Windows 10: Virus broke Windows Defender & Windows Updates

Hi everyone,


Recently I have been struck by a pretty nasty Trojan. It was able to remove all 3rd party anti-viruses which I had installed (Bitdefender & Malwarebytes) and it broke Windows Defender and Windows Updates.


After re-installing Malwarebytes it found a Trojan.BitCoinMiner and it succesfully removed it, however, my Windows Defender and Windows Updates are still not working. This is how Windows Defender looks like for me:

http://prntscr.com/lfcx5a

http://prntscr.com/lfcx8g

http://prntscr.com/lfcxcz



You might think that this is how Windows Defender looks normally, but no, you can check by opening Windows Defender for yourself. Besides it looking like this, none of the buttons do anything, e.g. ''Scan now'' won't do anything.


Besides Windows Defender being broken, I also can no longer install updates, I will get an error message displayed. Here yet another picture:

http://prntscr.com/lfcxil


And in case it might help, this is what Malwarebytes found:

http://prntscr.com/lfcxm8


I had also installed other anti-viruses, such as Bitdefender, Kaspersky and Avast, and they all found nothing after Malwarebytes took action. I have tried searching for solutions but until now I haven't had any luck. Apparently it's impossible to ''re-download/install'' Windows Defender, which is a shame.


I know that re-installing Windows will solve the issue, but I really don't want to. I am a student and I need this laptop desperately every day, especially now since I have finals. Besides, I don't want to go through the hassle of re-installing all the drivers.


How will I be able to ''recover'' Windows without losing all files & drivers? Honestly all what needs to be fixed is Windows Defender & Updates.


Hoping to receive some help.



Kind regards,


Leandro V.

:)

 

Windows 10 Anniversary Update Issues

Problems with W10 Anniv auto update:

Mom's: (x58 Xeon 5677) Windows Defender was not turned back on automatically (it was "on" in the 1511 edition) and she had a Trojan. Full system scan to eradicate.
Her Epson printer was knocked off, had to uninstall by Device Manager pull USB cable and reconnect cable. W10 did the rest.

Step-mom's: (HP pre built) Windows Defender not turned back on by default. Her USB Seagate Expansion Drive 2Tb was offline so all backup routines were halted. Had to rerun backup plan. Had her do a full virus scan.

Step-dad's: (Dell Optiplex tweaked upgrades) Windows Defender not turned back on by default. Full Scan.

 

SEtting up automatic updates for windows defender on windows 8

I have found this on the internet en have set up a task for automatic definitions update for Windows Defender but a window pops up when this starts to run.
Is there a way to set this without any window popping up so that it just runs in the background?

Now I'm using
"C:\Program Files\Windows Defender\MpCmdRun.exe" -SignatureUpdate -MMPC

I'm currrently using it as described here:
Let your Windows 8 Defender update itself automatically.

 

What the hell, windows defender?

Correct. This leaves me wondering if the update superseded gpedit settings, because these updates tend to reset a bunch of shit, or if the update broke/ignored that gpedit setting because there was some change to Windows Defender which doesn't respect gpedit changes.

Right. I'm a pretty careful user, and know how to avoid getting viruses. That's not to say I'm invulnerable or something unexpected might not happen sometime, but for me, it's more convenient to disable antivirus software than it is to have one running that constantly thinks my miner is a virus...

@Bill_Bright My problem with Microsoft is that I just want my computer to function the way I want it to. If I change settings, disable stuff, or even make changes Microsoft may think aren't particularly wise, such as disabling Defender, not using another antivirus software, and disabling UAC, I should be able to expect that it will function the same way tomorrow and 10 years from now, provided I don't make any changes myself.