How to Disable Windows Defender in Vista
There may be a number of reasons for which you might have to disable Windows Defender in Vista. For instance, you might want to use a 3rd-party application for taking care of protection against malware. Regardless of the reason for which you are planning to disable Windows Defender, you will need to follow a simple procedure which should not take more than a couple of minutes to complete. Just make sure you login to your computer using an administrator account.
Things Required:
– Windows Vista installed on a computer
Instructions
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1
Click on the ‘Start’ button on your desktop and then type ‘windows defender’ without the quotes in the Windows search bar.
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2
Open Windows Defender screen by clicking the Windows Defender icon that appears in the Start menu.
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3
Look for the ‘Tools’ button on the ‘Windows Defender’ screen and click it.
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This will open the ‘Tools and Settings’ section under the ‘Windows Defender’ screen.
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Under the ‘Settings’ section, click the button labelled ‘Options’.
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This will redirect you to the ‘Options’ section. On the right hand side, you will see a check box labelled ‘Use this programme’.
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Uncheck that box and click the button labelled ‘Save’ at the bottom of the Windows Defender screen.
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Windows Vista will pop up another screen in order to notify that the Windows Defender has been disabled.
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To ensure that Windows Defender has been completely disabled, click the ‘Start’ button and type ‘services.msc’ without the quote marks in the Windows search bar and press ‘Enter’.
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A new window captioned ‘Services’ will appear on the screen. Scroll down all the way down to the Windows Defender icon in the right hand panel of the ‘Services’ window. Double click that icon.
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A dialogue box captioned ‘Windows Defender Properties (Local Computer)’ will appear on the screen. Click on the dropdown menu labelled ‘Startup type’ and choose ‘Disabled’.
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In order for the changes you just made to take effect, click the ‘Apply’ button and then click ‘OK’.
