Policy

Turn off Microsoft Defender Antivirus

Windows 11 25H2

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Policy overview

Key metadata and intent for this policy.

ClassComputer
CategoryWindows Components > Microsoft Defender Antivirus
Supported onAt least Windows Vista

Supported OS tags: Windows10, Windows10RT, Windows11, Windows7, Windows8, Windows81, WindowsRT, WindowsRT81, WindowsServer2008, WindowsServer2012, WindowsServer2012R2, WindowsServer2016, WindowsVista

This policy setting turns off Microsoft Defender Antivirus. If you enable this policy setting, Microsoft Defender Antivirus does not run, and will not scan computers for malware or other potentially unwanted software. If you disable this policy setting, Microsoft Defender Antivirus will run regardless of any other installed antivirus product. If you do not configure this policy setting, Windows will internally manage Microsoft Defender Antivirus. If you install another antivirus program, Windows automatically disables Microsoft Defender Antivirus. Otherwise, Microsoft Defender Antivirus will scan your computers for malware and other potentially unwanted software. Enabling or disabling this policy may lead to unexpected or unsupported behavior. It is recommended that you leave this policy setting unconfigured.

Internal name
DisableAntiSpywareDefender
Policy ID
70909a2465b3
Elements
0

Registry values

How enabled and disabled states update the registry.

Registry locationTypeEnabled valueDisabled value
HKLM\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows Defender\DisableAntiSpywareREG_DWORD
1
0

Policy elements

Inputs and configuration options exposed by this policy.

This policy has no additional user input fields.

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