Windows 10: Windows is not letting me run Windows Defender...Do I have a virus?

It's getting pretty suspicious. I've tried almost everything I've found on activating my Windows Defender. I've uninstalled MalwareBytes for sure the only third-party malware software I had and restarted my computer kind of stupid that there's no neat remover like that just to make sure. I've tried starting the running of Windows Defender Antivirus Service in the Services registry, and it just gives me an error:





I've tried running the latest security intelligence update, but it fails:





I've tried all kinds of things in Command Prompt, but it doesn't recognize many of the file paths:





I've tried manually installing a Windows Defender update, but it doesn't launch...





At this point, I'm just getting heavily suspicious that I have a virus, or is Windows just this unnecessarily complicated?? Please help...

:)

 

Windows defender's process running despite it being disabled.

Windows Defender is integrated within Windows 10. So you have it and it is running (as it should be) unless you installed a 3rd party "real-time" anti-malware solution. If you are using an alternative security solution, it should have registered itself with Windows Action Center which would then disable the real-time component of Windows Defender - unless you specifically told the 3rd party solution not to register itself.

For example, if you purchased Malwarebytes "Premium", it has a real-time scanner (the free version does not). When you install Malwarebytes Premium, it registers itself in Windows Action Center. But because Malwarebytes and Windows Defender play very well together without hogging resources or causing conflicts, it is often recommended to allow each to run at the same time. So to allow that, the user has to manually go into the Malwarebytes control panel Settings menu and select the option to "Never register Malwarebytes in the Windows Action Center".

I suspect other 3rd party solutions provide similar options so you might check that out if you did indeed, install a 3rd party security solution.

Both Windows Update and Windows Defender are supposed to step way back in to the background so they do not interfere with system performance when you are actively using your computer. But this is not always possible, especially if you regularly shut down your computer when you step away from it (instead of just letting it go to sleep), as too much time may have passed and your system is too far behind in Windows and security updates.

Without you noting which program was actually consuming the lion's share of that 80%, there's no way to tell what, at this point, was causing the problem. However, I would not put it past a browser. Chrome, for example, is very good (or bad, I should say) at eating up a lot of RAM and failing to let it go when exited.

 

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:
https://forum.raymond.cc/threads/let-your-windows-8-defender-update-itself-automatically.34359/

 

Windows Defender Released

Microsoft has released the final version of its Windows Defender anti-spyware utility. Windows Defender is a product of the Microsoft acquisition of GIANT Software. Previously known as Windows AntiSpyware, after a two years beta period it's now available for Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 under the name Windows Defender. Windows Defender incorporates Real-Time Protection to monitor systems for spyware activity, automated spyware removal with scheduled scans, full integration with Internet Explorer 7.0 and automatic spyware definition updates from Microsoft. Windows Defender is available freely to all customers running a genuine copy of Windows. Microsoft has also announced that customers will each be allowed to report two support incidents for free with Windows XP and Windows Server 2003.

Source: DailyTech