Windows Defender is an Antivirus Anti spam application from Microsoft. Automatically installs with operating systems such as Windows Vista or Windows 7 and Windows 10 to protects the computer against spyware and other types of computer viruses. If you want to disable Windows Defender on your computer, you can do so by using the “Group Policy Editor.”
Note: Before disabling Windows Defender from Operating System, You have to install Licensed Antivirus.
- Launch the Group Policy Management console on any writable domain controller. Right click on the domain and click Create a GPO in this domain and link it here. Provide a name to the GPO. Click OK.
- Once the policy is created, right click on the policy and click Edit. This will bring up the Group Policy Management Editor. Navigate to Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Windows Defender.
- Look for the policy setting “Turn Off Windows Defender“. Right click on the policy setting and click Edit.
- On the Turn off Windows Defender policy setting, click Enabled. This policy setting turns off Windows Defender. Click OK and close the Group policy management console.
Note: Since we have created Group Policy Object on Domain Level, So this policy will apply for all the domain users, If want to apply this policy specific Organization Unit Level, then you have to create policy on selected Organization Unit. On the client machine, we now see that group policy has been applied. When the user tries to open Windows Defender, it shows a box stating This application is turned off by group policy. In case you want to enable the windows defender, edit the policy and simply change the same policy’s status from Enabled to Not Configured or Disabled