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

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
 
Æ

Ǝиçεl

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.
 
R

Randy Knobloch

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.

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 !
 
B

Bill Sanderson

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.
 
R

robinb

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
 
R

Randy Knobloch

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.

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 !
 
B

Bill Sanderson

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.
 

Ask a Question

Want to reply to this thread or ask your own question?

You'll need to choose a username for the site, which only take a couple of moments. After that, you can post your question and our members will help you out.

Ask a Question

Top