How to remove an app from Windows Defender on Windows 10
Windows Defender either blocks, or warns against running almost all types of apps. Even if you’re installing an app that was developed by Microsoft, you will still see an alert asking if you want to install the app or allow it to make changes to your system. This is of course for your own protection and while it may be a minor inconvenience it’s a necessary one. If you’ve allowed an app to run on Windows 10, it has been added to the Windows Defender whitelist. If you later need to remove an app from Windows Defender, here’s how you can do just that.
Remove app from Windows Defender
The Windows Defender app doesn’t have a dedicated panel for removing apps that have been whitelisted. Instead, you have to go through the Control Panel.
Open Control Panel and go to System and Security. Click Windows Defender Firewall. In the column on the left, click the ‘Allow an app or feature through Windows Defender Firewall’ option.
On the next screen, click the Change Settings button and scroll down the list of Allowed apps and features. Select the app that you want to remove from Windows Defender, and click the Remove button at the bottom of the list.
This app will no longer be able to make any changes to your system unless you allow it. If, for example, you remove Chrome or Firefox from the list, they will no longer be able to install updates which, normally, browsers can automatically do.
This list isn’t an exhaustive one which means that some apps installed on your system will not appear in the list. In this case, you can use the Command Prompt to remove an app from Windows Defender.
Open Command Prompt with admin rights. Run the following command but replace ‘App Name’ with the name of the app that you want to remove from Windows Defender, and ‘Path-to-app EXE’ with the path to the app’s EXE file.
Syntax
netsh advfirewall firewall add rule name="app name" dir=in action=block program="path-to-app EXE" enable=yes
Example
netsh advfirewall firewall add rule name="Chrome" dir=in action=block program="C:\Program Files (x86)\Google\Chrome\Application\Chrome.exe" enable=yes
You can always add an app back. To do so, simply run the app again and when Windows Defender prompts you to, allow the app to make changes to your system. If you want to add it back to the Windows Defender whitelist via Command Prompt, run the following command;
netsh advfirewall firewall add rule name="app name" dir=in action=allow program="path-to-app EXE" enable=yes
Replace the app name and the path to the app EXE with the name of the app you want to add and the path to its EXE file.
