Windows Defender Antivirus Network Inspection Service issues since Windows 10 2004 update

UPDATE - I completely UNinstalled the WD SES drivers in Device Manager, but I also had to disconnect the WD drive, reboot AND search for the wdcsam64 drivers and delete them everywhere (including from File Repository, which required taking ownership of the relevant WD subfolder’s security) before I could turn on Memory Integrity. Wow!

Now - what happens if I connect the WD drive again - back to square one?  It will definitely re-install the WD SES drivers, including the wdcsam64 group.  There does not seem to be any way to stop that from happening.

But I still cannot turn on Memory Integrity. 

I still have my WD external drive hooked up.  The driver for "WD SES Device" is disabled.  My efforts to uninstall that driver fail - it is reinstalled on every boot.

What next?

It appears, until a new driver has been released by WD (very unlikely, I think) there is no need to fight it. Circumventing it seems the way to go - delete the WD SES Device - turn Core Isolation on  - use the WD Device as if nothing happened, it will still work as intended.

On my Win 10 Pro 64-bit version 1909 (updated through 07-2020) I managed to get

Antimalware Client Version: 4.18.2008.4

But I still cannot turn on Memory Integrity. 

I still have my WD external drive hooked up.  The driver for "WD SES Device" is disabled.  My efforts to uninstall that driver fail - it is reinstalled on every boot.

What next?

Thanks.

I also have a WD external drive that installs the SES driver when plugged in, because of this I physically disconnected the external drives, and my webcam before switching the PC back on to reinstall.

After re-installing 2004 version from a USB key I activated Memory integrity and created a system restore point, then added my external drives back one by one, and then checked that NIS was running after a reboot, and it was.

After all of this I installed Application Guard, and Sandbox then disabled the WD SES Device like you did and rebooted again.

Everything is now working perfectly with the latest Malware engine version and NIS is working.

Next I'm going to try enabling Hyper-V, and WSL2 with Ubuntu 20.04 LTS to see if that causes any issues.

Update: Installed WSL2 + Ubuntu 20.04 LTS as per https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/install-win10 no problems.

On my Win 10 Pro 64-bit version 1909 (updated through 07-2020) I managed to get

Antimalware Client Version: 4.18.2008.4

But I still cannot turn on Memory Integrity. 

I still have my WD external drive hooked up.  The driver for "WD SES Device" is disabled.  My efforts to uninstall that driver fail - it is reinstalled on every boot.

What next?

Thanks.

I got the 2004 update yesterday and that went well enough otherwise but I am having a problem with the Windows Defender Antivirus Network Inspection Service that I did not have previously. 

1. I noticed in Event Viewer several Errors that began immediately upon completion of the update last night: 

The Microsoft Defender Antivirus Network Inspection Service service depends on the Microsoft Defender Antivirus Network Inspection System Driver service which failed to start because of the following error: 

The supplied user buffer is not valid for the requested operation.

2. Further inspection has revealed that there is now a problem with Real Time Updates. 

Microsoft Defender Antivirus Real-Time Protection feature has encountered an error and failed.

  Feature: Network Inspection System

Error Code: 0x8007042c

Error description: The dependency service or group failed to start. 

Reason: The system is missing updates that are required for running Network Inspection System.  Install the required updates and restart the device.

I've got this error repeatedly (3002). 

3. I went into security and maintenance to see what was going on with my security settings. That is not showing anything "wrong." 
4. The Network Inspection Service is configured to manual, not automatic. I can't change this. 
5. Real-time protection is on, and has been on. On Virus & threat protection settings, all of those are still toggled on, and those settings are the same before and after the upgrade. I haven't tried turning them on and off again yet. 
6. I already did the August Safety scan, but I downloaded a fresh copy and am re-running it. 
7. I did dism and sfc checks and they showed no problems that needed repair. 

Something is definitely wrong with the install of Windows Defender tho... Help? How do I fix this and stop the errors and get it reconfigured properly. Do I have to reinstall it? 

I completely wiped my PC last night, and reinstalled manually from a 2004 USB key.

Here's what prompted it:

1. I had a blue screen of death.
2. Upon investigating BSOD I discovered NIS not running.
3. I was unable to fix the NIS issue without turning off "Memory integrity" protection.
4. I had a green screen of death last night, and that was it, enough.

Since reinstalling my security versions look like this:

My main reason for reinstalling was because I don't want to turn off core isolation.  When it comes to security I want the most I can get, and turning off core isolation just wasn't an option for me.

Note the Antimalware Client Version above, 4.18.2008.4.  I was unable to update from 4.18.2007.8 prior to wiping the PC.

Wiping and reinstalling is likely the shortest path to solving the problem.