Disable Windows Defender on D365FO developer machines

While using D365FO developer machines from LCS, Windows Defender consumes quite a substantial amount of resources. As a result, some operations, like building a solution, take much more time. From my experience Windows Defender is not needed on developer machines at all. I only install few 3rd-party tools (like Chrome browser and Notepad2 text editor), the rest is already pre-installed there.

Before it was possible to turn Windows Defender off by opening its settings and switching off run time protection. Last year Microsoft removed an option to disable Windows Defender on D365FO developer machines. 

It turns out there is another way to disable Windows Defender:

1. Run gpedit.msc to open Local Group Policy Editor
   
2. Go to: Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Windows Defender Antivirus
   
3. On the right side, double-click the Turn off Windows Defender Antivirus policy
   
4. Select the Enabled option
   
5. Click Apply and OK

There are more ways to disable Windows Defender here.