How To Disable Or Turn Off Windows Defender In Windows 7

Windows Defender is a built-in Anti-Spyware with real time protection that is enabled by default in Windows 7. If you like to install a 3rd party Antivirus or Anti spyware software such as Avira, you may come across a message asking you to disable Windows Defender in order to avoid compatibility problems.
If you want to enable Windows Defender, then jump to the second part.

Here are the steps to disable or turn off Windows Defender in Windows 7.

1. Go to Start Menu –> Control Panel –> All Control Panel Items.

2. Scroll down the list of Control Panel items to find Windows Defender and click on it.

3.  Now click on Tools in the upper navigation of Windows Defender main screen.

4. This will open Windows Defender Tools and Settings. In the Settings section, click on ‘Options’.

5. In the Options window, click on ‘Administrator’ in the left navigation. Uncheck the option ‘Use this program’ in the Administrator settings and click Save.

6. That’s it. Windows Defender is now disabled on your PC. Click Close in the confirmation dialog.

How To Enable or Turn On Windows Defender

Say you want to get back to Windows Defender for fighting spyware and want to turn it on. Open Windows Defender (steps 1, 2 above) from Control Panel. This will show up a message saying that Windows Defender is currently turned off.

Click on the link ‘click here to turn it on’.This will automatically enable Windows Defender and open it’s main screen.