Windows Defender does not start at boot, and Windows Explorer slow

Hello

I wonder if anyone can help? I am running Windows 10 on an old PC which has not caused any trouble until recently. But all of a sudden, when the PC boots up:

1. Windows Defender does not start: The System Tray icon appears but is not displaying green to indicate that all is well, and it vanishes. In Services, Windows Firewall is not started.
2. Windows Explorer is sluggish: Explorer works very slowly and often needs to be restarted in Task Manager because it does not respond.
3. Resolving host: This dire message sometimes appears in Chrome whereupon the browser is useless pending a hard reboot. Other browsers, apart from Opera, are also affected. This may be unrelated to the above.

The PC in question currently has Windows 10 Pro 1909 at Build 18363.900. The PC also has Malwarebytes 4.1.0.56 installed.

Thanks

Mr Morgan.

I have run the various checks and scans suggested:

HD Tune V2.55 reported no errors on the disk.

chkdsk c: /scan reported no errors either.

sfc /scannow did report a few errors which I include below:

Code:

2020-06-27 16:07:15, Info                  CSI    00000299 Warning: Overlap: Directory \??\C:\Program Files (x86)\ is owned twice or has its security set twice   Original owner: Microsoft-Windows-shell32, version 10.0.18362.900, arch Host= amd64 Guest= x86, nonSxS, pkt {l:8 b:31bf3856ad364e35}   New owner: Microsoft-Windows-shell32, version 10.0.18362.900, arch Host= amd64 Guest= x86, nonSxS, pkt {l:8 b:31bf3856ad364e35}

Code:

2020-06-27 16:07:15, Info                  CSI    0000029a Warning: Overlap: Directory \??\C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\ is owned twice or has its security set twice   Original owner: Microsoft-Windows-shell32, version 10.0.18362.900, arch Host= amd64 Guest= x86, nonSxS, pkt {l:8 b:31bf3856ad364e35}   New owner: Microsoft-Windows-shell32, version 10.0.18362.900, arch Host= amd64 Guest= x86, nonSxS, pkt {l:8 b:31bf3856ad364e35}

Code:

2020-06-27 16:07:15, Info                  CSI    0000029b Warning: Overlap: Directory \??\C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\ is owned twice or has its security set twice   Original owner: Microsoft-Windows-shell32, version 10.0.18362.900, arch Host= amd64 Guest= x86, nonSxS, pkt {l:8 b:31bf3856ad364e35}   New owner: Microsoft-Windows-shell32, version 10.0.18362.900, arch Host= amd64 Guest= x86, nonSxS, pkt {l:8 b:31bf3856ad364e35}

Code:

2020-06-27 16:07:15, Info                  CSI    0000029c Warning: Overlap: Directory \??\C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup\ is owned twice or has its security set twice   Original owner: Microsoft-Windows-shell32, version 10.0.18362.900, arch Host= amd64 Guest= x86, nonSxS, pkt {l:8 b:31bf3856ad364e35}   New owner: Microsoft-Windows-shell32, version 10.0.18362.900, arch Host= amd64 Guest= x86, nonSxS, pkt {l:8 b:31bf3856ad364e35}

And:

Code:

2020-06-27 16:09:38, Info                  CSI    000002f9 Hashes for file member [l:24]'System Configuration.lnk' do not match. Expected: {l:32 ml:33 b:8c28fc5469567e6b4bdfcb6813d2de37d11a4da8ee17734b3cb7621a38ce0dcc}. Actual: {l:32 b:36ee4b3269ca7148af2c0875c7a163461ed5159b28bc89625c196d3be70337c9}.

Code:

2020-06-27 16:09:38, Info                  CSI    000002fa [SR] Cannot repair member file [l:24]'System Configuration.lnk' of Microsoft-Windows-MsConfig-Exe, version 10.0.18362.1, arch amd64, nonSxS, pkt {l:8 b:31bf3856ad364e35} in the store, hash mismatch

Code:

2020-06-27 16:09:38, Info                  CSI    000002fb Hashes for file member [l:24]'System Configuration.lnk' do not match. Expected: {l:32 ml:33 b:8c28fc5469567e6b4bdfcb6813d2de37d11a4da8ee17734b3cb7621a38ce0dcc}. Actual: {l:32 b:36ee4b3269ca7148af2c0875c7a163461ed5159b28bc89625c196d3be70337c9}.

Code:

2020-06-27 16:09:38, Info                  CSI    000002fc [SR] Cannot repair member file [l:24]'System Configuration.lnk' of Microsoft-Windows-MsConfig-Exe, version 10.0.18362.1, arch amd64, nonSxS, pkt {l:8 b:31bf3856ad364e35} in the store, hash mismatch

Code:

020-06-27 16:09:38, Info                  CSI    000002fd [SR] This component was referenced by [l:117]'Microsoft-Windows-Client-Features-Package0211~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64~~10.0.18362.900.873e23002b38d32747fd1d837d4c22a8'

Code:

2020-06-27 16:09:38, Info                  CSI    000002fe Hashes for file member [l:24]'System Configuration.lnk' do not match. Expected: {l:32 ml:33 b:8c28fc5469567e6b4bdfcb6813d2de37d11a4da8ee17734b3cb7621a38ce0dcc}. Actual: {l:32 b:36ee4b3269ca7148af2c0875c7a163461ed5159b28bc89625c196d3be70337c9}.

Code:

2020-06-27 16:09:38, Info                  CSI    000002ff Hashes for file member [l:24]'System Configuration.lnk' do not match. Expected: {l:32 ml:33 b:8c28fc5469567e6b4bdfcb6813d2de37d11a4da8ee17734b3cb7621a38ce0dcc}. Actual: {l:32 b:36ee4b3269ca7148af2c0875c7a163461ed5159b28bc89625c196d3be70337c9}.

Code:

2020-06-27 16:09:38, Info                  CSI    00000300 [SR] Could not reproject corrupted file \??\C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Administrative Tools\\System Configuration.lnk; source file in store is also corrupted

Some of there messages seem to concern the Start Menu: I use Classic Shell (Classic Shell - Start menu and other Windows enhancements) so some of the messages may relate to that.

Lastly, there has been no installation of unkown software or new drivers on this PC recently. Windows Update has run from time to time though.

If anyone can provide further information, I would be grateful.

Mr Morgan.

Thanks. I will investigate further.

Oddly enough the Windows Defender icon now appears at boot.