Cannot Start the Windows Defender Service.ĥ. Windows Defender is turned off or not working. When you try to Turn ON the Windows Defender (or the Security Essentials) the system opens at 'system32' folder.Ĥ.
Cannot Enable Windows Defender or Security Essentials.ģ. Windows Defender (or Security Essentials) is disabled and cannot turn on.Ģ. In this tutorial you can find detailed instructions to resolve the following issues with Windows Defender or Security Essentials on Windows 10, 8 & 8.1:ġ. In other cases, the above issue, can occur if a malicious program has disabled the Windows default protection, in order to compromise your system. At this case the (previously) installed security product has modified the Windows Registry, so the default Windows protection cannot be enabled.
The above issue, commonly occurs if you have installed a different security product on your system, but you have decided to return back to the default Windows security protection ('Windows Defender' on Windows 10 & Windows 8 or 'Security Essentials' on Windows 7). But some users reported that when they click the Antivirus Protection – Turn ON button in Action Center (in Windows 10: Control Panel > Security and Maintenance), Windows Defender will not start but instead the system opens at 'C:\Windows\System32' folder. In a previous tutorial I had described the way to enable Windows Defender on your Windows 7, 8 or 10 based computer.
