Virus and spyware protection on Windows was barebones until Windows 8 and 10 came out. That's when Microsoft brought its own full-fledged antivirus called Windows Defender (now called Windows Security) with support for anti-malware execution, real-time detection and regular virus definition updates. However, some users do not find the original antivirus to be effective and want to install their own antivirus. If you are one of them, here's how to disable Windows Defender Antivirus on Windows 10.

There are two ways to go about disabling Windows Defender (or Windows Security) on Windows 10 – registry hack or editing Group Policy. There are other methods as well, but the above mentioned methods work best to completely disable Windows Defender on Windows 10.

If you have been using Windows for a long time, you may be familiar with the Windows Registry Tool. It is more or less similar to ChromeOS flags and can be used to disable Windows Defender Antivirus. For this method, make sure you are using the administrator account before proceeding. Here's how to disable it:

If the method does not work, you may need to try the process again. It usually ends up working in two to three tries.