If you read my 2015 Free Anti-Virus Guide, you probably figured out that I’m not a huge fan of Windows Defender. Since I don’t use it, I figured out how to remove the Scan with Windows Defender option. This helped me de-clutter the context menu that appears when I right-click on a file.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy Microsoft is trying to include anti-virus in Windows but I wish they chose something that worked better when tested.
With the Fall Update for Windows 10, Microsoft added a “Scan with Windows Defender” option to context menus (the one you see when you right-click on a file). Since I’m not using Windows Defender, I decided I didn’t want to see that option every time I right-clicked on a file.
So, if you’re like me and use an anti-virus package other than Windows Defender, here’s how you can do the same:
Remove the Scan with Windows Defender Option: The Steps
First off, be aware that this procedure does not remove Windows Defender from your Surface. It merely removes the context menu option. I think this is a good thing because, in the unlikely event you need to, you can still start Windows Defender manually and scan files.
Caution: this requires editing the registry of your device, so be careful and don’t delete anything you need. If you’re not comfortable doing this – don’t! Although, this process can be reversed by re-creating the registry key, it is a bit of a pain and if you’re not at least a little tech savvy, you may have trouble with it.
- Make sure you’re logged in with administrator rights.
- Search for regedit and select regedit run command from the results.
- Navigate to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\ {09A47860-11B0-4DA5-AFA5-26D86198A780}.
- Right click this key and select Delete.
- Click Yes when prompted.
The change will happen immediately so you don’t have to reboot. If you right-click on a file, the “Scan with Windows Defender” menu option will no longer be present.
You might be wondering why you should even bother. It’s not like it’s freeing up space on the hard drive or anything, right? Well, this is a way to let you cleanup the context menu a bit by removing an option you’re not ever going to use (assuming you don’t want to use Windows Defender).
Tim
