Windows 10: Cannot turn on Windows Defender... Please tell what to do. I am very afraid.

First of all, I would like to tell you that I have never ever installed any third party antivirus software.

Stating from the begining,

Yesterday 20 - July - 2020, I installed an app from outside of Microsoft Store probably a virus, I am not sure because I had scanned the installer before installing it with windows defender, and it found nothing. And after that I had uninstalled it using control panel because I was scared. After the uninstallation of the program, I updated my virus definitions. Before all this i.e. Yesterday at 12:00 p.m. IST, everything was working fine.


I don't know that this is the cause of the application or the update, but I want to fix it because I am feeling very insecure now. Even while writing this post, my hands were shaking. Please help me.


Unable to understand anything, I shut down my laptop. So all the screenshots that I you will see will be of today 21 - July - 2020.

And then I thought of scanning my laptop for viruses. But then, I was shocked to see that Virus protection is turned off. I tried to turn it on manually by Services, but then I found that I had no control over some services... everything was freezed in their properties panel.





Then I thought of SFC. It found some corrupted files and fixed it.


Windows Resource Protection found corrupt files and successfully repaired them.

For online repairs, details are included in the CBS log file located at

windir\Logs\CBS\CBS.log. For example C:\Windows\Logs\CBS\CBS.log. For offline

repairs, details are included in the log file provided by the /OFFLOGFILE flag.


But still I cannot turn Windows Defender on.

Then I thought of Group Policy Editor. Below are the Screenshots of policies.







Then I thought of Registry Editor. I have attached the screenshots below.




















I thought of starting the service via PowerShell net start "WinDefend". The error message came.





After trying all this, I tried to turn on Virus Protection, but still that error message came.







Please help me, I am very very afraid. And please tell me a solution that will not erase my data, because I have stored all of my childhood memories in this laptop in the form of pictures and videos. I don't want to loose them.

My system specs are:




:)

 

How do I turn on Windows defender

Hi,



I realized your concern and will assist you to resolve the issue.



If there are any third party security software installed, then Windows Defender will get disabled automatically.

I suggest you to follow the steps below and check if it help:

• Open Settings by either clicking on the Settings icon on the Start menu or simultaneously pressing Windows and I keys.
• Click on Update & Security.
• Click on Windows Defender, and on the left right side, turn on.

Your reply is very important for us to ensure a proper resolution. Please get back to us with the above information in order to assist you accordingly.

Thanks and regards.

 

please i cannot turn on defender in windows 10 and computer is running

Please I cannot turn on windows 10 defender and computer is running very slow

 

Cannot Turn-on Windows Defender

Hello,

Thank you for posting your query on Microsoft Community.

As per description, you are facing issue with Windows defender not turning on.

I understand your concern and will assist you to resolve this issue.

• 
  Did you make any changes prior to this issue?
  
• 
  Have you installed any anti-virus software?
  

I would suggest you to follow the methods given below and check.

Method 1:

Windows Defender won't run if it detects any third party security software on your machine.
If you have any third party security software installed on your system, please remove that and check the issue.

If issue still persists try method 2,

Method 2:

I suggest you try restarting Windows Defender service and check if issue is resolved. To do so kindly follow the below given steps:

• Press Windows key + R key and type services.msc,
  hit enter.
• Search Windows Defender Service.:1) Windows Defender Service ; 2)
  Windows Defender Network.
• Right click on each and press Start.
• Restart your computer and check if issue persist.

Hope this information is helpful. Please feel free to reply in case you face any other issues with Windows in future.