How to Completely Disable Windows 11 Defender

As a result, after brainstorming on the MyDigitalLife forums, I considered an open solution acceptable for myself. ionuttbara/windows-defender-remover (github.com).

It's in the source code if you want to see the contents, or you can download the script using Git:

git clone https://github.com/ionuttbara/windows-defender-remover.git

cd windows-defender-remover

Script_Run.bat

Well, for those who are far from development, a signed executable module is offered. The Defender functionality built into the Edge browser, depending on the OS settings, can warn that the downloaded file is unsafe:

But you can still save it.

For a small percentage of systems where administrators have pre-configured strict Windows Defender Application Guard policies, you may receive a message that a saved application is blocked in Device Guard or Application Guard when running. This can be resolved by deleting the same file in four places (as an administrator in PowerShell:

Remove-Item -LiteralPath "$((Get-Partition | ? IsSystem).AccessPaths[0])Microsoft\Boot\WiSiPolicy.p7b"

Remove-Item -LiteralPath "$env:windir\System32\CodeIntegrity\WiSiPolicy.p7b"

Remove-Item -LiteralPath "$env:windir\Boot\EFI\wisipolicy.p7b"

Remove-Item -Path "$env:windir\WinSxS" -Include *winsipolicy.p7b* -Recurse

In the rarest cases when removal is blocked by Virtualization Based Security (VBS) policies, you will have to disable them first with the command

bcdedit /set hypervisorlaunchtype off

It is possible to integrate the removal of Defender into the OS installation process. More details in the original source.

There's also one there PowerShell code examplewhich removes Security Center from the Settings panel:

If before deletion it looks like this in Settings:

Then after executing the script all that remains is:

The system has become noticeably faster. Installing OS updates does not result in the return of Defender:

I have the latest version as a result:

For this example, I specifically chose Windows 11 SE (aka CloudEdition), as the most closely integrated with Defender. If you want to forget about it, it's a matter of a couple of minutes. This does not mean that you don't need an antivirus. Install it yourself afterwards to your taste and configure it, depending on the profile of your PC.

I'll finish here, good luck to everyone, like, ask questions, I'll answer.