Windows Defender Will Not Load

Question

Hello,

I have been scavenging the Microsoft forums, going through every single thread I can find trying to fix my issue. My Windows Defender service appears as an application, is there on startup with a "!" in yellow on its little icon and when I try to start the application, it is stuck on the loading screen with the blue shield. I have tried EVERYTHING, rebooted my PC numerous times and to no avail. I have done the restart and repair, used windows + R, ran fixes through the cmd prompt, registry editor, PowerShell, tried booting in safe mode, downloading the securityhealthsetup.exe file thing and every fix I could find. Nothing. Has. Worked. It also seems I have lost my administrator privileges as I cannot edit anything, yet I don't see how that's possible when I have the only account on my PC and even tried fixing that, came up with the same result. NOTHING. It would seem my computer is not defended nor is it mine???

If anyone can help me fix this, it would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

James

Answer 1

Hi James Granson,

Thanks for your post. Please try the following steps at first:

1. Disable any third-party antivirus on your PC, then restart it, and then check.
2. Run the Windows Security Troubleshooter:

Click Start Menu > Settings > System > Troubleshoot.

Look and run the Windows Security troubleshooter.

3. Repair Windows Defender:

Right-click the Start Menu and click Windows PowerShell (Admin)

copy and paste the command below and hit enter:

Get-AppXPackage | Foreach {Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register "$($_.InstallLocation)\AppXManifest.xml"}

Reboot your PC then check.

Best Regards,

Ian Xue

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