Disabling Microsoft Defender and Antimalware Service Exe on EC2 Micro

Question

How do I either stop or disable the Microsoft Defender suite please?
I appear not to have the permission level necessary to disable Defender and Antimalware Service from Task Manager ..getting a denied message.
I need to disable, because the Antimalware exe causes  a known published memory leak, and because I deploy Micro EC servers they require routine rebooting to refresh memory
Thanks
Richard

Answer

The following link may have the answer to your question

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/turn-off-defender-antivirus-protection-in-windows-security-99e6004f-c54c-8509-773c-a4d776b77960

If this has answered your question or was helpful, accepting the answer would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

Answer

Hello.

Try disabling Windows Defender from Group Policy Editor.  
Open "gpedit.msc".  
Then follow the groups in the following order.  
```
Local Computer Policy > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Windows Defender Antivirus 
```

Under "Windows Defender Antivirus" there is an item called "Turn off Windows Defender Antivirus", so right-click and open Edit.  
![a](/media/postImages/original/IMB3krzrU9SRecrJ04L-Vdhg)

When it opens, select "Enabled" and click "Apply".  
![b](/media/postImages/original/IMEQR07LbaTy-hvAhvWbqHlA)

After clicking, try restarting Windows.

The above steps were confirmed on Windows Server 2019.  
Please note that the steps may be different for Windows Server 2022.

Disabling Microsoft Defender and Antimalware Service Exe on EC2 Micro

Relevant content