[Tip] Disable or Remove “Windows Defender Security Center” App in Windows 10
Windows 10 newer versions such as Creators Update and later come with “Windows Defender Security Center” app which works like a frontend for the traditional Windows Defender program. It helps in monitoring virus protection, firewall protection, device performance & health as well as customizing app & browser control (SmartScreen filter) and family safety options.
Windows Defender Security Center is a nice addition to Windows 10 which will definitely help users in keeping their devices safe and secure but if you are using a 3rd party security program and PC optimization utilities, you may want to disable the Security Center app to prevent conflict between programs.
Most of the 3rd party security programs automatically disable Windows Defender at the time of installation. If they don’t disable, you can manually disable Windows Defender using following tutorial:
[Windows Tip] How to Disable Windows Defender Permanently
After disabling Windows Defender, you can also remove Windows Defender Security Center’s icon from Taskbar notification area with the help of following tutorial:
[Windows 10 Tip] Remove “Windows Defender Security Center” Icon from Taskbar
But these methods don’t disable or remove Windows Defender Security Center app and it keeps running and monitoring your Windows 10 device.
If you want to uninstall Windows Defender Security Center app, it can’t be uninstalled using PowerShell method as this app is a system app and is protected by Windows. It can be disabled by disabling its service using Services Manager (services.msc) but Windows 10 also protects its service and you can’t directly disable the service unless you disable it using Registry Editor which requires expertise or using 3rd party software.
So today in this tutorial, we are going to share a simple way to disable/remove Windows Defender Security Center app in Windows 10. After following this tutorial, Windows Defender Security Center app will stop running in your device and it’ll not consume any system resources.
We’ll use similar method which was used to disable Mixed Reality Portal in previous tutorial:
[Tip] Disable or Remove “Mixed Reality Portal” App in Windows 10
Once we rename the folder containing Windows Defender Security Center’s executable (SecHealthUI.exe) file, Windows will be unable to find the executable and the Security Center will stop running and monitoring in background. We’ll restrict Windows and users from launching the app completely.
So if you also want to disable or restrict Windows Defender Security Center in your Windows 10 device, following steps will help you:
1. First of all open following folder:
C:WindowsSystemApps
You can open the folder directly using SystemApps command in RUN dialog box.
2. Now look for following folder:
Microsoft.Windows.SecHealthUI_cw5n1h2txyewy
3. Right-click on the folder and select Rename option. Alternatively, you can select the folder and press F2 key to rename it.
While renaming the folder don’t remove its name completely. Just add new characters such as BAK or ! or any desired character in the beginning of the name. For example, we have added BAK_ in the beginning of the folder name to change its name.
Windows will show you a dialog box showing “You’ll need to provide administrator permission to rename this folder” message, click on Continue button.
You may also get another UAC (User Account Control) dialog box showing “Do you want to allow this app to make changes to your device?” message, click on Yes button.
That’s it. Now try to run Windows Defender Security Center app from Start Menu, nothing will happen. You have successfully disabled Windows Defender Security Center app in Windows 10.
NOTE: If you face any difficulty in renaming the folder, take ownership of the folder first and then rename it. You can take the ownership as described in following tutorials:
[Tip] Add “Take Ownership” Option in Files / Folders Context Menu in Windows
[Guide] How to Take Ownership of a File or Folder Manually in Windows
PS: In future, if you want to re-enable the app, just restore the original name of its folder.
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