Defender is turned on , but doesn't run.

dch1950 · 25 Aug 2015

Hi,
I have windows Defender turned on (by default presumably) but it's greyed out and the slider is not active. Win 10 prompts me with an info box at start up saying Defender is turned off. This is a little odd. Just MS making decisions for me again I presume.
No but seriously if it's on why won't it update/run itself. Any thoughts - (other than "be patient" - which isn't very useful)
regards
Dave

garydexter · 25 Aug 2015

Did you upgrade from a previous version of Windows?

Do you have any other AV or Internet Security Suites installed?

him · 25 Aug 2015

dch1950 said:

Hi,
I have windows Defender turned on (by default presumably) but it's greyed out and the slider is not active.

Dave,

If you have other AV program installed, then Win Defender will be turned off by that program.

dch1950 · 25 Aug 2015

him said:

Dave,

If you have other AV program installed, then Win Defender will be turned off by that program.

Hi,
I run Malwarebytes Anti-malware, but under 7 pro it never turned off Microsoft Essentials. Are you saying that it now does?
Dave

dch1950 · 25 Aug 2015

garydexter said:

Did you upgrade from a previous version of Windows?

Do you have any other AV or Internet Security Suites installed?

Hi - I did upgrade from 7 pro, and I do use Malwarebytes (scheduled - daily), and also Spybot (occasionally)
But as I said to "him", under 7 pro this didn't affect MS Essentials settings.
Dave

Borg 386 · 25 Aug 2015

You might want to run an SFC to see if this fixes the problems. Best to run it at least 3X as it doesn't always fix everything on the 1st or 2nd pass.

SFC Command - Run in Windows 10 - Windows 10 Forums

If SFC could not fix something, then run the command again to see if it may be able to the next time. Sometimes it may take running the sfc /scannow command 3 times restarting the PC after each time to completely fix everything that it's able to.

Another 2 options if this does not solve the problem:

If you're having problems with Windows 10 on your PC, you can try to refresh, reset, or restore it. Refreshing your PC fixes software problems by reinstalling the OS while preserving the user data, user accounts, and important settings. All other preinstalled customizations are restored to their factory state. In Windows 10, this feature no longer preserves user-acquired Windows apps.

Repair Install Windows 10 with an In-place Upgrade - Windows 10 Forums

Refresh Windows 10

garydexter · 25 Aug 2015

dch1950 said:

Hi - I did upgrade from 7 pro, and I do use Malwarebytes (scheduled - daily), and also Spybot (occasionally)
But as I said to "him", under 7 pro this didn't affect MS Essentials settings.
Dave

Did you have MSE installed when you upgraded?

There are known issues/conflicts with machines upgrading from Windows 7 with MSE installed.

dch1950 · 26 Aug 2015

garydexter said:

Did you have MSE installed when you upgraded?

There are known issues/conflicts with machines upgrading from Windows 7 with MSE installed.

No I doubt it, as I'd installed a clean copy of win 7 pro to the machine first, then registered for the Win 10 upgrade, had to use a registry hack to enable the upgrade, and then it went ahead. I doubt that MSE was installed in that intervening period - I certainly didn't install it.
I've run SFC - no problems found. Bit of a puzzle this one.
Dave

garydexter · 26 Aug 2015

If it's an upgraded install following a clean Windows 7 installation, then I would suggest downloading the Windows 10 ISO and re-installing a clean copy providing you've activated that current Windows 10 install