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Defender can't be disabled

Since February 2023 updates, Tamper Protection and other security features have been improved in Windows, thus it made harder to disable Defender even with TrustedInstaller. Here are some solutions to disable Defender:

Solution 1

  • Press Win + R on your keyboard and enter msconfig
  • Go to the Boot tab
  • In the Boot options section, enable Safe boot
  • Apply & OK and restart

Once your system boots in Safe mode, merely open Revision Tool, go to Security and simple disable Defender. Once finished, disable Safe boot following the same way as the enabling process to boot in normal mode.

Solution 2

  • Open Terminal (PowerShell) as administrator and enter:
& "$env:systemroot\system32\reagentc.exe" /enable
  • Download this file and move it to the C:\ partition
  • Press Win + R on your keyboard and enter ms-settings:recovery
  • Select Restart now from Advanced startup:

Recovery mode

  • Go to TroubleshootAdvanced optionsCommand Prompt, wait a couple of seconds
  • Select your account and press Continue even if you don't have a password

Once a command prompt shows up, enter regedit and select HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE just like here:

cmd HKLM

  • Then click on the File tab and Load Hive...

Load Hive...

  • Go to C:\Windows\System32\config and select SYSTEM
caution

If it isn't C:\ for you, look up for your drive by searching revi-defender.reg on the root of your Windows drive.

Select SYSTEM

  • set Key Name to revi

Set Key Name to revi

warning

It must be set to revi!

  • Click on the File tab again and select Import..., choose revi-defender.reg from your Windows drive and click OK
  • Select HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\revi, click on the File tab and press Unload Hive..., then close the Registry Editor
  • Restart
  • Open Terminal (PowerShell) as administrator and enter:
& "${env:ProgramFiles(x86)}\Revision Tool\revitool.exe" defender disable --force
  • Restart and verify that Defender is disabled via Revision Tool