Unable to download anything when Windows Defender is deactivated

[A Former User]

A Former User last edited by

I've deactivated Windows Defender in Windows 11 (no antivirus) for saving some performance. I'm now unable to download anything (for example, PNG, SWF, anything).

That's what Windows Security UI looks like:

Sorry, it's in portuguese.

That's what I get when downloading my files:

I tried not just with SWF, but also with random PNGs.

The same also happens with Google Chrome, so the issue is probably within Chromium. Can anyone help me anyway?

[burnout426]

burnout426 Volunteer last edited by

In the registry, goto "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Attachments" and set ScanWithAntiVirus to 1 instead of 3. You might have to restart your computer afterwards.

If you don't want to do it system-wide, you can set up the setting for HKEY_CURRENT_USER instead if you want. You'll just have to ad the Attachments key on the ScanWithAntiVirus DWORD.

Another thing you can do is hit the Windows key + r to open the run dialog, type inetcpl.cpl and press enter to open Internet Properties. Then, under the security tab, select "Internet Zone" and click "Custom level". There, you want to make sure "file download" is enabled and "Launch applications and unsafe files is at least set to "prompt".

Now, these things are for Windows and not Opera specifically. But, Opera uses the Windows network stack, so it might help. Test in Chrome too to see if it has the same problem and to see if any of that helps with Chrome too.

[A Former User]

A Former User @burnout426 last edited by A Former User

@burnout426 Thank you! I did that on regedit and it worked! (No need to restart too.)