How to disable Windows Defender in Windows 8.1?
Not all modern users of computers running Windows 8.1 are satisfied with the integrated Microsoft Defender antivirus for a number of factors. Based on this, quite a few want to replace it with another antivirus program, or at least disable Defender in Windows 8.1 in an accessible way.
How to disable Windows Defender in group policy
It is not uncommon to choose the way to disable Windows Defender through the «Group Policy Editor» because it is effective and relatively uncomplicated. In order to use them you need:
1. Open the “Group Policy Editor“. This is done as follows: press the key combination “Windows” + “R”. In the “Run” window that appears, in the text field, write the command gpedit.msc and click “OK” to execute it
2. In the group policy editor in the left pane, go through the path: “Computer Configuration” -> “Administrative Templates” -> “Windows Components”. Then in the right panel we find the «Windows Defender» folder and click on it
3. Here on the right in the settings we find the item “Disable Windows Defender” and click on it
4. In the window that appears, select the “Enabled” option and confirm by clicking “OK”. The setting will be activated
Don’t forget that disabling Microsoft Defender in Windows 8.1 will leave your computer vulnerable to viruses and hacker attacks!
