Microsoft Defender Antivirus (previously Windows Defender Antivirus) in Windows 10 has a feature called real-time protection which scans for malware and viruses, and can download antivirus updates regularly.
Due to its vital function, it’s no wonder that the real-time protection feature takes enough resources when it’s active, you can find out through a process called Antimalware Service Executable in the task manager.
Even though in fact, you can turn off this real-time protection feature easily through the settings in Windows Security.
It’s just that this is temporary, because Windows 10 will automatically activate it again after a certain period of time. For that, you need to make settings in the Group Policy Editor if you really want to turn it off permanently.
Permanently Disable Real-time Protection in Windows 10
- Open Group Policy Editor.
- Navigate to Computer Configuration / Administrative Templates / Windows Components / Microsoft Defender Antivirus / Real-time Protection.
- In the right pane, double-click on the option Turn off real-time protection.
- Click the option Enabled and OK to save settings
- Done.
After the process is complete (without restarting), you will find the real-time protection option that is not active along with the words “This settings is managed by your administrator“.
To return the settings to normal, you can change the option to Not Configured in step 4.