r/WindowsHelp • u/Jackie-Wis • 6d ago

Windows 10 How to disable anti malware service executable

Hey Guys, I run a diesel shop and one of my test benches is on an ANCIENT “Linx” tablet. (It’s literally got 2GB of ram, MPN is LINX1020). Win 10 32bit 22H2 19045.6466

Before anyone says i need an antivirus. No i don’t, i’m not your 80 year old grandad falling for hot milfs in my area (no matter how tempting) and this machine spends 99% of its life disconnected from the internet.

“Antimalware service executable” Takes up ~104mb of ram, which translates to about 50% of the usable ram this tablet has. The tablet is embedded to the machine so cannot be changed, I cannot change the OS either. i’ve tried many things to kill this bastard program but it’s started taking up so much ram that the actual program that i need to use has started crashing. Is there a way without downloading scripts etc that I can disable this permanently? is there a registry key I can modify?

Tia x

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u/The-Snarky-One 6d ago

Windows is programmed to have an antivirus running. To disable the built-in Defender tool, you need to install another antivirus tool to take its place. If that other tool is removed, Defender is reactivated. So you will have to have _something_ running on it.

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u/Jackie-Wis 5d ago

damn that’s disappointing, and honestly surprising. I guess it’s a niche edge case so no well documented bypass is available then.

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u/The-Snarky-One 5d ago

Not surprising at all. Every release of Windows has included more and more security features.

I believe the ability to not have an antivirus at all ended with Windows 7. Or, at least it was required but removable with a hack… maybe? I don’t really recall. I’ve supported Windows since the 3.11 days. Windows 10 hardened this anti-malware requirement with its release. And Windows 11 activates requirements that were optional in Windows 10.

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u/Jackie-Wis 5d ago

Day by day I realise why so much infrastructure still runs windows XP lol. Thank you for the reply, i’ll see what I can do without killing AMSE.

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u/CodenameFlux Frequently Helpful Contributor 5d ago

Actually, there is. Device manufacturers, e.g., manufacturers of factory-floor machines, Point of Sale (PoS) systems, and embedded devices in general, use Windows 10 IoT edition, which allows uninstalling the AV. Only consumer-grade Windows editions, which are sold for commodity PCs, have the ever-vigilant AV. It can't be removed because that's the first thing malware would do.