Set The Automatic Windows Defender Service To Manual | Faster 7 Part 27

Windows Defender is Microsoft’s attempt at making the Windows operating system secure.  While Microsoft does a pretty good job at this in Security Essentials, Windows Defender is moderate protection at best.

For those of you who have their own protection from viruses and malware, disabling the Windows Defender service is likely a good idea.  It is unlikely that Windows Defender will offer much more protection than the amount of resources it consumes.  Note that this tip is for those of you who are comfortable with the protection you already have, disabling any protection service obviously creates some vulnerability.

Set The Automatic Windows Defender Service To Manual:

1. Select the Windows ‘Start’ button.

2. In the search box, type ‘services.msc’.

3. Scroll up to the program and right click on it.

4. Select ‘Run as Administrator’.

5. Once your list of services is populated, scroll down to the ‘Windows Defender’ service.

6. Right click on the service.

7. Select properties.

8. In the startup type drop down menu, select ‘Manual’.

9. Choose ‘Apply’.

10. Select ‘Ok’.

11. In the upper left hand corner of the services menu, choose ‘Stop the service’.

12. That’s it!

The great thing about setting services to manual rather than completely disabling them is it allows you to re-enable it by calling it up at any time.  For example, if I decided to use windows defender I could simply search for it in the search bar and enable it that way.  The service will then start up again.