Windows 10: Microsoft Defender gone

When I updated my computer a notice popped up and said that my virus definitions were out of date. I went and tried to update my definitions and it said that the Engine is unavailable. So I went and did a search on the web and tried different things to do and non of them have helped. How do I reinstall Defender

:)

 

Why did the startup window get cleared?

I didn't missed any step, the list was gone and gone , even after using lot of programs the programs were not listed in that list.

 

defender scans

Hi Ian,

Thanks for posting your query on Microsoft Community.

This issue might occur if you have set any task scheduler for Windows Defender.

I suggest you to delete the task for Windows defender and check if it helps.

Follow the below steps:

• 
  Search and open Schedule tasks.
  
• 
  In the left-hand menu, open the Task Scheduler Library, then select
  Microsoft >Windows >Windows Defender.
  
• 
  Double-click Windows Defender Scheduled Scan.
  
• 
  Select the Triggers panel, then select Delete.
  

Hope it helps, reply to us with the status of your issue. We will be happy to assist you.

 

Better free alternative to microsoft defender?

Windows Defender, Bill?

Yeah. Same thing. Definitions to stay up to date on threats of course, but thats really just a list of tricks and signatures.

You don't have to be. You just have to be smart enough to break their shit. You can take it apart and reverse engineer it and marvel later (I was impressed by a clients just recently). It's not hard to be up to date enough to keep malware a.) mostly off your machine in the first place and b.) limit it's damage when it does appear to your machine via network and best practices.

Some may call my approach inconvienient, but it DOES work.