The most invasive but effective way I've found to disable Defender is to boot into a live Linux USB, rename "C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows Defender", and create an empty file in its place.
(I think you need to disable Tamper Protection first, otherwise you later get a threat detected of “WinDefendDisable”, but if you allow/unquarantine it doesn’t auto-enable again)
With Linux, there's often a good clean way to do a thing, and then there are weird hacks.
On Windows, it often starts with weird hacks, as Microsoft is further enclosing its ecosystem.
(I use Windows mostly for gaming and VR, and still have to constantly fiddle with the system to keep it working on a basic level, sad face emoji. Who would've thunk that merely playing a 8K European documentary in VR would require configuring DirectShow filters found on GitHub.)
Dios Mio, get mpv, enable gpu-hq
Honestly I've never thought about that before.
Linux distro devs, working for free, pushing excellent product can't compare with these clowns in high-paying jobs at Microsoft, pretending they're working.
I start with Tiny11 first though these days, then run that to get rid of the last few bits.
any control you think you have over windows is imaginary.
How do you update that afterwards?
I installed Windows 10 2016 ltsc on a VM at the end of last year out of curiosity to test that. Disabled wupdate and defender before letting it access the internet so that it was basically 8 years behind on any updates. I tried browsing all kinds of sketchy sites with Firefox and chrome, clicking ads etc. but wasn't able to get the system infected.
I would guess that keeping your browser updated is more important.
Browser-zero days are why I factored out a way to distribute "web RPA agent creation" on any device, with no download - into its own product layer for browser-isolation. It's a legitimate defense layer but main barriers to adoption are operating friction, even tho it makes the task of hackers who want to compromise your network with browser 0-days much harder.
Because of that the RBI aspect is not as popular as ways its being used where you need a really locked down browser, with policies for preventing upload/download, even copy and paste, etc - for DLP (data loss prevention), for regulated enterprises.
Even so I think the potential applications of this tech layer are just starting.
Then it hit me: the only thing keeping a rogue website from sweeping your entire life is a browser's permissions popup.
But all of that growth and integration comes with these vulnerabilities, and so the cyber and DLP control aspect of web browsers is a very important one.
If this resonates with you, i invite you to check out my company’s project BrowserBox on GitHub
It’s much less likely than it was 20 years ago. A lot of attack vectors have already been fixed. But hypothetically a bug in the network stack could still leave an internet connected machine vulnerable.
How did you install those - downloaded via another system? Because with that old system, you are missing ssl certificates (Firefox and Chrome bring their own).
…either that or the machine cheated and updated root CAs in the background (which isn’t Windows Update-controlled anymore).
Both Chrome and Windows are now in that position.
Basically, unless you are of interest to state level attackers, in 2025 even unpatched Chrome/Windows wont get drive by exploited.
Your thought process is not correct.
Like leaving your door unlocked, because you live in such a sketchy neighbourhood that everyone else always locks their doors.
For anyone saying these aren't targets, no they are probably already hacked. These are the things that keep the national security folks up at night knowing an adversary has them already backdoored and set up for take down. Moreover if they execute on that they would go for maximum damage first to either create chaos, or prevent the system from being repaired easily.
I'd really, really like to think most of us don't follow this terrible security practice based on a bad premise.
But this isn't about the binaries. It's where definitions and configuration are stored. It's C:\ProgramData, not C:\Program Files.
The system also can't object too severely. Third party endpoint protection exists.
much to everyone's dismay. :/