Windows 10: Bug: Notifications Remnants & Defender Off After Antivirus Uninstall

This seems like a bug or, at least, messy leftovers.

I uninstalled Bitdefender Antivirus but it is still showing up in the list of apps to show notifications for.






The Windows Defender services have not started back up either and the settings page is greyed out.






I'm not worried about Windows Defender, I expect I can get it running if I wanted to, just thought I'd point this out.

I would like to get rid of Bitdefender in the notifications list though. Anyone know of a safe registry hack for this?

:)

 

slojoe

Windows Defender will not turn on if you have another antivirus installed or if you had an antivirus installed and you uninstalled it and there are still some remnants of it left on you're PC. More often than not when you uninstall a program the
normal uninstaller does not remove All traces of that program!

 

Windows 10 Security updates

Turning off AVG is not sufficient. You actually need to fully uninstall AVG and then run its removal tool to prevent trouble causing remnants. Windows 10 has Windows Defender which an excellent antivirus with superior compatibility. The new Fall Creators
Edition adds Exploits, Controlled Folder, access and more. And you lose all of that if WD is off.

 

Did you use the BitDefender Uninstall Tool?

Uninstall Bitdefender

 

I did the Uninstall via the Programs and Features applet.

There doesn't seem to be a tool, in that link, for the free version; just trial and paid.

 

Use the Trial version link.

 

It seems like the links for all the Bitdefender products point to the same uninstall tool. The version I had wasn't listed but I ran the tool anyway. Unfortunately there is no change, Bitdefender's still in the notification list, Windows Defender is not running and the settings are still greyed out.

 

It occurred to me that I uninstalled Bitdefender under the buggy KB3074681 update, so that may have been the cause of the issue.

I installed Bitdefender again but to another location. This gave a second Bitdefender entry in the notifications list. I uninstalled it and the second notification entry went as well.

So, I installed Bitdefender for a third time. I installed it to the original location of the first install. No additional entry appeared in the notifications list. I then uninstalled it and low and behold... it's still in the notifications list. Grrr...

I removed all plain text references to Bitdefender from the registry but to no effect.

I suspect this annoying remnant is due to the buggy KB3074681 update.

If anyone has any ideas I'd like to hear them.