To flush the registry first, you need to somehow cause NtFlushKey or ZwFlushKey to be called on your key of interest. If you rebooted into Windows it might try or be able to repair the disk properly as it has a more intimate knowledge of the filesystem. Most modern filesystems are written to make changes in the safest way possible. In the past they have been referred to as “atomic”, as in the change has either happened or it has not. Related to you doing a hard shutdown the problem there is that Windows is not guaranteed to write any changes out to disk the same millisecond (or even minute) that you make the change. It will almost certainly be written within a few minutes but the probablility of it having actually been written will increase over time. It’s unlikely to be written immediately, then near to the time you make the change the probability increases sharply, and will almost certainly have been written within an hour.

Modern Microsoft Defender has a new security feature that blocks changes to Windows Defender security features through PowerShell, registry settings, and/or Group Policy options. Microsoft Defender is automatically disabled if a third-party certified anti-virus openal32.dll program is installed on your computer. So far, we’ve looked only at disabling Windows Defender’s antivirus functionality.

• This is an especially useful feature for remote and hybrid employees, as the ability to access phone apps on a larger desktop or laptop display and use a mouse, pen, or touchscreen helps with multitasking.
• Although multiple methods exist to disable the default antivirus on Windows 10, we do not recommend using a computer without anti-malware protection.
• To finalize the changes, all you have to do is perform a quick restart.
• MSS announcement may also be called MSS negotiation but, strictly speaking, the MSS is not negotiated.
• Use an bootable offline registry editor of choice, I used a windows 7 64bit ERD disc to do it, not publicly available but can be found.
• Connection establishment is a multi-step handshake process that establishes a connection before entering the data transfer phase.

You should also be aware that group policy is a pretty powerful tool, so it’s worth taking some time to learn what it can do. And if you’re on a company network, do everyone a favor and check with your admin first. If your work computer is part of a domain, it’s also likely that it’s part of a domain group policy that will supersede the local group policy, anyway. Now, you can run the hacks by double-clicking the one you want to use and clicking through the prompts.

Change Group Policy to Disable PC Settings App

We recommend avoiding Registry cleaners, which can do far more harm than good. You should not edit the Registry unless you have a specific reason to do it. That reason has to be more important than the stability of your system and any time and data you might potentially lose. Opening a key and changing a value is as easy as expanding the Registry tree until you find the value you’re looking for and then double-clicking the value you want to change. If you’re looking for the Registry settings of a specific aspect of your computer, knowing the difference between these main branches can cut down how long you have to investigate before finding what you need.

The “Open Store” button will open the Microsoft Store app, where you can buy the upgrade from Microsoft. As virtualization programs go, Hyper-V is pretty good — the second iteration of the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) relies on it, and WSL’s performance is snappy and responsive. Hyper-V Manager just lets you monitor and control the virtual machines that use Hyper-V with a graphical user interface. Windows Sandbox is definitely one of the most useful features in Windows 11 Pro, and most users could benefit from it. The vast majority of exclusive features in Windows 11 Pro are related to remote management and setup, as well as other business-specific needs. That’s why most PCs that come with Windows 11 include Windows 11 Home. At the Install Windows 11 window, click the Change how Setup downloads updates link, then select the Not right now option and click Next.

On Windows 10, Microsoft Defender Antivirus is the anti-malware solution that protects your computer and files from unwanted viruses, ransomware, spyware, and other malware and hackers. While it is considered one of the best computer antivirus software options, you may still find situations where you may want to disable it permanently.

On the other hand, if the device has an older release, such as the November 2019 Update (version 1909), you may also be able to upgrade, but you should proceed with more caution. Microsoft also has the health dashboard website, where you will find details about any known issues for all releases of Windows. If your hardware can’t meet the requirements, then your course of action is clear — you’ll have to get a newer computer. The good news is that you have over a year to make the switch to a new computer as the support cutoff date is Oct. 14, 2025.

There are a number of registry keys located at HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate\AU that control the automatic update agent. At the end of the day, we’d only recommend attempting to edit or modify your Windows registry if you’re familiar with what you’re doing.