus is a robust Windows 10 program, but sometimes it gets in the way of daily use. And these are tasks that are actually safe (that you know are safe), but the program still blocks a specific file. For example, an installation can be prevented that prevents a lot of problems, but that is annoying when you are sure that the source of the file can be trusted.
That is why it is useful to know how to disable the program in those situations, so that you can just pick up where you left off. Please note, because this is not entirely without risk. Only do this when you are 100 percent convinced that it will not go wrong.
Scale out Microsoft Defender Antivirus
You open the Start menu and search for Windows security. When typing, one search result will appear, click there (don’t forget the hyphen!). In the opened window, click Virus and threat protection On. Under the heading Virus and threat protection, click on Manage settings.
On that page, there is a heading at the top called Real-time Protection, along with a slider that is now blue and set to On. Click on the control, which is now black and set to Off. It may be that another dialog box appears asking if you are sure that the program is allowed to change the settings. Confirm your choice here.
Now that the Microsoft Defender Antivirus has been temporarily disabled, you can complete your task and complete it. It is important that you enable the program after completing the task. You then go to the same page again (Windows security / Virus and threat protection / Settings / Real-time security) to make the slider blue again.
Control via Powershell
If you work a lot with Windows 10 Powershell, you can also disable Microsoft Defender Antivirus there. After opening (as administrator) the Powershell, enter the following line:
Set-MpPreference -DisableRealtimeMonitoring $ true
Enabling the program happens when you restart your computer or when you copy the following line (unfortunately you cannot copy such):
Set-MpPreference -DisableRealtimeMonitoring $ false
So if you temporarily disable Microsoft Defender Antivirus, do not forget to reactivate it afterwards.
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