Remove “Scan with Microsoft Defender” Right-click Menu Entry

When you right-click on a file, folder, or drive, you’ll see the “Scan with Microsoft Defender…” option. It’s a useful option to custom scan a specific file/folder/drive. However, if you want to remove the option to declutter the right-click menu, this article tells you how.

The “Scan with Microsoft Defender…” option is powered by the module C:\Program Files\Windows Defender\shellext.dll. You can block this shell extension via the registry.



Remove “Scan with Microsoft Defender” Context Menu Option

  1. Start the Registry Editor (regedit.exe)
  2. Go to the following key:
    HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Shell Extensions\Blocked
    
    or
    
    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Shell Extensions\Blocked
  3. In the right pane, create a new String value (REG_SZ)
  4. Name the REG_SZ value as {09A47860-11B0-4DA5-AFA5-26D86198A780}

    remove "scan with microsoft defender" shell extension blocked

    Note: If you made the changes in HKEY_CURRENT_USER, it will affect only on the current user account. To block the shell extension for all users, make the changes under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE.

  5. Exit the Registry Editor.
  6. Log off and log back in for the change to take effect.

The “Scan with Microsoft Defender” entry should no longer appear in the right-click context menu.


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Ramesh Srinivasan is passionate about Microsoft technologies and he has been a consecutive ten-time recipient of the Microsoft Most Valuable Professional award in the Windows Shell/Desktop Experience category, from 2003 to 2012. He loves to troubleshoot and write about Windows. Ramesh founded Winhelponline.com in 2005.

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