How to enable or disable Security Intelligence Updates when running on Battery Power

If you want to enable or disable Security Intelligence Updates when your computer is running on battery power, then this article will be helpful for you. You can allow or block such an update when your Windows 10 computer is consuming battery power using the Registry Editor and Local Group Policy Editor.

Microsoft Defender Antivirus (formerly, Windows Defender) is well-known protection against malware. By default, it updates the security database automatically irrespective of what power your device is consuming.

Disable Security Intelligence Updates when running on Battery Power

If your laptop doesn’t have a good battery and you want to turn off backup updates of security intelligence, then create a System Restore point and follow the steps laid down.

1] Using Local Group Policy Editor

If your Windows 10 edition has Local Group Policy Editor, you can go through this following path to make the change.

Press Win+R to open the Run prompt, type gpedit.msc, and hit the Enter button.

This should open the Local Group Policy Editor on your computer.

After that, navigate to this path-

Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Microsoft Defender Antivirus > Security Intelligence Updates

On your right-hand side, you will see a setting called Allow security intelligence updates when running on battery power.

Double-click on it. By default, it should be set to Not Configured. If you want to turn off the updates, you need to select Disabled and click the OK button to save the change.

If it is already disabled, you need to select Enabled and save the change by clicking the OK button.

2] Using Registry Editor

To get started, open the Registry Editor on your computer. For that, press Win+R, type regedit and hit the Enter button. If you find the UAC prompt, click the Yes button. After you find the Registry Editor on your screen, you need to navigate to this path-

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows Defender\Signature Updates

On your right-hand side, you can see a REG_DWORD value called:

DisableScheduledSignatureUpdateOnBattery

If you cannot find it, you can create the value manually. To do so, right-click on an empty area, and select New > DWORD (32-bit) Value. After that, name it as mentioned above.

By default, the value should be set as 0. It implies that the functionality is enabled already. To disable security intelligence updates, you need to double-click on this REG_DWORD value and enter 1 before saving the change.

That’s all! Hope it helps.