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I've seen there's plenty of documentation online about disabling Windows Defender system-wide.

For example, in this Superuser question (and I bet a couple of duplicates too) a couple of methods are described that involve GPOs or their equivalent Registry modifications for those that don't have access to the Group Policy editor.

However I wonder if it's possible to disable Windows Defender per user, e.g. keeping it enabled for every other user of a PC save one or two.

I've tried creating the creating the registry keys and values that accompany those policies in the Current User tree but they don't seem to take effect, after restarting the computer real-time protection is on for example.

Note that although this question is geared towards handling such a case in a Home environment (i.e. no Pro or Enterprise handling options available) I'd also welcome information on how to do it there.

James Russell
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You can't. It is as simple as that.

Any AntiVirus solution that provides real-time protection must operate at the SYSTEM level, which is a higher privilege level then the user-level.
Disabling it for a single user isn't possible without getting rid of of it for every other user and for the system itself.

Think of the SYSTEM-level as the engine in a car. You can't make a change to the engine (like removing the turbo-charger) for a single driver of the car, without affecting everyone else using that same car.

Tonny
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