Unable turn on Windows Defender manually in Windows 10, Windows 8 or Windows 7 – or Windows Defender won’t or will not turn on and start. Windows Defender protects your PC or laptop from spyware and other potentially unwanted programs.  

In Windows 10 Windows Defender has a small Shield icon that can be found in the taskbar, though in earlier versions of Windows you should look for a castle icon.

How to Disable Windows Defender in Windows 10: Stop windows defender service windows 10

Look in the taskbar for this icon: it may be hidden in the more options menu, which you can access by clicking the upwards triangle icon.

What to do if Windows Defender can not be activated

Windows Defender is the antivirus that comes by default in Windows 10 , serves as a simple protection against the threats of the network but may occasionally stop working without an apparent reason. Not a few users have complained that this tool stops working when you install Windows 10 Anniversary . If you are among the unlucky ones who can not activate Windows Defender , follow these troubleshooting tips.  

Windows Defender can not be activated, possible solutions

1 – Uninstall any third-party antivirus

If we have installed a non- Windows Defender Antivirus , even when we are not using it, it is advisable to uninstall it so that it can not create any type of conflict. In case we do not have any third party Antivirus installed but we had it at some time, Microsoft recommends downloading and running specific applications of each Antivirus and that completely erases them from the system without a trace.

2 – Use the System File Checker tool

It is possible that the Windows Defender system files have been corrupted . To solve this we must run the System File Checker .

• Open the System Symbol (CMD) in Administrator mode
• Once executed we will enter the following command sfc / scannow and press Enter , we just have to let the process finish.

3 – Clean the Start of your computer

Windows usually has a number of tools that are hidden and are quite useful, as is the case of System Configurations .

• To call it you must open the Start Menu,  search for System Settings and run it.
• Once inside we go to the Services tab and activate the box Hide all Microsoft services so that only those that are from third-party applications are seen.
• We are going to disable all

Another recommended option is to clear the boot from the Task Manager. To do this we doing the next:  

• Open the Task Manager by right clicking on the Taskbar and go to the Home tab .
• Here we will be able to disable all the applications that run when Windows 10 starts , we disable everything.

4 – Restart the Security Center service

If all of the above fails we can make sure that this service called Security Center is enabled.

• We open the Start Menu
• Let’s look for the desktop application called Services
• We look for the service that is called Security Center , it should be activated by default, we will restart this service by right clicking and clicking the Restart option

I hope this has been useful and that Windows Defender comes back to life . See you next time.

Turn Windows Defender on or off in Windows 10

How to enable and disable Windows Defender in Windows 8.1/8

Windows Defender is disabled and does not currently monitor the computer , it is the message that Windows 8 usually shows you if you do not have an antivirus installed on your system, and you do not have activated the Windows Defender antivirus that comes integrated with Windows 8.1.

To activate or deactivate Windows Defender in Windows 8 I will show you two ways to activate it, but if you already have it activated and you want to disable it you can follow the same steps, but in reverse. Well, let’s get down to business.

First way to enable or disable Windows Defender

Step 1. We go to the Home screen, click on the image of “Magnifier” and type “Windows Defender” and click on the result.

Step 2. In the “Configuration” tab of the antivirus, to activate it we check the box that says “Activate protection in real time (recommended)” and save the changes.

Second way to enable or disable antivirus

Step 1. Open the control panel, and change the view in “Big icons”, then look for the option that says “Activity Center and open it.”

Step 2. In the window shown below we click on “activate now”, wait a few seconds, and we will open the settings of Windows Defender antivirus and it will be activated automatically. Remember that if you want to disable Windows antivirus defender you only have to follow the steps but in reverse.

I can not activate Windows Defender; how do I solve it?

Windows Defender  works as the first line of defense against any type of malware and spyware infection that can affect your system. Microsoft provides this anti-malware programfor free for customers using Windows . It allows end users to schedule a manual scan or run a quick, complete or custom scan. However, sometimes a user may experience problems when trying to activate  Windows Defender . It could be in the situation where the antivirus is turned off and does not work. It may also be that Windows Defender automatically turns itself off when you start your computer or at any time while you are working on it.

For these reasons, on this occasion we wanted to come with some instructions to help you solve this problem.

Windows Defender is disabled and does not work

It may be that you have received one of these messages: “This application is disabled and does not currently monitor the computer” or “Windows Defender has been shut down, and is not in control of your computer”. Go to the Action Center and see if you can activate Windows Defender .

If you have installed another antivirus program, Windows Defender will be automatically disabled. But if this is not the case, then you should follow the following suggestions to solve the problem:

Suggestion 1

You should confirm that your system is up to date with the latest Widnows updates, including the latest version of Windows Defender and its virus definitions.

Suggestion 2

Have you recently uninstalled some other antivirus program on your system? It may be that an incomplete or partial uninstallation occasions problems. Try to use some uninstaller to remove remnants of uninstalled programs .

Suggestion 3

Have you recently scanned your PC for malware? or have you recently recovered from any malware infection? Then it is recommended that you download a standalone antivirus or use an online scanner to analyze and disinfect your PC.

Suggestion 4

Make sure that the Windows Defender service is running and in automatic mode. To do this you must open the Run dialog box with the Windows + R shortcut ; then you write  services. msc and press Enter . This will open the Service Manager, and here you can verify that the  Windows Defender service  is started and configured automatically.

Suggestion 5

If the Windows Defender (WinDefend) service or the Windows Defender Network Inspection Service (WdNisSvc) are constantly stopped or do not start; try to re-register the following DLL files to see if it is fixed. Open a command prompt as administrator and run the following commands one after the other:

regsvr32 wuaueng.dll
regsvr32 wucltui.dll
regsvr32 softpub.dll
regsvr32 wintrust.dll
regsvr32 initpki.dll
regsvr32 wups.dll
regsvr32 wuweb.dll
regsvr32 atl.dll
regsvr32 mssip32.dll

Suggestion 6

Open the Windows Registry and go to the following path:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SOFTWARE \ Microsoft \ Windows Defender

In the left pane, make sure that the DWORD values DisableAntiSpyware and DisableAntiVirus are set to “1”.

Suggestion 7

There is also the possibility that the Windows Security Center will show you the message to review settings for malware protection; and when you press the “Power On” button, the message “No new definitions of Windows Defender is available for download”.

The problem may be caused by an inconsistency in the Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) repository. In such a case, a restart of the WMI repository should solve the drawback.

Open the Command Prompt as Administrator, type the following command, and then press Enter:

winmgmt / verifyrepository

If you receive a message like “winmgmt / salvagerepository has failed”, ignore it and repeat the previous command. A consistency check will be performed on the WMI repository and the problem will be solved.

Restart the PC and then try to activate Windows Defender.

Did a virus disable Windows Defender on Windows 10?

Windows 10 is the new operating system of Microsoft, which has gained good reviews ( and bad ) with its new features and extensions that make it much more dynamic. Among them, Cortana , an integrated personal assistant who tries to have a closer relationship with the user thanks to direct contact with his private information, which by the way is a much debated topic. However, although Windows 10 has improved many of its bugs ,  there are still vulnerabilities; this time let’s talk about “Windows Defender” .

Windows Defender is the system’s default antivirus protection system. This one is able to detect if another antivirus is installed and, if so, it is deactivated by itself , remaining in charge of the other antivirus, to protect the system to 100%.

But … and if only my Windows Defender was deactivated without installing anything? Bingo, a virus .

If a virus wants to enter your computer to perform a specific function, without being detected by WD, the first thing to do is to deactivate the same. And yes, it does.  But can we activate it manually ?. In some cases no and we will explain why.

One of the tactics currently being done against W10 is to disable Windows Defender by creating logging in the depths of your configuration.

Here’s what you should do if this is your case:

1. Press the Windows + R key (the “Run” window will appear)
2. Type ” Regedit ” and then press “OK” or “Enter”
3. In case you ask permission to execute, we accept
4. After you open the registry editor,  regedit searches the left pane for the following path:
   “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SOFTWARE \ Policies \ Microsoft \ Windows Defender”
   
5. Once located, the main panel will be our virus: although it could have any name, it could also be a specific name like ” DisableAntiSpyware “, and will always have a value of  1 . It will be as simple as double clicking and then changing this value to  0

How to disable Windows Defender using Local Group Policy