Uninstall Windows Defender on Windows Server

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Why do we want to remove Windows Defender from Windows Server 2016/19/22? Because we are installing a different security product on these systems. Windows Defender doesn’t turn itself off automatically when you install another antivirus program. It’s not a good idea to have more than one security product running at the same time. So, we need to remove Windows Defender. This article will show you how to do it.

Microsoft Defender Antivirus comes with these versions of Windows Server:

Windows Server 2022
Windows Server 2019
Windows Server, version 1803 or later
Windows Server 2016
Windows Server 2012 R2 (Requires Microsoft Defender for Endpoint)

Step-1

Make sure Windows Defender is working on your Windows Server

Open Task Manager and go to the Services tab. Look for "WinDefend" and see if it's running. Right now, the Windows Defender Service is active.

Step-2

Run PowerShell with administrator rights. Use the Uninstall-WindowsFeature command.

Uninstall-WindowsFeature -Name Windows-Defender

Restart the system and verify that Windows Defender is turned off.

Step-3

Verify Windows Defender is turned off on Windows Server

Get-Service -Name WinDefend

Conclusion

You learned how to remove Windows Defender on Windows Server 2016/2019/2022. Don’t remove Windows Defender if you don’t have another security program installed. It’s very important to have some kind of security software running. If you’re just testing in a lab, you can go ahead and delete Windows Defender.

Did you like this article? You might also be interested in learning "Upgrade Windows Server Evaluation to Full Version". Remember to follow us and share this article!

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