Windows Defender Greyed Out

15.08.2019
48 Comments
Windows Defender Greyed Out Rating: 8,4/10 9609 votes
  1. Windows Defender Greyed Out
  2. Windows Defender Startup Type Greyed Out
  3. Windows Defender Service Properties Gray
  • Windows Defender. Discussion in 'Windows 10 Support' started by Tim H, Aug 15, 2015. Now it tells me its turned off. All of it is greyed out under security settings and not changeable. Though the buttons indicate its on.
  • Pursell1911 Apr 4, 2018 at 21:19 UTC. Open up Server Manager, click Manage in top right, click remove roles and features.

I can't find any information on how to disable Windows Defender in Windows 10. There is some information about how to do it in the previews, but the configuration pages have changed with the final release.

Dec 14, 2017  Just updated to Win 10 ver 1709 (fall update: 'the big one') and I find that the Windows Defender - Settings - Virus & Threat Detection - Virus and Threat Detection Settings - Controlled Folder Access feature is grayed out in the 'off' position. Then tried to activate this feature using the Group Policy editor per instructions on a couple of helpful sounding web sites but there was no.

Specifically, I want to stop and disable the Windows Defender Service.

  • Using net stop windefend from an elevated command prompt gives 'access denied'
  • Stop and startup type are greyed out in sevices.msc, even when logged on as administrator
  • There doesn't seem to be a GUI way to disable UAC in Windows 10

Has anyone figured out how to disable Defender in Windows 10?

Todd WilcoxTodd Wilcox
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11 Answers

You are able to do this using a Group Policy.

open gpedit.msc

navigate to Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Windows Defender

Turn off Windows Defender = Enabled

If you then try to open Windows Defender you'll see this:

And even though in Settings it may appear to be on, the Service is not running:

more info:

and http://www.download3k.com/articles/How-to-Turn-Off-Windows-Defender-Permanently-in-Windows-10-01350

Aaron HoffmanAaron Hoffman

I found another way using the registry.

Using this article, I changed the startup type for the Defender services and drivers (!!) in the registry while logged on as an administrator. Here's a brief run-down:

  1. Browse the registry to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetServices.
  2. Look for services starting with 'wd' that have 'Windows Defender' in the Description value. A possibly incomplete list is: wdboot, wdfilter, wdnisdrv, wdnissvc, windefend.
  3. Change the Start value for each service to 0x4 (hex 4, decimal 4).
  4. Reboot.
Todd WilcoxTodd Wilcox
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Windows Defender Greyed Out

  1. Extract
  2. Double-click DisableDefender.reg

By far the most effective and clean way to permanently disable Windows Defender in Windows 10 is via Group Policy, as described by Aaron Hoffman. Unfortunately, Windows 10 Home lacks the necessary tools.

Here's a registry file that contains the changes made by gpedit.msc on a Windows 10 Pro machine. It's been tested on Windows 10 Home as well. Save the file as DisableDefender.reg with Windows-style line endings and double-click it to import it into your registry.

If you ever want to re-enable Defender, change 00000001 to 00000000 on both lines.

You can download the files to disable and re-enable defender from Gist.

ZenexerZenexer
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To disable Windows Defender completely (not just the Real-Time protection) you can:

  1. Install another security suite (as Ramhound mentioned).
  2. If you're willing to use a third party application, you could use NoDefender: http://msft.gq/pub/apps/NoDefender.zip

More information about NoDefender can be found here: http://winaero.com/blog/nodefender-disable-windows-defender-in-windows-10-with-few-clicks/

user5071535user5071535

I have written the batch file and registry files that should completely disable Windows Defender in Windows 10.

  1. Save the following files into the same folder.
  2. Run Disable Windows Defender.bat as administrator.
  3. After the batch file is done, restart.
  4. Run Disable Windows Defender.bat again as administrator.
  5. Windows Defender should be completely disabled now.

Disable Windows Defender.bat

Disable Windows Defender objects.reg

Disable Windows Defender features.reg

Disable Windows Defender services.reg

OwnRegistryKeys.bat

OwnRegistryKeys.ps1

XP1XP1
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The easy powershell method is here from an answer I posted on a question later marked duplicate for this.

The easiest way to do this would be to use powershell to disable it, the command you probably want is this

For an article on using powershell to disable/enable Windows Defender check here: http://wmug.co.uk/wmug/b/pwin/archive/2015/05/12/quickly-disable-windows-defender-on-windows-10-using-powershell

Here is the technet article for a more detailed look at available defender cmdlets: https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dn433280.aspx

AbraxasAbraxas
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It would be helpful to understand why you cannot stop a particular service.

  • I'm the administrator; worse than failure can't the Administrator administrate?!

It's because of the security permissions on the WinDefend service.

Note: WinDefend is the actual name of the 'Windows Defender Antivirus Service'

If you run from a command line:

where

  • sdshow means 'Displays a service's security descriptor.'

You'll get the security descriptor:

This is quite the ugly blob, and it's completely undocumented by Microsoft, but we'll have a stab at decoding it. First by word-wrapping:

The D: means this is a discretionary access control list. An Access Control List is made up of a number of Access Control Entries (ACE):

  • D:discretionary access control list
    • ACE1: A;;CCLCSWRPLOCRRC;;;BU
    • ACE2: A;;CCLCSWRPLOCRRC;;;SY
    • ACE3: A;;CCLCSWRPLOCRRC;;;BA
    • ACE4: A;;CCLCSWRPLOCRRC;;;IU
    • ACE5: A;;CCLCSWRPLOCRRC;;;SU
    • ACE6: A;;CCDCLCSWRPWPDTLOCRSDRCWDWO;;;S-1-5-80-956008885-3418522649-1831038044-1853292631-2271478464
    • ACE7: A;;CCDCLCSWRPWPDTLOCRSDRCWDWO;;;S-1-5-80-1913148863-3492339771-4165695881-2087618961-4109116736

Each ACE is a set of 5 semicolon terminated settings, followed by who it applies to.

Looking first at who they apply to, a random blog article decode some of them(archive.is):

  • BU: Built-in users
  • SY: Local System
  • BA: Built-in administrators
  • UI: Interactively logged-on user
  • SU: Service logon user
  • S-1-5-80-956008885-3418522649-1831038044-1853292631-2271478464: Trusted Installer
  • S-1-5-80-1913148863-3492339771-4165695881-2087618961-4109116736:

You can get the name associated with an SID by running:

Each ACE contains a list of permissions that the user is being allowed or denied.

  • D:discretionary access control list
    • ACE 1:A;;CCLCSWRPLOCRRC;;; Built-in users
    • ACE 2:A;;CCLCSWRPLOCRRC;;; Local system
    • ACE 3:A;;CCLCSWRPLOCRRC;;; Built-in administrators
    • ACE 4:A;;CCLCSWRPLOCRRC;;; Interactive user
    • ACE 5:A;;CCLCSWRPLOCRRC;;; Service logon user
    • ACE 6:A;;CCDCLCSWRPWPDTLOCRSDRCWDWO;;; Trusted installer
    • ACE 7:A;;CCDCLCSWRPWPDTLOCRSDRCWDWO;;; S-1-5-80-1913148863-3492339771-4165695881-2087618961-4109116736
Windows defender antivirus greyed out

Breaking down the remaining semicolon separated sections in an ACE:

  • ACE: A;;CCLCSWRPLOCRRC;;;
    • AceType: A ACCESS_ALLOWED_ACE_TYPE
    • AceFlags: (none)
    • AccessMask: CC LC SW RP LO CR RC
      • CC: CREATE_CHILD
      • LC: LIST_CHILDREN
      • SW: SELF_WRITE
      • RP: READ_PROPERTY
      • LO: LIST_OBJECT
      • CR: CONTROL_ACCESS
      • RC: READ_CONTROL
    • ObjectGuid: (none)
    • InheritObjectGuid: (none)

The leading A means Allowed, and the permissions are two-letter codes:

Out
  • D:discretionary access control list
    • ACE 1: Allow, CC LC SW RP LO CR RC, Built-in users
    • ACE 2: Allow, CC LC SW RP LO CR RC, Local system
    • ACE 3: Allow, CC LC SW RP LO CR RC, Built-in administrators
    • ACE 4: Allow, CC LC SW RP LO CR RC, Interactive user
    • ACE 5: Allow, CC LC SW RP LO CR RC, Service logon user
    • ACE 6: Allow, CC LC SW RP LO CR RC DC WP DT SD WD WO, Trusted installer
    • ACE 7: Allow, CC LC SW RP LO CR RC DC WP DT SD WD WO, S-1-5-80-1913148863-3492339771-4165695881-2087618961-4109116736

And this is where i'm going to have to stop to save my work. This detour into how to stop the Windows Defender service is interesting and all: but i've already stopped it, and my PC is still misbehaving.

Spoiler:

  • How to specify permissions to services in Windows by using SDDL? *(archive.is)
  • How to Convert SID to Username and Vice Versa(archive.is)
  • The Security Descriptor Definition Language of Love (Part 2)(archive.is)
  • 2.5.1.1 Syntax(archive.is)
Ian BoydIan Boyd
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I found that the following procedure works well; it doesn't remove or disable Windows Defender, but it disables Windows Defender SERVICE, stops all start-up and real-time scanning, and prevents Windows Defender Real-Time Scan from turning itself back on. (It leaves Windows Defender in-place, so you can use it to perform on-demand scanning of suspicious files.)

PROCEDURE:

  1. Find, download, install 'SysInternals' program suite.
  2. Run program 'AutoRuns'.
  3. Find 'Windows Defender Service'.
  4. Uncheck the box.
  5. Restart your computer.

Windows Defender Startup Type Greyed Out

After doing that, my startup time decreased from 20min to 5min, and memory usage after startup (before launching any apps) decreased from 2.1GB to 1.2GB. And when I looked in 'Services', I found that 'Windows Defender Service', while still there, is now marked 'NOT running, Disabled'.

Robbie HatleyRobbie Hatley

The easiest way I've found is to open an administrator command prompt and run:

Then reboot. I have not been able to find away to shutdown the service once it is started with out a reboot.

jcofflandjcoffland

It is not so easy to reliably and totally disable the Windows Defender. There is a PowerShell script that uninstalls Windows Defender, but you may not be able later to install it back. This script requires two reboots.

Just download the Debloat-Windows-10 and follow these steps, provided by the author:

  1. Unpack the archive;

  2. Enable execution of PowerShell scripts:

    PS> Set-ExecutionPolicy Unrestricted

  3. Unblock PowerShell scripts and modules within this directory:

    PS > ls -Recurse *.ps1 Unblock-FilePS > ls -Recurse *.psm1 Unblock-File

  4. Run scriptsdisable-windows-defender.ps1

  5. Reboot the computer (either usual way or via the PS > Restart-Computer)
  6. Run scriptsdisable-windows-defender.ps1 one more time.
  7. Reboot the computer again.

This is not the easiest way, but very reliable and resilient.

There are also the scripts to remove unnecessary programs like BingFinance, Skype, OneDrive, etc - if you don't need them.

The archive does also contain lot of scripts that you may find useful.

Please be aware that these scripts irreversible delete files and can delete vital functions of Windows. For example, they may totally disable the Start menu!

Don't run disable-ShellExperienceHost.bat from this package, otherwise the Start Menu will stop opening.

Maxim MasiutinMaxim Masiutin

Windows Defender Service Properties Gray

I managed to disable it using Autoruns; under the services tab there is an entry WinDefend, untick the box and reboot.

FreddyFlaresFreddyFlares

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