Permanently Disable Windows Defender

Rhino last confirmed this is still working:

• Windows 10: 2022-07-27
• Windows 11: 2022-08-30, 2023-02-22

Step 1:

Open the Windows Defender settings GUI (“Virus & threat protection settings”) and DISABLE EVERYTHING

• Real-time protection
• Cloud-delivered protection
• Automatic sample submission
• Tamper protection
• Anything else you might see…

Step 2:

Run PowerShell.exe as Administrator and paste in all the following commands:

Set-ItemProperty "HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows Defender" -Name "DisableAntiSpyware" -Type DWORD -Value 1 -Force
 
New-Item "HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows Defender" -Name "Real-Time Protection" -Type KEY -Force
 
Set-ItemProperty "HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows Defender\Real-Time Protection" -Name "DisableRealtimeMonitoring" -Type DWORD -Value 1 -Force
 
Set-MpPreference -SubmitSamplesConsent 0
 
Add-MpPreference -ExclusionPath "C:\"

Note: The exclusion added for C:\ is a backup, just to be safe.

Optional: Also add exclusions for all other drive letters:

echo a b d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z | foreach { Add-MpPreference -ExclusionPath ( $_ + ":\" ) }

Step 3: Reboot.

Step 4:

Check the Windows Defender settings in the GUI again. It should now say Defender is disabled and managed by your organization.