Hi -
Since starting with the free version of Avast in Windows 7 Home Premium, I have the notification “Windows Defender needs to scan your computer” but when I click through to turn it on and allow it to do that I get the error message “This program is blocked by group policy”. Does anyone know how to keep Windows Defender happy while running Avast?
Thanks for the reply.
I’ve read the treatment of this subject at https://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=189162.0
and I need to clarify my initial question:
I don’t have any problem with Windows Defender being turned off. In fact I thought I already had it turned off when I installed Avast (free version). I would just like to turn Windows Defender off so that it does not notify me via the Action Centre (in Win 7) that it “needs to scan my computer”.
I toggled the registry setting “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\WindowsDefender” from “1” to “0” but this was reset to “1” again after the second restart. With the key set to “0” the notification did not appear in the systray but I was still unable to access Windows Defender, which I wanted to do merely to turn it off.
It seems unnecessary that Avast should enable Windows Defender merely to let it tell users that Windows Defender cannot be accessed. I would like to rid my computer of all Windows Defender activity until such time as I change my antivirus software from Avast to another provider. This is what I meant by keeping Windows Defender happy.
Does anyone know if this is possible?
Thanks for reading.
does this help?
http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/15788/how-to-uninstall-disable-and-remove-windows-defender.-also-how-turn-it-off/
Hello!
Point 1: Why should you turn off ‘Windows Defender’ until Avast didn’t do and ‘WD’ don’t harm or
make any trouble?
Point 2: I wouldn’t do so, but it’s your decision!
Point 3: My meaning: Since ‘DF’ doesn’t make any trouble (and i support some W7 machines
you shouldn’t change s.th.!
Point 4: You couldn’t really be sure at finding a better one like avast with it’s famous good
forum-support!
=Snake=
Thank you, Pondus. Alas, no.
Thank you, =Snake= but the answer to your Point 1 is already there in my post:
"so that it does not notify me via the Action Centre (in Win 7) that it “needs to scan my computer” ".
Quite some time ago, I used the method outlined at http://www.pctips3000.com/how-to-disable-windows-defender-in-windows-7/.
Thanks, Gopher John.
Windows Defender is set to “disabled” already. The problem is that I get the notification in the system tray that “Windows Defender needs to scan your computer”. However, WD has been turned off in such a way as, when I try to let it scan my computer - and for this I need to turn WD on - it is denied to me by “group policy” (“This program is blocked by group policy.”) even though I am admin on this machine. So, the question is: How do I disable the aspect of WD that tells me WD needs to scan my computer?
You will probably have to temporarily enable Windows Defender. Run it and follow instructions to uncheck “automatically scan my computer”. http://windowsdiscussions.com/how-avoid-message-windows-defender-needs-scan-your-computer-windows-7-system-119526.html
I never needed to do this.
Hi GJ -
As you’ll see from my original post, that was the idea I had at the start - namely to turn on WD, let it do a scan, and then disable it. But I can’t do this because, even as admin, I can’t do that. When I try to start WD I get the error message “This program is blocked by group policy”.
When I try to start WD I get the error message “This program is blocked by group policy”.
https://www.google.com/search?q=“This+program+is+blocked+by+group+policy”&oq=“This+program+is+blocked+by+group+policy”&aqs=chrome..69i57j0l5.542j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#q=windows+defender+“This+program+is+blocked+by+group+policy”
Hi Pondus -
As you will see on reading this thread, I have already tried the registry fix outlined in the tutorials in your link.
The AppLocker thread does not apply to me as my operating system is Windows 7 Home Premium (also mentioned in my original post), which does not have AppLocker.
Rather than simply making random Google stabs, I wonder if there is anyone who has the knowledge to tell me what is going wrong.
I have tried disabling the Avast “shields” “permanently” then restarting in Safe Mode and trying to start Windows Defender but I still get the error message that “This program is blocked by group policy”.
If it is the result of something that Avast has done then there should be a way to stop Windows responding in this way.
I highly doubt that even removing Avast using their removal tool would change group policy.
I’ve alerted Avast and hopefully that will get you reply from a developer.
Hi bob3160 -
Thank you very much. I hope your request is successful.
Well, people, after way too long waiting, the solution to this problem was simple: I uninstalled Avast and went back to Avira.
Everything’s fine now.
Problem solved 
( Please don’t anyone tell me anything else about how “great” the help is on this forum. I think it’s pretty obvious that it isn’t.)