Can Windows Defender work with other Antiviruses?

Question

I recently went to turn on real-time protection in Windows Defender and received an error saying that because I already use another AV (in this case Malwarebytes, highly recommended), it remains disabled. Is there a workaround for this?

Answer 1

Microsoft Defender antivirus will be disabled automatically when third-party antivirus software is installed. This is the expected behavior. To set Microsoft Defender as the antivirus provider, open Malwarebytes settings and uncheck "Always register Malwarebytes in the Windows Security Center".

Malwarebytes will keep running regardless of that setting. See screenshots in the article Malwarebytes Disables Defender.

Answer 2

The reason for that error is because running more than one AV real time is not good practice. Doing so can cause conflicts,

and uses unnecessary system resources.

However, running single scans with a second AV as a crosscheck if you think something may have slipped past the one you use

as your default real time protector is often recommended. Malwarebytes has been particularly popular for some years for this process.

.