Windows Defender Won’t Uninstall – How Can I Completely Remove and Delete Windows Defender from Windows 8.1?

Are you looking for a best solution when Windows Defender won’t uninstall in Windows 8?

Do you want to remove Windows Defender because it frequently shows up the annoying error message saying "An error (-5009 : 0x8002802b) has occurred while running the setup...."

Have you ever been annoyed that you have uninstalled Windows Defender through Windows Control Panel, but it is still there after you reboot your pc?

Take it easy! You could learn and follow Windows Defender uninstall instructions in this article.

How to fully uninstall Windows Defender from your PC?

There are 2 effective program removal guides for you to choose.

Tips 1: Uninstall Windows Defender normally in Windows

Tips 2: Remove Windows Defender with program removal tool Perfect Uninstaller

Tips 1: How to entirely uninstall Windows Defender through Windows Uninstall applet

Most of you would like to get rid of program through Windows Control Panel.

However, you might miss some steps so that you are not able to delete Windows Defender. Here are the removal guides:

You should reboot your PC and press F8 key on your keyboard. 

 

This will open up the Advanced Boot Options screen, in Windows 7 or Vista, or the Windows Advanced Options Menu in Windows XP. Using the arrow keys on your keyboard, highlight the option labeled Safe Mode with Networking. Once it is highlighted, click on the Enter key on your keyboard.

 

Click “Start Menu” > Select Control Panel option > “Uninstall a Program” (Programs and Features) > Find Windows Defender on the currently installed programs list and its related entries > Click “Uninstall or Change” to delete the application. 

 

How to manually get rid of Windows Defender from your laptop?

Step 1: stop all the related processes in Task Manager

Guide: Open task manager by pressing Alt+Ctrl+Del keys at the same time. Another way is to click on the Start button and choose Run option, then type taskmgr into and press OK.

 

Disable all the unwanted processes

 

Step 2: show hidden files and folders and delete all the following files.

Guide: click the Start button and choose Control Panel, clicking Appearance and Personalization, to find Folder Options then double-click on it. In the pop-up dialog box, click the View tab and uncheck Hide protected operating system files (Recommended).

 

Delete all the following files related to Windows Defender 

%AppData%\.exe

%CommonAppData%\.exe

C:\Windows\Temp\.exe

%temp%\.exe

C:\Program Files\

Step 3: open Registry Editor to delete all invalid registries entries as below

Guide: open Registry Editor by pressing Window+R keys together.(another way is clicking on the Start button and choosing Run option, then typing into Regedit and pressing Enter. )

 

Delete all the related registries as below:

 

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Image File Execution Options\msconfig.exe

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Image File Execution Options\msmpeng.exe

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Image File Execution Options\msseces.exe

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon "Shell" = "%AppData%\.exe"

HKLM\SOFTWARE\Classes\AppID\.exe

After you finish steps, you should restart your pc to confirm the Windows Defender removal. If you are not good at handling this method, you could try Tips 2 as following.

Tips 2: How to force uninstall Windows Defender effectively with Perfect Uninstaller?

If you can not follow the removal guides above, it is advised you to get rid of Windows Defender with Perfect Uninstaller as following.

1.       Click here to download Windows Defender removal tool

2.       Close all running processes including programs and browsers in the Task Manager before you run Perfect Uninstaller

3.       Find and locate the program on the currently installed programs list

4.       Click “Uninstall” button on the right side to remove Windows Defender.

Alternatively, you could right-click the folder of the unwanted program (normally, in C:\Program Files) or C:\Program Files (x86) in Windows 7 system 64 bits and then select “Force Uninstall with PU” to apply the “Force Uninstall” utility.

5.       Follow the prompt “Next” steps to delete Windows Defender. 

6.    Click "Next" to start scanning the registry files about the unwanted program.

7. It will take some time to finish registry scanning. If you don't want to wait, you could click "Skip" option and cancel the scanning.

8. After the registry scanning is completed, click "Next" button to select all related files.

9.  Click "Next" button to delete all related files.

     

10. Finally, click "Finish" button to complete the removal steps.

After you finish the onscreen removal steps, Windows Defender has been deleted from your PC.

When you are not able to remove WindowsDefender from your PC, Perfect Uninstaller is your choice (100% Guaranteed)

You can know more about the how to force uninstall programs in the video below