Microsoft explains why it won’t allow you to disable Microsoft Defender, Microsoft says the purpose of the DisableAntiSpyware feature in the Windows registry was to allow IT professionals and system administrators to disable the antivirus engine.
The company explains that it is a legacy option that is removed because it does not make sense today, understanding that Microsoft Defender is automatically disabled every time users install another antivirus product on their devices.
Statement about Microsoft Defender
“This configuration was not intended for consumer devices and we have decided to remove this registry key. This change is included with versions 4.18.2007.8 and higher of the Microsoft Defender AntiMalware platform with update KB 4052623. Editions for Enterprise E3 and E5 will be released at a future date” explains Microsoft.
“Note that this setting includes a tamper protection, which is available in all Home and Pro editions of Windows 10 version 1903 and higher and is enabled by default. The impact of removing DisableAntiSpyware is limited to Windows 10 versions prior to 1903 with Microsoft Defender Antivirus. This change does not affect third-party antivirus. They will continue to work as they have been up to now » officials said.
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Windows 10 antivirus, controversial, but very useful
Microsoft Defender, renamed last year from Windows Defender to take advantage of the brand name and extend it to other platforms, it was released in Windows 8 as an enhancement to the Microsoft Security Essentials application in Windows 7. A few years ago Microsoft described it as “the first line of protection”, with the improvements introduced in recent years the company went so far as to ensure that a Windows 10 client device don’t need an antivirus.
The assertion, together with a few conflicts in the operation, provoked strong criticism from security providers, understanding that Microsoft did not play with the proper “cleanliness” and took advantage of its privileged situation when installing the Windows 10 antivirus by default on the system.
In fact, Kaspersky filed an antitrust suit against Microsoft with the European Commission for alleged abuse of a dominant position to promote its own security solution and demanded that “all security solutions should be able to work on the Windows platform on equal terms.”
Certainly, Microsoft Defender has been vastly improved in capacity, features and interface in the latest versions for Windows 10 and today it can compete in protection results, false positives or use of resources from other free external antivirus.
We cannot blame Microsoft for improving the antivirus in Windows 10. On the contrary, users also demand that third-party antivirus programs should be able to compete under the same conditions for users. The industry offers both paid and free commercial softwares.
