Turning on Windows Firewall and Defender in Windows 8

Anonymous
2012-10-30T04:10:31+00:00

My firewall and Windows Defender seem to be off. I just got Windows 8 last Friday and I cannot get it to turn on. When I go to the Windows Defender App, it says "Windows Defender has been turned off and is not protecting your computer." How do I turn it on then?

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Security and privacy

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Anonymous
2012-10-30T16:47:45+00:00

Hi Matkor,

Welcome to Microsoft community!!!

Based on the case details I understand that you are unable to turn on Windows Firewall and Windows Defender, it would be grateful if you can reply to these question in order to assist you further.

  1. Have you made any changes to the computer prior to this issue?
  2. Do you have any other security software installed on your computer?

I would suggest you to try the following methods and check if it helps.

Method 1:

I would suggest you to check the Service status of Windows Firewall and Windows Defender

a) Press Windows key + R and type services.msc in the search field and press ENTER.

b) Scroll down to find " Windows Defender Service ".

c) Right-click " Windows Defender service “, and then click Start.

d) Follow the same steps to start "Windows Firewall" service.

e) Check if the issue persists.

Method 2:

Try the following method to enable Windows Firewall and Windows Defender:

Windows Firewall

a. On the Windows 8 User Interface Start screen select control panel or right click on the bottom left corner on the desktop to select control panel.

b. Click Windows Firewall, In the left pane, click Turn Windows Firewall on or off.

c. Click Turn on Windows Firewall under each network location that you want to help protect, and then click OK.

Windows Defender

a. Press the ‘Windows + Q key on the keyboard.

b. Type “Windows Defender” in the search box and then press enter.

c. Click Settings and make sure there is a check mark on Turn on real time protection recommend.

Please post the results and let us know if you need further assistance to fix the issue and we will be happy to help you further.

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Anonymous
2015-04-02T19:29:27+00:00

Hi P. MichaelVan Sant,

Sorry for the delay in replying.

As you have an expired trial version of MacAfee, you may remove or uninstall this and restart the computer to check if this helps. It is not good to have multiple security software installed on the computer as there might be software conflict which will affect the overall performance of the computer.

Keep us informed to help you further.

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  1. Anonymous
    2013-04-30T11:45:35+00:00

    I had this problem last month, I tried all of the suggestions but no luck,  Whenever i was trying to turn on windows defender my windows system32 folder appeared! Only solution suggested from Microsoft support after spending almost a day in remote desktop assistance was to reinstall windows.  I just don't consider reinstalling the software a solution to a problem.  

    My problem was with windows 8 pro upgrade from windows 7 pro , norton antivirus installed for two years in most of the machines.

    I re-installed windows and everything was fine.

    We have another 5 specialized machines with norton that expires next month and that means that we will have to spend at least 5 working days one IT person installing software about 100 plugins and scripts for our software and specialized hardware and we have to loose 5 working days for 5 different employees. I just don't call windows 8 a professional solution, the worse decision i have made in this company was to upgrade to windows 8.

    The only way out for MS is to satisfy business customers. The tablet - phone market is lost and the consoles are really endangered with more open platforms. But what do you expect from a company that has Ballmer as CEO.

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  2. Anonymous
    2013-05-16T06:28:29+00:00

    I have tried all of the above methods with no success. At one point I thought that the program was starting but it did not.

     Messages that I have received in addition to the ones that are listed by others:

    The Windows Defender Service on local computer started and stopped. Some services stop automatically if they are not in use by other services or programs.

    (I had Norton and deleted it, attempted the above methods, but reinstalled it because I still could not get defender to work. Please Help.

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  3. Anonymous
    2013-06-01T14:43:18+00:00

    I, too, was getting the "Windows Defender has been turned off and is not protecting your computer." message after uninstalling AVG. Everything mentioned here did not work. This was the eventual fix:

    Control Panel > Action Center > Change Action Center Settings

    Make sure there is a check mark next to "Spyware and unwanted software protection" and "Virus protection".

    Click OK. You should then receive an alert that anti-virus software is not installed. Click the balloon, which will take you back to the Action Center.

    There should be a Turn on Now button (or something similar) next to Windows Defender; just click it, and you're good to go.

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