How to remove Bitdefender Agent

Martin Brinkmann
Jul 19, 2018
Windows
|
30

Bitdefender Agent is an official program by Bitdefender that gets installed alongside other company products such as Bitdefender Antivirus Free Edition or Total Security usually.

You may notice that Bitdefender Agent is running on the system when you check the Task Manager or any third-party process manager.

The process names are ProductAgentService.exe and bdagent.exe among others but the description reveals that it is Bitdefender Agent. If you notice that Bitdefender Agent runs on a Windows PC you may wonder about the functionality of the process and how it got on the system in first place.

The following guide explains what Bitdefender Agent is, how it landed on the Windows machine, and how to remove it.

How to remove Bitdefender Agent

Bitdefender Agent gets installed alongside other Bitdefender products usually. While it is installed separately from the Bitdefender product, e.g. Bitdefender Antivirus Plus, it is part of the product installation and goes by unseen because of that.

It is difficult to find out what Bitdefender Agent is; a search on the Bitdefender website reveals little information about the product. A support article highlights that bdagent.exe "holds the Bitdefender desktop widget, Wallet master password, the ‘B’ system tray icon and “Bitdefender Awake” popup".

The core issue that users may have with the program is that it is not removed when Bitdefender is uninstalled on a PC.

In other words; Bitdefender Agent remains installed on the machine even if you remove Bitdefender's security product from the system. It is unclear why Bitdefender made the decision to keep the program on the system when users and administrators select to remove company products.

Bitdefender Agent may be the cause for installation issues if a user tries to install Bitdefender products and it is completely unnecessary if users don't plan to install another Bitdefender product on the PC.

Program details:

  • Installation folder: C:\Program Files\Bitdefender Agent\
  • Scheduled Task: Bitdefender Agent WatchDog set to run on log on.

Uninstallation

uninstall bitdefender agent

You can remove Bitdefender Agent like any other program installed on the Windows PC. If you run Windows 7 or Windows 8, you can remove the program using the Control Panel while Windows 10 users may use the Settings application for that.

You may also use third-party program uninstallers which offer clean-up operations after the regular removal.

Probably the easiest way to remove the program is the following:

  1. Open the Start Menu.
  2. Type appwiz.cpl and select the result. This should open the Programs and Features Control Panel applet.
  3. Locate Bitdefender Agent in the list of installed programs.
  4. Right-click on it and select uninstall.
  5. Confirm the UAC prompt and wait until the process completes.

Bitdefender Agent is removed from the system. You may want to check the program folder and the Task Scheduler to make sure the program is removed completely.

Closing Words

Bitdefender's installer will install Bitdefender Agent again should you install a company product again on the target machine. The program is loaded on log in and it runs as a background process even if no other Bitdefender software is installed.

Now You: What is your take on Bitdefender security products?

Summary
How to remove Bitdefender Agent
Article Name
How to remove Bitdefender Agent
Description
Bitdefender Agent is an official program by Bitdefender that gets installed alongside other company products such as Bitdefender Antivirus Free Edition or Total Security usually.
Author
Publisher
Ghacks Technology News
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Comments

  1. Dan Donx said on January 15, 2023 at 10:29 am
    Reply

    What mental age of reader are you targeting with the first sentence? 10?

    Why not write an article on how to *avoid* upgrading from W10 to W11. Analogous to those like me who avoided upgrading from 7 to 10 for as long as possible.

    If your paymaster Microsoft permits it, of course.

  2. Dexter said on January 15, 2023 at 11:14 am
    Reply

    5. Rufus
    6. Ventoy

    PS. I hate reading these “SEO optimized” articles.

    1. cdr said on January 15, 2023 at 3:32 pm
      Reply

      I used Rufus to create an installer for a 6th gen intel i5 that had MBR. It upgraded using Setup. No issues except for Win 11 always prompting me to replace my local account. Still using Win 10 Pro on all my other PCs to avoid the bullying.

  3. sv said on January 15, 2023 at 6:40 pm
    Reply

    bit pointless to upgrade for the sake of upgrading as you never know when you’ll get locked out because ms might suddenly not provide updates to unsupported systems.

    ps…. time travelling?
    written. Jan 15, 2023
    Updated • Jan 13, 2023

    1. Martin Brinkmann said on January 16, 2023 at 5:49 am
      Reply

      This happens when you schedule a post in WordPress and update it before setting the publication date.

  4. Anonymous said on January 16, 2023 at 8:24 am
    Reply

    Anyone willing to downgrade to this awful OS must like inflicting themselves with harm.

  5. basingstoke said on January 16, 2023 at 11:18 am
    Reply

    I have become convinced now that anybody who has no qualms with using Windows 11/10 must fit into one of the following brackets:

    1) Too young to remember a time before W10 and W11 (doesn’t know better)

    2) Wants to play the latest games on their PC above anything else (or deeply needs some software which already dropped W7 support)

    3) Doesn’t know too much about how computers work, worried that they’d be absolutely lost and in trouble without the “”latest security””

    4) Microsoft apologist that tries to justify that the latest “features” and “changes” are actually a good thing, that improve Windows

    5) Uses their computer to do a bare minimum of like 3 different things, browse web, check emails, etc, so really doesn’t fuss

    Obviously that doesn’t cover everyone, there’s also the category that:

    6) Actually liked W7 more than 10, and held out as long as possible before switching, begrudgingly uses 10 now

    Have I missed any group off this list?

    1. Heinz Strunk said on September 19, 2023 at 3:57 pm
      Reply

      You have missed in this group just about any professional user that uses business software like CAD programs or ERP Programs which are 99% of all professional users from this list.

      Linux doesn’t help anyone who is not a linux kid and apple is just a fancy facebook machine.

  6. ilev said on August 24, 2023 at 7:34 pm
    Reply

    Microsoft has removed KB5029351 update

    1. EP said on August 24, 2023 at 9:21 pm
      Reply

      only from windows update though
      KB5029351 is still available from the ms update catalog site

  7. Anonymous said on August 24, 2023 at 11:05 pm
    Reply

    1. This update is labaled as PREVIEW if it causes issues to unintelligent people, then they shouldn’t have allowed Preview updates ot install.

    2. I have installed it in a 11 years old computer, and no problems at all.

    3. Making a big drama over a bluescreen for an updated labeled as preview is ridiculous.

    This is probably another BS internet drama where people ran programs and scripts that modified the registry until they broke Windows, just for removing stuff that they weren’t even using just for the sake of it.
    Maybe people should stop playing geeks and actually either use Windows 10 or Windows 11, but don’t try to modify things just for the sake of it.

    Sometimes removing or stopping things (like defender is a perfect example) only need intelligence, not scripts or 3rd party programs that might mess with windows.

  8. john said on August 24, 2023 at 11:17 pm
    Reply

    Windows 11 was a pointless release, it was just created because some of the Windows team wanted to boost sales with some sort of new and improved Windows 10. Instead, Microsoft cannot support one version well let alone two.

    1. John G. said on August 25, 2023 at 12:08 pm
      Reply

      Windows 11 is the worst ugly shame by Microsoft ever. They should release with every new W11 version a complete free version of Starallback inside just to make this sh** OS functionally again.

  9. EP said on August 25, 2023 at 3:10 pm
    Reply

    motherboard maker MSI has recently released a statement regarding the “unsupported processor” blue screen error for their boards using Intel 600/700 series chipsets & to avoid the KB5029351 Win11 update:
    https://www.msi.com/news/detail/MSI-On–UNSUPPORTED-PROCESSOR–Error-Message-of-Windows-11-Update-KB5029351-Preview-142215

  10. EP said on August 29, 2023 at 7:32 pm
    Reply

    check out the following recent articles:

    Neowin – Microsoft puts little blame on its Windows update after UNSUPPORTED PROCESSOR BSOD bug:
    https://www.neowin.net/news/microsoft-puts-little-blame-on-its-windows-update-after-unsupported-processor-bsod-bug/

    BleepingComputer – Microsoft blames ‘unsupported processor’ blue screens on OEM vendors:
    https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/microsoft/microsoft-blames-unsupported-processor-blue-screens-on-oem-vendors/

  11. Leonard Britvolli said on August 30, 2023 at 10:33 pm
    Reply

    While there may be changes or updates to the Windows 10 Store for Business and Education in the future, it is premature to conclude that it will be discontinued based solely on rumors.

  12. sembrador said on September 5, 2023 at 9:32 pm
    Reply

    My advice, I left win 15 years ago. Now I’m a happy linux user (linuxmint) but there is Centos, Fedora, Ubuntu depending on your needs.

  13. EP said on September 6, 2023 at 11:55 am
    Reply

    motherboard maker MSI has recently released new BIOS/firmware updates for their Intel 600 & 700 series motherboards to fix the “UNSUPPORTED_PROCESSOR” problem (Sept. 6):

    https://www.msi.com/news/detail/Updated-BIOS-fixes-Error-Message–UNSUPPORTED-PROCESSOR–caused-BSOD-on-MSI-s-Intel-700-and-600-Series-Motherboards-142277

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