Windows defender not turning on windows 7

I am going to be forced to install an antivirus program because of this. I attend college online and I plan to work from home. I would, but I need to use this PC. Please fix this issue! Was this reply helpful? Yes No. Sorry this didn't help. Thanks for your feedback. This browser is no longer supported. Download Microsoft Edge More info. Contents Exit focus mode. Please rate your experience Yes No. Any additional feedback? Submit and view feedback for This product This page.

View all page feedback. It can offer real-time protection from various threats like spyware, malware, and viruses to your PC. Once it scans and finds potential threats, this program will stop them. In addition to the case when Windows Defender could be turned off by group policy, some users said Windows Defender gets an unexpected error and cannot be opened or Windows Defender can't open after uninstalling Avast, Bitdefender, McAfee, AVG.

To put it simply, this issue is possibly caused by the installation of third-party antivirus software, a corrupted registry, software conflicts, and so on. For Windows 7, Windows 8 and Windows 10 users, it is fairly common. Well then, what to do if you are troubled by Windows Defender not working? Take it easy! Get the full solutions from the following part to help you out. Further tip: If your Windows Defender can work normally, but you have a need to disable it, you can watch the following video.

If you have installed any third-party software on your computer, Windows operating system will automatically detect it and turn itself down. Thus, the first thing you can try is to disable your other security programs. How to disable stop or close , remove or uninstall Avast antivirus in Windows and Mac?

This post shows you multiple methods for this work. If that is not working, the best way is to completely remove them. Alternatively, you can use a professional removal tool to uninstall your security applications, remove all files including undetected files and registry entries associated with the application, which may also prevent you from running Windows Defender. Finally, restart your PC and try launching Windows Defender again to see if it can be turned on for virus, spyware and other threats protection.

In order to let Windows Defender work properly, you need to enable certain services. So, follow the instructions to restart necessary services, and here we will show you enabling Security Center service. Step 1: Click Win and R keys on your keyboard to launch the Run box. Step 3: In the Services interface, search for Security Center service and right-click on it to choose the Restart option. Once this service is restarted, you can check if the issue -Windows Defender not starting is solved.

So, you can perform an SFC scan. SFC, known as System File Checker, is a utility in Windows that allows you to scan for corruptions in Windows system files and restore them. How to scan your system files and repair missing or corrupted files? Here are the steps. Then, this utility will begin a system scan. To do that, follow the guide:. Similarly, this scan will take some time, just wait and don't interrupt it. An outdated Windows operating system may cause the issue of Windows Defender not turning on.

Some users reported that they had been able to fix the issue simply by installing the latest Windows update - latest signature updates are necessary for Windows Defender to keep your PC secure.