What's Windows Defender summary and how to disable it?

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Key notes

  • The Windows Defender summary notification may often glitch out and can cause a variety of inconveniences that you are no stranger to.
  • Even if the Firewall is constantly improving, it still needs plenty of work.
  • Thankfully, you can disable the software easily by going into your system's settings.
  • Switching to a better and more equipped antivirus software is also a good choice.
disable windows defender summary

The number of users who pledged their trust to Windows Defender is enormous. We’ve been using Windows Defender and for almost 2 years, it got better and better gradually.

For a regular user, Windows Defender should be good enough protection with scheduled background scans and real-time protection.

However, notifications are, true to be told, quite intrusive. Especially if we have in mind that the recent Windows Defender summary notification isn’t as important.

We wrote this piece about the Windows Defender summary notifications and how to disable them. Make sure to check it out if you want to get rid of impertinent notifications below.

Quick Tip:

Windows Defender is not the greatest security system, even if it’s constantly being improved by Microsoft, and its part of your Windows OS.

We suggest switching to a popular antivirus software that is specialized in everything security-related, and that uses advanced AI and other protection tools to keep you and your data safe.

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What is the Windows Defender summary?

Windows 10‘s native security tool is Windows Defender. We all know that. And the sole presence of it is a good thing for all end-users.

With it, based on the analysis, you won’t need a bloated free third-party antivirus for standard protection. Although we suggest some paid solutions over Windows Defender for advanced users.

Now, the best thing about it is that it’s the part of the Windows ecosystem, part of the Windows Security. And therefore it has a better coverage on all kind of possible liabilities.

However, it seems that Microsoft was a tad more overzealous with the notifications. Because the Windows Defender summary and all associated tasks just won’t go away.

The Windows Defender summary shows you the results of all scheduled fast scans the tool has done in the background.

And what would be better is to just show the number of threats found. If you’re working on something important, the last thing you want to see is the pop-up with no importance.

How do I disable the Windows Defender summary?

  1. Open Windows Security Center from the notification area.
  2. Choose Virus & threat protection.windows defender summary
  3. Under the Virus & threat protection settings, click Manage settings.windows defender summary
  4. Scroll to the bottom and, under the Notifications section, click Change notification settings.windows defender summary
  5. Under Notifications, click Manage notifications.windows defender summary
  6. Bellow the Virus & threat protection notifications section, toggle off the Get informal notifications option.windows defender summary
  7. Or you can disable only the Recent activity and scan results by unchecking the box.

It’s rather simple. You can even curate the notifications and choose what kinds of information you deem important, what’s a plain waste of time, and allow something with more substance and ditch the summary.

That’s it. After that, you won’t be seeing any Windows Defender summaries. You can, of course, navigate to the Security Center > Virus & threat protection and see all the details you need.

If you are doubting software’s capabilities, take a closer look at this thorough guide dedicated to Windows Defender’s usefulness.

On that note, we can wrap it up. How do you rank Windows Defender in comparison to other free antivirus solutions? Tell us in the comments section below.

More about the topics: antivirus errors, Microsoft Windows Defender