How to activate Windows Security

Question

How to activate Windows Security

Anonymous

After a glitchy Windows Update, Windows Security was disabled by default. And after finally succeeding in updating Windows, I can no longer turn on Windows Security.

I've followed the instructions of this page,namely the section "Turn Microsoft Defender Antivirus real-time protection on or off". However, Manage settings or Virus & threat protection > Virus & threat protection settings options were unavailable. Here's a screenshot:

Maybe I'm blind, but it doesn't seem to be there. I've also tried to click on Settings -> Manage Providers, and this is what happens when I click on Antivirus. There's no option to activate anything even though it clearly states Microsoft Defender is off.

I've also tried going to Protection History and here is what I get:

When I try to click on Restart now, absolutely nothing happens. I tried to do it several times and checked each times and nothing happens.

So, any idea how I may turn Microsoft Defender/Antivirus on?

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Answer 1

Greetings,

My name is Rhaine, I'm Independent Community Advisor. I’m so glad assisting you today

I am also Windows user. I can certainly understand how important about the security of your computer.

You can try these steps to turn it back on.

Open the run box Windows key + R
When the run box opens type “cmd”
Right click on the command prompt and select run as administrator.
Copy, paste, and enter this command:

REG DELETE "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows Defender" /v DisableAntiSpyware

Once done restart your pc and try to turn on the Windows Defender again.

Have a nice day ahead be safe.

Warm Regards,

Rhaine C.

Answer 2

Well I've tried that, and by the way when doing so it asked me if I wanted to disable it permanently with a yes/no answer. I typed yes.

The good thing is that now everything that I guess should be on the Virus and Threat protection page is actually appearing and also I could now enable real time protection.

What confuses me is that the page is all glitchy, and this:

I'm this pc's sole administrator because this is my pc and I'm its only user. The same message appeared for real-time protection and cloud delivered protection, but luckily it went away after refreshing the page. I've tried restarting the PC to see if this one would clear out, and it didn't. What can I do about this?

Thank you for your help enabling real time protection, otherwise.

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How to activate Windows Security

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