How can I get Windows Defender working?

[TheAquila]

Windows Defender not working

I can't turn on Windows Defender. When I try to launch it, a window saying "This app has been turned off and is not monitoring your computer" pops up. I tried everything that's listed on the MS answers thread. I am unable to start the Windows Security Centre service too. It doesn't stay enabled i.e., it becomes disabled as soon as I close the Services app. I have no anti-virus installed. Been using WD since I upgraded. Some help would be much appreciated!

 

[_Emi_]

Re: Windows Defender not working

I can't turn on Windows Defender. When I try to launch it, a window saying "This app has been turned off and is not monitoring your computer" pops up. I tried everything that's listed on the MS answers thread. I am unable to start the Windows Security Centre service too. It doesn't stay enabled i.e., it becomes disabled as soon as I close the Services app. I have no anti-virus installed. Been using WD since I upgraded. Some help would be much appreciated!

First you could go to cmd as admin and SFC /scan or
Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth
and see if it displays some error or it fixes something.

also you could go to run -> msconfig and check on the startup services to see if it's starting with computer the defender service and the security one.

but you could also go to services and check the setting is set to enable and not automatically on registry.
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\WinDefend
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\wscsvc
find "start" Dword.
set it to 3, just to test it.
0 = Boot
1 = System
2 = Automatic
3 = Manual
4 = Disabled

also you could get malwarebytes and check if there wasn't something weird installed in your comp. anything can happen these days.