Windows 10: Microsof Defender Antivirus Disabled

Windows 10 Home 22H2. Microsoft Defender Antivirus became disabled somehow while I was troubleshooting a GPU problem. At present, I cannot reactivate Windows Defender Antivirus. The on-off switch is grayed out under "Real time Protection" in Virus Threats and Protection Settings page. "Tamper Protection" on this page is also off and grayed out inoperable, so I cannot enable "Control Folder Access" which is off, and grayed out. I'm the sole user of this PC, and the Administrator, but Windows instructs me that only the Administrator can change these settings, or suggests I contact IT Helpdesk

:)

 

Windows Defender disables itself

Hi,

Thank you for contacting Microsoft Community.

I understand that you are facing the issue on Windows defender.

I will certainly help you with this.

I would like to inform you that if you have other antivirus on your computer, so Windows defender automatically

disable itself.

If you don’t have any other antivirus on computer then I would suggest you to check the services for Windows defender:

Steps:

• 
  Close all application and program and reboot the computer.
  
• 
  Press Windows key+R.
  
• 
  Type services.msc and press enter.
  
• 
  From the list, you will see two services for Windows defender.
  
• 
  Right click on both the services one at a time.
  
• 
  Click on properties.
  
• 
  Under general tab, select automatic from startup type.
  
• 
  Click on start and then click on apply and then ok.
  
• 
  Reboot the computer and check if it helps.
  

I hope this helps. Please post back with the status of the issue and we will be glad to assist you further.

 

Defender AntiVirus

There are 4 options under Defender. Two refer to AntiVirus; AntiVirus Network Inspection Service & AntiVirus Services. Under Startup Type these two are listed as manual and the Status column said Inspection Service is running. When I clicked on the Start
button in Properties, I got an immediate message: "Win.. Def.. Anti.. Serv.. on local comp.. started and then stopped. Some services stop automatically if they are not in use by other services or programs."

 

How to stop “windows defender antivirus service”?

Hello, *Smile

If you are wanting to turn off Windows Defender Antivirus, then you could use an option in the updated tutorial below. Be sure to turn off Tamper Protection first in step 1.

Turn On or Off Windows Defender Antivirus in Windows 10