win8 How to get rid of Windows Defender

[Muhammad Farrukh]

So,a couple of days back, I installed Windows 8 Pro on a friend' laptop.

Today, he called me and said that he needs to get rid of the Windows Defender.

When inquired about it, I was told that it is randomly spiking up the processor to maximum, even on the newly installed Windows with only a few number of known softwares. I spent some time with it and it was the MsMpEng.exe

I also has had some bad experiences with that thing. Never really understood it completely :wacko:

So, is there a way to get rid of it? What should be done.

And suggest a good, trusted alternative.

Regards...

[Dot Matrix]

There is no way to turn it off, however, I think if you install something else, it will allow the new AV to run in its place.

[Max Norris]

Sure you can, under settings and then administrator. Turn the thing off and then optionally disable the service.

[f0rk_b0mb]

I know on Vista, deffender is actually listed as a startup app and can easilly be disabled with CCleaner. Maybe it is the same with 7? I've never really paid attention.

[Farstrider]

Go and have a look here, tells you all you need to know.

...and here for Windows 7, it looks like!

[DudeBro]

You don't have to completely disable it. Just turn off the real time protection and that will get rid of the cpu usage. That way at least you can still use it as an on-demand scanner.

[Chris123NT]

You don't have to completely disable it. Just turn off the real time protection and that will get rid of the cpu usage. That way at least you can still use it as an on-demand scanner.

Except there's no explorer integration to right click and scan files like you can do with MSE on Windows 7, so that kind of makes it useless even as an on demand scanner.

[DudeBro]

Except there's no explorer integration to right click and scan files like you can do with MSE on Windows 7, so that kind of makes it useless even as an on demand scanner.

http://www.thewindowsclub.com/add-windows-defender-features-windows-8-desktop-context-menu

http://www.thewindowsclub.com/add-scan-with-windows-defender-option-context-menu-windows-8

You can add a right click menu with a registry tweak. Anyway what I meant was you can still use it to occasionally scan in addition to whatever other security software you choose to run. So disable real time protection and it sits in the background hardly using any resources. Then you can use malwarebytes or something as your on demand scanner and Common Sense 2013 pro edition on top of that. Multiple layers of security at no performance cost :)

[Muhammad Farrukh]

Okay, so thats figured out.

Now, which one should I install in place of Defender?

Don't have much idea in this particular catagory

[Growled Member]

Do you want free or paid?

[DeadEndAccount]

Rather than just ignoring the problem, did he do an upgrade or clean install? When did he start noticing the problem? Far too many times people whine about something when the cause is completely unrelated to what appears to be the source.

[Marshall Veteran]

Okay, so thats figured out.

Now, which one should I install in place of Defender?

Don't have much idea in this particular catagory

For a free solution, my vote goes to MSE.

For paid - Eset, hands down.

[Colin McGregor]

For a free solution, my vote goes to MSE.

For paid - Eset, hands down.

MSE is Windows Defender in Windows 8.

Is he sure defender is the issue. I just looked at the 4 computers I have Windows 8 installed on and the highest of the 4 is 76mb of ram.

[Ace]

Installing a third-party antivirus program disables the built-in Windows Defender.

[Guth]

My favourite free is Avast, I always used that until I upgraded to win8. Now I use defender (formerly MSE)

My CPU spikes to 100% sometimes too, when I try to open an .exe I downloaded for example. Its the real time protection scanning the file before it lets you open it. Its not a reason to "get rid" of defender. Removing something for doing what it is supposed to seems daft to me.

However, as i said, Avast is my favourite free anti virus and also has real time scanning (which will still use high CPU)

[Wakers]

MSE is Windows Defender in Windows 8.

Is he sure defender is the issue. I just looked at the 4 computers I have Windows 8 installed on and the highest of the 4 is 76mb of ram.

This. If it's spiking it's an issue caused by something else. He can replace it with another AV but he'll still have issues.