Windows 10: Windows Defender will not turn on *SOLVED*

Anonymous
2014-11-18T03:53:50+00:00

I had recently disabled windows defender on windows 10 and when I did I know want to enable it again but when I open action center and press Turn On Now it does nothing. I have pressed it multiple times and with no result.


Fix:

  1. press Windows Key + R
  2. type regedit
  3. locate the following path *HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\MICROSOFT\WINDOWS DEFENDER*
  4. Right Click this file and select permissions
  5. press Advanced
  6. where it says owner press change
  7. change the owner to your username
  8. Now press applythen ok
  9. select Full Controlfrom the permissions menu

(click the Widnows Defender folder)

  1. Find the value DisableAntiSpyware and DisableAntiVirus and set these values to 0

(explaination: double click each and where the 1 is put 0 and press ok)

  1. Open services.msc
  2. find Windows Defender
  3. there should be 2 services: Windows Defender Serviceand Windows Defnder Netwrok
  4. right click each and press start
  5. after you have started both restart your computer
  6. Run Windows Defend er

I Hope this Helps!

Feel Free to Reply

Windows for home | Windows 10 | Security and privacy

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

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Anonymous
2014-11-22T09:20:06+00:00

Fix:

  1. press Windows Key + R
  2. type regedit
  3. locate the following path *HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\MICROSOFT\WINDOWS DEFENDER*
  4. Right Click this file and select permissions
  5. press Advanced
  6. where it says owner press change
  7. change the owner to your username
  8. Now press apply then ok
  9. select Full Control from the permissions menu

(click the Widnows Defender folder)

  1. Find the value DisableAntiSpyware and DisableAntiVirus and set these values to 0

(explaination: double click each and where the 1 is put 0 and press ok)

  1. Open services.msc
  2. find Windows Defender
  3. there should be 2 services: Windows Defender Service and Windows Defnder Netwrok
  4. right click each and press start
  5. after you have started both restart your computer
  6. Run Windows Defend er

I Hope this Helps!

Feel Free to Reply

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72 additional answers

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  1. Anonymous
    2015-12-13T23:11:34+00:00

    I don't know why they're putting all this up. I had the same problem when I bought my new HP Envy 360 convertable laptop, after studying quite a few threads I found that another program installed on the laptop (McAfee) was causing a problem with Defender, so I simply disabled it. This fixed the windows Defender problem, to which later I got rid of McAfee. If you have ANY virus program on your laptop it will always cause a discrepancy with Defender.

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  2. Anonymous
    2015-12-13T02:35:03+00:00

    This is the second time that I've had problems trying to get Defender to start and run in Windows10 after installing Windows10.  1st time was on my SurfacePro.  It took a while following the steps outlined in this forum but it worked.  However, after installing Windows10 on my Lenovo ThinkPad E545, I cannot start Defender.  I cannot change the registry values for DisableAntiSpywareto 0 and cannot change DisableAntiVirus to 0.  The system will not allow it.

    I would think that having active anti-virus protection would be a top priority when installing Windows10.

    Help please!!!!!

    OK ... problem fixed!!  I remembered that it took several reboots on the SurfacePro before I could get Defender to start.  I had already done several on the ThinkPad but figured that doing several more wouldn't hurt.  Lost count but after many more reboots, Defender finally started up.  I hope someone at Microsoft is working on this problem.

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  3. Anonymous
    2015-12-12T21:28:25+00:00

    OK smart guy.  How do normal people(not techies) restart windows defender?

    Microsoft has got to find a way to help the majority of their users.

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  4. Anonymous
    2015-12-11T19:18:58+00:00

    mine is doing the same thing. the fix isn't any good if your computer won't let you...gheesh

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