How to turn off Windows Defender on Windows Home with no group policy.
Hi, I'm looking for a way to turn off Windows Defender Firewall on a Windows 10 Home computer. I can do it on Pro machines with group policy, but I can't figure it out in Home.
Windows 10Windows OS
Last Comment
Dan
8/22/2022 - Mon
John
I think Defender is top notch, so consider that.
Otherwise on a local machine try the following
Turn off Windows Defender in Group Policy Editor (gpedit.msc) and restart the computer after the steps below.
Group Policy Editor:
Computer configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Windows Components -> Windows Defender
Turn off Windows Defender (set to Enabled)
Computer configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Windows Components -> Windows Defender
-> Real-time protection
Turn off Real Time Protection (set to Enabled)
This uses gpedit.msc and if that is not available on Home, you may need to upgrade to Pro.
Robert
I have not personally tried Home edition but if you cant do via gpedit you may be able to try just creating the registry key to disable it.
HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows Defender
DisableAntiSpyware key is what your looking for if it isn't there by default you can create it and set the value to 1 and that should disable it.
Then reboot the machine.
However if you install a 3rd party AV it should automatically detect that and disable it's self.
John
If you need to use the Registry, you should look at the settings above and ascertain the registry settings on a Pro machine. I think there is more than one setting.
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Dan
ASKER
thanks Ill try that now.
Dan
ASKER
John I think there is more than one also.
Robert, that almost worked, it shut off defender AV service, but Firewall and defender security center service are still going, is there a reg thing to loose those?
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Otherwise on a local machine try the following
Turn off Windows Defender in Group Policy Editor (gpedit.msc) and restart the computer after the steps below.
Group Policy Editor:
Computer configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Windows Components -> Windows Defender
Turn off Windows Defender (set to Enabled)
Computer configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Windows Components -> Windows Defender
-> Real-time protection
Turn off Real Time Protection (set to Enabled)
This uses gpedit.msc and if that is not available on Home, you may need to upgrade to Pro.