Toggle the Real-time protection switch off. You may receive a User Account Control (UAC) prompt asking if you want to allow the change to occur. Select Yes. When you're ready to turn system protection ...

At times, you may not always be able to turn on or off Real-time protection in Windows Defender on Windows 11. There could be many reasons for this error, so we have consolidated some of the common ...

Microsoft may eventually automatically turn on Windows Defender for PCs that are left— deliberately or not—in an unprotected state, executives said Monday afternoon. Microsoft security officials spoke ...

It is possible to enable or disable Windows Defender on Windows 11 or Windows 10 PC using the Local Group Policy Editor. If you mistakenly turned on that setting in ...

Rae Hodge was a senior editor at CNET. She led CNET's coverage of privacy and cybersecurity tools from July 2019 to January 2023. As a data-driven investigative journalist on the software and services ...