How to remove Windows Defender when Not listed in Add/Remove Programs List

  • Thread starter Thread starter Randy Knobloch
  • Start date Start date
R

Randy Knobloch

Worked on two Vista Home Premium boxes yesterday.
Both have WD installed, yet the are not listed in Add/Remove Programs.
I've search the WD FAQ, which is quite limited, unfortunately.
Is there a command switch to run to wipe WD off these boxes ?

TIA
 
You don't remove WD in Vista, you disable the program, And that's the way you
should leave things.

Unless you have a Symantec, or a McAfee's pÑoducts, or other suite
programs, they disable WD for you.
 
Ǝиçεl said:
You don't remove WD in Vista, you disable the program, And that's the way you
should leave things.

Unless you have a Symantec, or a McAfee's pÑoducts, or other suite
programs, they disable WD for you.
Click to expand...

I had forgotten that WD is bundled and ships with most flavours of VelVeesta, customer will just
have to live with it. I'll try to tweak out WD in Services so it doesn't hog any more resources than
it should since it will not be used.

Cheers, Engel !
 
DO NOT do this, though. Windows Defender is part of Vista, and can't be
removed, period.

Disabling it through the checkbox at the very end of Tools, Options in the
program--is all that is needed. This is labeled something like
'Administrative Options' - Use the program. Uncheck that and there will be
no more resource usage to worry about.
 
I agree with Bill
I had a client who got this script to remove it and when he rebooted vista
was not very happy and came up with all sorts of error msgs. I had to go
into the registry and delete this script and that did not even fix it. We
had to do a repair on vista with his vista disk.
just do not allow it to run
robin
 
Bill said:
DO NOT do this, though. Windows Defender is part of Vista, and can't be
removed, period.

Disabling it through the checkbox at the very end of Tools, Options in the
program--is all that is needed. This is labeled something like
'Administrative Options' - Use the program. Uncheck that and there will be
no more resource usage to worry about.
Click to expand...

Noted, Bill - I wasn't aware that WD was bundled with Vista, she's stuck with it.
She isn't really much into security anyways, that's where I come in.

Thanks for the feedback !
 
You can't uninstall it, but you can turn it off, and in that state, it will
use no resources. If, for some reason, other anti-spyware is not
functional, Windows will ask if the user wishes to enable it, which can be a
useful protective feature.
 
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