Windows 10: Windows Defender Antivirus Service - Mix of Manual and Automatic Win 10 v1903 x64

We have an application problem that the vendor blames on Windows Defender Antivirus. We use Group Policy to disable Windows Defender going back to Windows 7 because we use a non-Microsoft antivirus product whose documentation said to disable. So I was quite surprised that on this employee's PC to find the Windows Defender Antivirus service set to Automatic. I checked several systems and sometimes the service is set to Manual and other times it is set to Automatic. Resultant Set of Policies shows that the setting is correct and the registry key that supports this matches. PCs in the same OU as well I always use RSoP to verify group policy is applying.


Any thoughts on why the service would not be set identically on all systems who have the same GPO set? All of these systems were originally 1809 and upgraded to 1903 and the GPO setting has been in place going back before Windows 10 was adopted.


Any thoughts on how to get the service set to Manual since the UI for Windows Defender is not available? Tamper Protection is enabled per https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/security/threat-protection/microsoft-defender-antivirus/prevent-changes-to-security-settings-with-tamper-protection#turn-tamper-protection-on-or-off-for-an-individual-machine and we do not have Intune licenses.


GPO Setting:

Location: Computer Configuration - Administative Templates - Windows Components - Windows Defender Antivirus

Setting: Turn off Windows Defender Antivirus - Set to Enabled Enabled = it is not supposed to run or scan

:)

 

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."

 

Windows Defender Not Working in Windows 10

Hi,

Thank you for using Windows 10.

Sorry for the delayed reply. I suggest you to Set Windows Defender to Automatic - You can set the Windows Defender service to Automatic, Disabled or Manual. Setting it to automatic might solve the problem. Follow these
steps:

• Click Start > type services in the Search box > click Services in the Programs list.
• Search for Windows defender.
• Double-click Windows Defender, and click Automatic in the start-up box > click OK.

Also, follow the below mentioned steps and check:

• Open the Task manager. Here’s a tip: Press CTRL+Shift+ESC.
• Click File > Run New Task
• Make sure you have a check mark beside “Create this task with administrative privileges”
  
• Type CMD
• Type the following 2 commands at the CMD prompt:
  
  dism /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth
  
  sfc /scannow
  
  
• Close the CMD window

Keep us posted on the status of the issue and we’ll be glad to help.

 

Vista Automatic Updating Error

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