How To Disable Windows Defender

Our Verdict

Windows Defender isn't the absolute best antivirus software, only it'southward easily expert enough to be your master malware defence.

For

Already installed on Windows 8.one and 10
Very good malware protection

Confronting

Can be hard to schedule scans
Not many extras
Some features work but with Microsoft products

Tom's Guide Verdict

Windows Defender isn't the absolute all-time antivirus software, simply it's easily good enough to be your principal malware defense.

Pros

+
Already installed on Windows viii.i and 10
+
Very practiced malware protection
+

Cons

-
Can be difficult to schedule scans
-
Not many extras
-
Some features work only with Microsoft products

With very proficient defenses confronting malware, a low impact on organization performance and a surprising number of accompanying extra features, Microsoft's built-in Windows Defender, aka Windows Defender Antivirus, has nearly defenseless up with the all-time free antivirus programs by offering first-class automatic protection.

Windows Defender specs

Malware protection: Very good
System impact, groundwork: n/a
System impact, scans: Moderate
Windows compatibility: 8/8.one and x
Electronic mail scans: No
File shredder: No
Game/silent way: Yes
Hardened/secure browser: Yes, for Edge & IE only
Password manager: No
Performance scanner: No
Ransomware file reversal: Yep
Rescue disk: No
Scan scheduler: Aye
Support options: 24/seven phone, electronic mail support
URL screener: Aye, for Edge & IE merely
Upsell nag factor: Nonexistent

The downsides are that scheduling scans is besides difficult for many to achieve, there's no protection for web browsers other than Edge or Internet Explorer, and there's no stand-alone password manager or a file shredder.

If you lot crave airtight malware protection forth with easy-to-schedule scans, a fair number of extra goodies, lots of customization options and a superlight system load, become Kaspersky Security Deject Free. If you lot just desire improve defenses than what Defender offers, try the no-muss-no-fuss Bitdefender Antivirus Complimentary Edition.

If you're still using Windows 7, then you need to utilize tertiary-party antivirus software. But if yous're on Windows 8.1 or Windows 10 and similar the thought of getting very good free malware protection without lifting a finger, then just stick with Windows Defender.

Read on for the rest of our Windows Defender review.

Windows Defender: What'south covered and upgrade options

Windows Defender comes with Windows 8.ane and x and can be disabled only by the installation of a 3rd-political party antivirus program, or, if you're brave, editing the Windows Registry.

What you see with Windows Defender is what you get. There are no upgrades available to augment protection or add features. But if yous take into account the unabridged Windows Security apparatus, Defender comes with a firewall, drive-level encryption (in Windows x Pro and up), limited parental controls and even a game mode.

On the other hand, it nonetheless lacks things that tertiary-party antivirus makers add as enticements, such every bit a file shredder and VPN access.

Microsoft plans to expand Defender's coverage to other platforms. There's already a beta version of Microsoft Defender for Macs in enterprise deployments, and Microsoft says information technology is working on Microsoft Defender for Android and Linux.

Hence the official renaming of the enterprise product to "Microsoft Defender." Microsoft tells us the consumer production volition continue to be called Windows Defender Antivirus.

Windows Defender: Antivirus protection

Fifty-fifty if you do nothing to a new Windows 8.ane or ten computer, Windows Defender is already there protecting your car. Many users will not even notice that Defender is working until they're subjected to an attack.

Windows Defender review — (Image credit: Tom's Guide)

Defender compares new files and programs against a database of known malware and watches for signs that an assail is underway, such as the encryption of key files.

Past default, Microsoft uploads suspect items from your computer for online assay, simply you tin opt out of this data collection in the Windows Security Centre settings. Several malware-signature updates go out daily to Windows Defender and Microsoft Defender's 500 million users.

Microsoft also has a agglomeration of specific defenses. Because Defender runs in an isolated "sandbox," rogue code tin can be executed without affecting the rest of the organization.

There'due south at present tamper protection to prevent malicious apps from irresolute settings, and Defender stops fileless-malware attacks with a memory-integrity feature that prevents malicious code from being injected into running RAM. It also screens email attachments for malicious code.

Quick scans are a click away from the forepart page of the Windows Defender Security Middle, which you tin can access by clicking the shield icon in the System Tray at the bottom correct of your screen. Full or specialized scans are a click or two beyond that.

When a USB drive is plugged in, Defender scans its contents; you tin can also scan any file by right-clicking on it in the Windows Explorer file manager.

The residue of Microsoft's Windows Security Center features run whether or not Defender or another antivirus program is protecting your arrangement, only they're worth mentioning.

Attacks on the arrangement'due south offset-up sequence tin be stopped by Microsoft's Secure Kicking feature, and the SmartScreen filter blocks links to untrustworthy websites from Outlook, Edge and Internet Explorer (but non third-party browsers like Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox).

Microsoft'due south OneDrive online file repository can hold copies of your central files to exist recovered in case of an encrypting ransomware attack.

If Windows Defender interrupts a movie or game playing on your PC, the Game Mode can help. While other antivirus programs have integrated game modes, Microsoft'due south can be accessed in the Gaming part of the main Windows Settings menu.

Windows Defender: Antivirus performance

Over the past two years, Windows Defender has improved to the bespeak where it now offers malware protection equally skillful equally almost any free or paid antivirus program.

In all 26 monthly rounds of tests conducted in 2018, 2019 and the first ii months of 2020 by High german lab AV-Examination, Windows Defender detected either 99.9% or 100% of known "widespread" malware every single time, and failed to get a perfect 100% but once in 2019. Information technology failed to detect 100% of previously unseen "nothing-twenty-four hour period" malware a total of half dozen times.

Those scores put Windows Defender, once the worst joke in antivirus protection, ahead of well-known brands similar Avast, AVG, Avira and McAfee, and just behind Bitdefender and Trend Micro.

Defender still isn't as proficient as industry leaders Kaspersky or Norton, which detected all malware in all of AV-Test's 2018, 2019 and (and then far) 2020 evaluations, only it's finally inside shouting distance.

Not all these brands mentioned offer free antivirus software, but of those who do, Kaspersky comes out on summit with perfect scores. Next upwards is Bitdefender, which got all the widespread malware in those 2-plus years but missed some nothing-day bugs in three instances.

The other two free products we've reviewed for this round, Avast Gratis Antivirus and AVG AntiVirus Gratis, share the same malware-detection engine with each other and were behind Windows Defender. While they detected either 99.9% or 100% of widespread malware almost all the time, they missed zero-day bugs ten times over the 26-month period.

Windows Defender is also detecting fewer false positives than information technology used to, at least in AV-Test's evaluations. It registered 21 false alarms in 2018, simply simply 15 in 2019. Still, Kaspersky had only three fake positives over the unabridged ii years.

Tests by the Austrian lab AV-Comparatives are much more sensitive to false positives, and in those, Windows Defender racked up besides many: a total of 74 in four monthly tests from Feb to May 2019, and 58 from July through October 2019. Kaspersky got zero false positives for the entire year; Bitdefender got 4 and Avast and AVG 13 each.

Microsoft told the states that this was because its Smart Screen browser-protection characteristic flags any unknown file equally potential malware, and that AV-Comparatives chalked upward a false positive every time that happened. For its February-March 2020 tests, AV-Comparatives reportedly turned Smart Screen off, and Defender came away with only v false positives.

On the plus side, Windows Defender stopped a respectable average of 99.six% of "real-earth" (mostly online) malware in AV-Comparatives' February-May 2019 tests, 99.3% from July to October 2019, and 99.7% in February-March 2020.

Kaspersky'due south results were mixed, with 100% in the get-go and third ready of tests, merely but 99.1% in the second. Bitdefender got 99.9%, 99.7% and 99.v%, respectively, and Avast and AVG brought up the rear with 99.2%, 99.3% and 99.seven% each.

Finally, Windows Defender scored a 99% overall score in London-based SE Labs' July-September 2019 tests, and 98% in the Oct-December 2019 rounds, edging just past Avast and AVG in the outset round and tying them in the second. In January-March 2020, Defender got a 99% score again.

All three were behind Kaspersky, which scored perfect 100% detection rates both times; every bit for Bitdefender, it wasn't tested.

Notably, Defender got zero fake positives in all iii of those well-nigh contempo SE Labs rounds, a perfect streak that goes back to at to the lowest degree January 2018.

Windows Defender: Security and privacy features

Microsoft's security offerings are broiled into Windows 10 and available to users of other antivirus programs. Windows has a built-in firewall, which doesn't screen outbound traffic past default as many third-party firewalls do, but you lot can ready the Windows firewall to do that by adding rules.

It's not a fully hardened browser for banking or buying online, but Border's SmartScreen filter blocks known malicious websites. There is a password manager broiled into Microsoft Edge, just every bit there is for Mozilla Firefox or Google Chrome, only it tin can't be used outside the browser.

If y'all're running Windows 10 Pro, Enterprise or Education, you tin utilise Windows Defender Application Baby-sit, which opens untrusted websites in an isolated example of Microsoft Edge to protect the residuum of the machine.

There are Application Guard extensions for Chrome and Firefox, but all they do is permit y'all open dodgy websites in the isolated version of Edge instead.

Microsoft built parental controls into the Windows Security Heart, but they mainly work only with other Microsoft products. The screen-time limits work with Windows or Xbox Ane, just non a Mac.

The browser filters screen what kids come across in Edge and Internet Explorer, merely non in Chrome or Firefox. These ii features exercise work with Android devices, but the devices demand to have the Microsoft Launcher app installed.

Windows Defender: Functioning and system affect

Windows Defender's mandatory protection makes computing safer, just it complicates our testing because it means that Defender is always running in the background and there'due south no easy mode to generate a pre-installation baseline score comparable to those of other antivirus brands.

(For what information technology'south worth, installing Kaspersky Security Cloud Free actually sped up our system by 0.9%, which hints that it's got a lighter background performance touch on than Windows Defender.)

To gauge performance, nosotros used our Excel-based criterion, which measures how long it takes to friction match 20,000 names and addresses in a spreadsheet. Our examination machine was an Asus X555LA notebook with a 2-GHz Core i3-5005U processor, 6GB of RAM and 59.5GB of files on a 500GB hard bulldoze. This notebook ran Windows 10 with the latest updates.

Windows Defender took an average of i hour and 34 minutes to complete a full scan of our test system, the slowest of the free malware apps to examine an entire computer. The quick scan took an boilerplate of 3 minutes and 38 seconds, well behind Avast Free Antivirus' 1 infinitesimal and 36 seconds.

With no active scans running, our benchmark test took thirteen.3 seconds to finish, which rose to 16.0 seconds while running a full arrangement browse with Defender. That'southward a performance drop of 20% from the normal groundwork load.

Among other free antivirus programs, Bitdefender Antivirus Free Edition's total scan slowed the system past 26% from the mail service-installation background (not the baseline), and Avast Free Antivirus caused a 24% loss.

Much lighter were AVG AntiVirus Gratis, whose full scan translated into a functioning loss of just 7.i% from the background, and Kaspersky Security Cloud Complimentary, which created a six.seven% loss from the background (and a v.7% drib from the preinstallation baseline).

Windows Defender'southward quick-scan results were amend, with the criterion finishing in 15 seconds. This 13% performance drop was but outdone by Kaspersky Security Cloud Free's 2.i% hitting. Past contrast, Avast Free Antivirus showed a performance reject of 47%.

Windows Defender: Interface

The Windows Security Center can be reached by clicking the shield icon in the System Tray that slides out from the niggling up arrow in the bottom right of the desktop interface.

The primary window presents y'all with 7 features — the first, Virus & Threat Protection, is where you can fine-melody Defender's ransomware protection by toggling the Controlled Folder Access characteristic, and where you tin mirror key files on OneDrive.

Business relationship Protection specifies how you log into Windows, and the Firewall & Network Protection section is plain for tweaking the firewall. App & Browser Control adjusts Edge and the Microsoft Shop's security settings.

Device Security lets yous actuate core isolation and retention integrity to help terminate fileless-malware attacks. The Device Functioning & Wellness department checks your storage, drivers, battery (if it's a tablet or notebook) and apps, and provides a machinery to reinstall Windows while keeping your personal files intact.

Family Options just links to your online Microsoft account, where y'all tin set upwardly the aforementioned parental controls.

One big drawback: There'south no easy way to schedule scans with Windows Defender. Instead, you need to gear up up scans in the Job Scheduler, which hasn't inverse much since Windows Vista and will effort the resourcefulness and patience of most users.

Windows Defender: Installation and support

Because it's part of Windows, in that location'south nada to install or plough on with Windows Defender. It's in that location whether you desire it or not.

Unlike some other free malware programs, nevertheless, Windows Defender has Microsoft's 24/seven phone and email back up to answer a question or sort out a tough infection. There are likewise a lot of resources online, including set-upward tips, reports of new malware and detailed instructions.

Windows Defender review: Lesser line

Windows Defender now provides world-class malware protection and makes a good argument for not replacing it with a third-party antivirus program. Its simply flaws are that some of its protective tasks, like scheduling scans, are hard to prepare, and that some of the associated Windows protections apply merely to Microsoft'southward own browsers.

If you lot want the overall best costless antivirus protection with a decent number of extra features, Kaspersky Security Cloud Free is the way to get.

Updated with latest lab-exam results. This review was originally published in May 2020.

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Brian Nadel is a freelance writer and editor who specializes in technology reporting and reviewing. He works out of the suburban New York City area and has covered topics from nuclear power plants and Wi-Fi routers to cars and tablets. The former editor-in-main of Mobile Computing and Communications, Nadel is the recipient of the TransPacific Writing Laurels.