Use the Components page toolbar Search box, or the first filtering row.I just can't find windows defender to mark it for removal.
That's all that is required? I am tempted by a 3rd party AV rather than Defender, tbh.Microsoft.SecHealthUI (Defender) is a licensed NTLite removal.
Test and find out is all you can do.Major AV vendors have agreements with MS on how this works out. While the AV doesn't need Defender to work, I don't know how they handle the situation of not finding Defender. Since that's unexpected, your AV might think your PC has been compromised.
I removed this component and Defender is running at a very minimalist level now. I installed the free Avira and it ran as the virus checker and it indicated that it was running alongside windows firewall. What was most notable was that the stupid antimalware windows process was no longer running and consuming 200mb of memory as it does.W10+ Defender is designed to co-exist with 3rd-party AV, it's supposed to go into an inactive (non-scanning) state but keep itself updated.
It's there to be a fallback if you disable or remove another AV, so there's no gap in PC protection.
Major AV vendors have agreements with MS on how this works out. While the AV doesn't need Defender to work, I don't know how they handle the situation of not finding Defender. Since that's unexpected, your AV might think your PC has been compromised.