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Windows Defender on new MacBook Pro - I can’t remove it, how can I minimise its impact?

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OceanFrog

macrumors regular
Original poster
Aug 19, 2009
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I got a new MacBook Pro from work but it’s managed by the organisation. Part of this is Windows Defender which I can’t remove. I’ve been battling with my tech support for the last week, but they won’t take it off the computer.

Is there any way I can minimise its impact on the MacBook? I don’t want to see it in the taskbar, let it update, or have it run any scans. I want it to do as little as possible. What are some of the best ways to make it invisible to me and have it do as little as possible?

Also, will it impact the performance of the computer?
 
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OceanFrog said:
I got a new MacBook Pro from work but it’s managed by the organisation. Part of this is Windows Defender which I can’t remove. I’ve been battling with my tech support for the last week, but they won’t take it off the computer.

Is there any way I can minimise its impact on the MacBook? I don’t want to see it in the taskbar, let it update, or have it run any scans. I want it to do as little as possible. What are some of the best ways to make it invisible to me and have it do as little as possible?

Also, will it impact the performance of the computer?
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If it’s required to be installed by policy, tampering with its configuration, or impacting its functionality in some way, or uninstalling it would be against security policies. In some organizations, this could be grounds for dismissal.

What is your beef with it being installed, especially if you are asking strangers on public forum if there is a performance impact?
 
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Why are you trying to tamper with a work-provided computer?

It has Windows Defender because it is part of licensing from Microsoft, even if it is a MacBook Pro and running macOS.

Maybe it has Windows installed on it, but still, it was provided to you as a work computer, not for personal use.
 
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Personally, I've not had any beef with Defender being on my work MacBook... and I didn't notice any slowdown when they added it. If it had performance issues, I think I'd notice since they gave me the last Intel MBA (boo).

I DID previously have beef with Symantec, which made that MBA completely unusable. Super thankful they switched.
 
OceanFrog said:
I got a new MacBook Pro from work but it’s managed by the organisation. Part of this is Windows Defender which I can’t remove. I’ve been battling with my tech support for the last week, but they won’t take it off the computer.

Is there any way I can minimise its impact on the MacBook? I don’t want to see it in the taskbar, let it update, or have it run any scans. I want it to do as little as possible. What are some of the best ways to make it invisible to me and have it do as little as possible?

Also, will it impact the performance of the computer?
Click to expand...
As has been alluded to already, messing with this can be problematic on a work computer. Besides everything you do on the computer and say via the computer and save onto the computer is or can be monitored and recorded by your employer. It's best to assume that no matter what you try to disable on the machine, THEY are watching you.

Whatever it is you need to do without Defender in place, do it on your own separate personal computer. I say this as someone who was at one time unfortunately privy to the process of dismissing several people for their non-work activities on a work computer.
 
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Agree with all the above. It sounds like you might be trying to use this computer for personal use too. If so, stop! (...and it's likely violating your employer's computer use policy.)

I have a computer provided by my employer and couldn't care less about what they put on it. If there's something that happens to cause issues, slowdowns, or impacts productivity...then that's their problem to sort out, not yours.
 
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OceanFrog said:
I got a new MacBook Pro from work but it’s managed by the organisation. Part of this is Windows Defender which I can’t remove. I’ve been battling with my tech support for the last week, but they won’t take it off the computer.

Is there any way I can minimise its impact on the MacBook? I don’t want to see it in the taskbar, let it update, or have it run any scans. I want it to do as little as possible. What are some of the best ways to make it invisible to me and have it do as little as possible?
Click to expand...
Buy a MacBook Pro with your own money and use that instead of the work-provided MBP
 
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BigBlur said:
I have a computer provided by my employer and couldn't care less about what they put on it. If there's something that happens to cause issues, slowdowns, or impacts productivity...then that's their problem to sort out, not yours.
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This. If I need software not provided, I open a support ticket asking for it. I've never been turned down. If something is wrong, I open a support ticket, they fix it.

Note: I am more tech-savvy than our IT department. I have done IT for 30 years. My job is highly technical, dealing with programming tools, IT maintenance tools, and the like. But for my work laptop? I let my actual IT team take care of it.

I turn my laptop on at 8 AM. I use it solely for work purposes. I turn it off at 5 PM. If I want to listen to music, podcasts, or have YouTube videos going during the day when I'm not in meetings, I have my personal laptop or iPad open beside my work laptop, and do the personal things on it.

I don't log in to *ANY* personal accounts of any kind on my work laptop. I don't log in to any work accounts on any of my personal devices (other than my phone, for which work provides a stipend to offset part of my personal phone expenses. Even that is super locked down, with access only to email (not through the main Apple Mail app) and our internal messaging app - Slack in our case.)
 
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OceanFrog said:
Also, will it impact the performance of the computer?
Click to expand...
Assuming that you're just using it for web, mail and Office, then I guarantee you're not using all the CPU anyway.

If your work is something like video production for TV, where time is money, then you might want to argue for the most performant Mac you can get; but usually, company policies are implacable on this, because they get a 'security audit' from consultants, who tick the box for "Windows Defender installed on all computers".
 
diggy33 said:
Defender actually runs fairly well on macOS, provided it’s set up properly. That said, you can always quit your job and return the system; then you no longer have to worry about how that company manages their equipment.
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Can you tell me more about this, please? How can I set it up to use minimal resources and have as little 'impact' on the computer as possible?
 
Hi folks, and thanks for all your replies. I apologize that my opening post was unclear - please let me clarify.

I don't want to remove Windows Defender completely or break any of my institutional/IT rules (it's a University). I will have very free use of the laptop, and I don't envisage the University restricting my use or actively monitoring anything.

I'm interested in setting up Windows Defender in a way that will have minimum impact on the computer. I know I can't uninstall or turn it off, but how can I set it up to do as little as possible?

Thanks again for the replies - some interesting and very useful responses!
 
OceanFrog said:
I'm interested in setting up Windows Defender in a way that will have minimum impact on the computer. I know I can't uninstall or turn it off, but how can I set it up to do as little as possible?
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I don't know how things are set up at your place, but usually in an enterprise environment, Defender is controlled by central policies. So there is nothing for you to "set up".
 
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OceanFrog said:
I'm interested in setting up Windows Defender in a way that will have minimum impact on the computer. I know I can't uninstall or turn it off, but how can I set it up to do as little as possible?
Click to expand...
The answer to that is pretty simple: do absolutely nothing. Windows Defender is already about as non-intrusive as a security product can get and it will have very little, if any, noticeable impact on your computer.
 
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Thanks, folks - I really appreciate the replies.

I have not measured the impact on the computer, but I will do this over the weekend.

I'm reassured by the replies - I'm now less worried that Defender will have any impact at all. In fact, I'm now happy to ignore it and let it do its thing in the background.
 
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I am sorry that your work has chosen the wrong security. Sophos is also popular and it cripples some Macs.

My recommendation is to document written exchanges with your tech, politely and softly suggesting that this issue might lead to problems with your work. Tech would naturally brush you off. After receiving this response, shut up.

Now you have a scapegoat and an excuse for a future catastrophic mistake that you might make at work. Admittedly, it might be a weak get out of jail free card, but it might be better than nothing.

- Sun Tzu
 
jakey rolling said:
Windows Defender is already about as non-intrusive as a security product can get and it will have very little, if any, noticeable impact on your computer.
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Yes, perhaps surprisingly — at least in its native Windows realm.

If we were talking Norton, McAfee, or any of the other "security suites”… Well.. Then I would probably politely protest to IT about the impact.

P.S. AVG was fine until Grisoft decided to jump into the bloatware greed pool
 
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OceanFrog said:
Thanks, folks - I really appreciate the replies.

I have not measured the impact on the computer, but I will do this over the weekend.

I'm reassured by the replies - I'm now less worried that Defender will have any impact at all. In fact, I'm now happy to ignore it and let it do its thing in the background.
Click to expand...
You should have no issues with Microsoft Defender on MacOS. I used to manage the Apple estate at the University I used to work at before I retired and after extensive testing even the Music Academics had to admit it didn’t effect their use of their devices.
 
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Don’t mess with your work computer. It’s just not worth the risk. It is almost certainly a breach of your IT use policy and your contract of employment. You may think no one cares what you do on it and you may even be encouraged to use it for personal things. Don’t! One day you’ll do something unrelated that pisses someone off and they’ll use it to get you sacked. I was an IT manager for 10 years and I’ve seen trivial miss use of company computers used as an excuse to dismiss people a few times. I know this sounds a bit overly dramatic, but seriously just leave it alone.
 
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