Question Unable to turn on Avast Premium or Windows Defender ?

[garfield411]

Hi havent posted here in years. But I always came here for help and it was great. My mothers laptop started locking up when it got to the login screen. I mean keyboard was not responding as well as the mouse so it could be either. Now my mother said the week before the mouse was not working and then it started to work. It's a generic USB mouse.

It took a few days but i was able to clone the harddrive then restored to a date previous to the mouse issue. Now I've installed Avast Premium and it says I'm protected but in the security center is says that Avast Spyware Detection is turned off. But I also see that Windows Defender is also turned off.

I try to start it and it says program is restricted by group policy. The error code is 0x800704ec. My mother has the HP 450 Probook running Windows 7. Yes i know its old but my mother isn't good with change as she's over 75.

So if anyone can help. Thanks in advance

 

[Ralston18]

The immediate question is Windows 7. It is no longer supported and more than obsolete.

For Windows 7 you would need to install the old Microsoft Security Essentials. Not a very effective app.

You should be able to use your Admin account on her laptop to install Microsoft Security Essentials.

However, I am not certain if installation is still possible and functional afterwards.

That all said, the following Microsoft link may prove helpful:

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/mem/intune/user-help/turn-on-defender-windows

From the link:

1. Select Disabled or Not configured. It might feel counter-intuitive to select these options because the names suggest that you're turning off Microsoft Defender Antivirus. Don't worry, these options actually ensure that it's turned on.

 

[garfield411]

The immediate question is Windows 7. It is no longer supported and more than obsolete.

For Windows 7 you would need to install the old Microsoft Security Essentials. Not a very effective app.

You should be able to use your Admin account on her laptop to install Microsoft Security Essentials.

However, I am not certain if installation is still possible and functional afterwards.

That all said, the following Microsoft link may prove helpful:

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/mem/intune/user-help/turn-on-defender-windows

From the link:

1. Select Disabled or Not configured. It might feel counter-intuitive to select these options because the names suggest that you're turning off Microsoft Defender Antivirus. Don't worry, these options actually ensure that it's turned on.

So I was looking in security center and what it actually says is that the spyware program within avast is off but avast antivirus is reporting "you are protected". Im going to look at group policies and see of o can change that setting. Thanks