Question Windows Defender antivirus missing from PC

[emitfudd]

I have removed Kaspersky from both of my desktop PC's. No need to comment on Kaspersky. I have a separate post about that.

My newer PC is running Defender Antivirus just fine. My old PC from 2016 seems to be missing Defender Antivirus but says the firewall is active. It's entirely possible I found a way to completely remove it from my PC when I set it up back in 2016 but I don't remember for sure. Maybe Defender Antivirus was bundled with Windows 10 after 2016?

Here are my specs for the 2016 PC:

Windows 10 Pro updated to newest 22H2 version
Asus Maximus IX code motherboard
7700K CPU
750 ti GPU
Samsung 960 EVO SSD's
Corsair 32GB ram @ 3000Mhz

This PC is not Windows 11 compatible most likely due to the age of the motherboard.

As of right now this PC has no antivirus other than running a manual scan with Malwarebytes. I was hoping to enable Defender until I decide what/if I am going to use for an AV solution.

 

[punkncat]

I have removed Kaspersky from both of my desktop PC's. No need to comment on Kaspersky. I have a separate post about that.

My newer PC is running Defender Antivirus just fine. My old PC from 2016 seems to be missing Defender Antivirus but says the firewall is active. It's entirely possible I found a way to completely remove it from my PC when I set it up back in 2016 but I don't remember for sure. Maybe Defender Antivirus was bundled with Windows 10 after 2016?

Here are my specs for the 2016 PC:

Windows 10 Pro updated to newest 22H2 version
Asus Maximus IX code motherboard
7700K CPU
750 ti GPU
Samsung 960 EVO SSD's
Corsair 32GB ram @ 3000Mhz

This PC is not Windows 11 compatible most likely due to the age of the motherboard.

As of right now this PC has no antivirus other than running a manual scan with Malwarebytes. I was hoping to enable Defender until I decide what/if I am going to use for an AV solution.

You should either be able to surf to it in settings, or check down in the notification section. Might need to manually tell it to re-enable?

Any time I have uninstalled a third party AV software the cooked in version usually pops a notification and then Windows Update gets it back in order.

 

[emitfudd]

I have no settings to turn it on.

I found this on a windows 10 forum:

OPTION SIX

Enable or Disable Real-time Protection for Microsoft Defender Antivirus using a REG file​

This option is the same as Option Five above and will let you disable Windows Defender Real-time Protection without being prompted it is turned off, and without it getting automatically turned back on later by Windows.

When disabled, you will not be able to do Option One, Option Two, Option Three, or Option Four.

The downloadable .reg files below will add and modify the DWORD value in the registry key below.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows Defender\Real-Time Protection

DisableRealtimeMonitoring DWORD

(delete) = enable
1 = disable


1 Do step 2 (enable) or step 3 (disable) below for what you would like to do.


2. To Enable Real-time Protection for Microsoft Defender Antivirus
This is the default setting.
A) Click/tap on the Download button below to download the file below, and go to step 4 below.

Enable_Windows_Defender_Real-Time_Protection.reg

Download

It didn't work so I must have completely removed it at some point. How do I get it back?

The download link in red above seems to be active so don't click on it as it is an executable file.

 

[COLGeek]

Have you run SFC and DISM to repair possibly corrupted/missing Windows files?

https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb...em-files-79aa86cb-ca52-166a-92a3-966e85d4094e

 

[emitfudd]

I went through a series of 3 update/restarts this morning but now I just checked for updates again and got 2 more. Let me see if that does anything and then report back.

 

[emitfudd]

Still not working. It says "no active antivirus provider".

No option to turn on Defender anywhere.

 

[emitfudd]

Have you run SFC and DISM to repair possibly corrupted/missing Windows files?

https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb...em-files-79aa86cb-ca52-166a-92a3-966e85d4094e

I had to change a lot of registry entries to be compatible with some of my software back in 2016. I'm not going to run SFC because I don't want it changing things and potentially causing more problems. I guess I will just look for another AV solution. Microsoft is a pain.

 

[COLGeek]

I had to change a lot of registry entries to be compatible with some of my software back in 2016. I'm not going to run SFC because I don't want it changing things and potentially causing more problems. I guess I will just look for another AV solution. Microsoft is a pain.

It really sounds like you have a borked Windows install, after you have been trying to trying to hack out a solution for all sorts of "fixes".

A full, clean install would likely resolve many of your matters.

Good luck getting your rig stable and safe.

 

[USAFRet]

I had to change a lot of registry entries to be compatible with some of my software back in 2016.

That sounds like the problem.

Extremely unlikely you can just walk those back.

Sounds like it is time for a fresh OS install.

 

[General_Cool]

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us...-working/c6c13ae0-907e-4211-855d-b76d9521f58b

As with any advice to edit the registry, do so at your own risk...