If you prefer to use third-party antivirus software instead of Windows Defender, you’ll know how hard it is to keep Windows 10 from re-enabling its own antivirus program. Unfortunately, Microsoft is making it even harder for you to get rid of Windows Defender for good.
Before the update, Windows Defender was already quite stubborn. You could disable its real-time protection via a switch in the Windows Security settings, but only for a short amount of time. Once your time was up, the setting would re-enable itself.
If you didn’t like this feature, you could disable Windows Defender through the operating system’s registry. All you had to do was activate the setting called DisableAntiSpyware and Windows Defender would go silent.
However, on the Microsoft Docs page for DisableAntiSpyware, it now says the following:
This setting is discontinued and will be ignored on client devices, as of the August 2020 (version 4.18.2007.8) update to Microsoft Defender Antivirus.
Setting this value to true will not change Microsoft Defender Antivirus behavior on client devices. This applies both to managed clients (E3 and E5) and to unmanaged devices (home and pro SKU). Servers are excepted from this change.
Microsoft then explains that third-party antivirus companies can register their programs with the Windows Security Center, presumably so that they can work in tandem with this change.
Microsoft has not stated why it has made the change, but there are a few potential reasons. For one, the company may want to update every Windows 10 machine to the same level of security.
Microsoft used this explanation when the company made it harder to uninstall Microsoft Edge. This update came with the Chromium-based version of Edge, which is a lot safer than the legacy version.
However, critics are claiming that this as a move to weaken competition in the antivirus niche. By both improving Windows Defender and making it harder to disable, Microsoft is ensuring users stick with Windows 10’s antivirus instead of downloading third-party programs.
Microsoft has made Windows Defender a lot harder to disable in Windows 10’s August update. By removing the ability to disable it via the registry, fans of third-party antivirus software will need to find another way to get around Windows Defender.
However, whether you like Microsoft’s antivirus program or not, there’s no denying that it’s a lot better than it once was. While it was once discouraged for users to use it as their only antivirus protection, it’s now one of the best antivirus programs for Windows 10.