ceandra

My issue was coincident with MWB, but I cannot definitively say MWB caused it. I am thankful to the assistance received in trying to recover. In my case, once MWB trial ended, I stated getting notifications that no AV was active. The notification took me to the Defender setup, but I could not restart defender, either here or in Services, even after reboots. It is certainly possible that the malicious code that I received, for which I installed MWB to remove, caused all of the issues. Without certainty as to whether MWB caused the problem, the support staff still worked with me to try to re-enable Defender. Kudos. Chuck

I normally do use Windows Image Backup. I had not yet on this, because it was a new computer, Defender went bad while still in the setup process. Once I have the rest of my software loaded (I had not finished) I will do an image as a new starting point. I did have the image from prior computer, as well as an image I took before re-installing Windows (though it was already having issues, so no sense in restoring that image) Chuck

In the end, I did a full install of windows 10 using latest install media, and then restoring my documents and re-installing all software. Painful, but it fixed the issue, and removed the bloatware that came with the computer. Thanks for trying to diagnose. Cannot be sure MWB was the cause of the issue, no way to know going forward. But I appreciate the efforts you put in to trying to solve. Chuck

I tried the fresh start. It got 90% done, then reported "There was a problem resetting your PC. No changes were made" Downloading iso to a DVD to try other routes. Probably will have to do entirely clean install. What a Pain. Chuck

I'll wait and see if LT has any more suggestions. Looks like a truly clean installation, without HP Bloatware, is possible through the "fresh start" option on the Settings pages. Will have to re-install all software, but since this is fairly new computer, that won't be too hard. Chuck

LT: I too had the same thought, but wanted to wait until I heard back from you. I did the install, taking all defaults. This means it was set to keep all my data and apps (repair install). However, the results after this are the same, Defender will not start. I re-did most of the scans asked for above, and results attached. Before gathering the logs I re-ran MalWareBytes scan, nothing found. The Query.txt command line above does not find the registry entry it is trying to read. Is a clean/full install next? If I do that from the same install package, what settings should I change (I presume it can be done from there, by selecting the "change what I keep" link?)?. Or should I do a factory reinstall? Would be just as happy to not have all the HP junk installed if I do clean install. Would prefer not to do this, hoping you have something else to try. One other note: When I go to Settings, Windows Security, Virus and Threat Protection, sometimes (first time) it pops up and says the IT department policies prevent me from going to this page, but it lets me in anyway (pop-up disappears). Since this is a home machine, there should be no IT department! Thanks Chuck mbst-grab-results.zip query2.txt mb-cbs-log.txt

LT: Thanks again for helping out. Results of batch file are attached. In addition, attempting to start the service results in an error (unexpected error), I captured the screen and attached as well.The Defender update still faiels to work. Windows update 2018 11 still shows failed. Virus and Threat Protection in settings still fails. Thanks again for helping with diagnostics. Chuck query2.txt

update 2019 01 just installed without issue today, but it never shows 2018 11 as successfully installing Chuck

LT: Thank you for your rapid help! I have completed the scans you requested and results are attached. I also noted that in Windows Update, two updates were failed, as well as a defender definitions. I retired the updates multiple times, and one took last night (I don't recall all the things I tried, one was a clean boot), but the last one will not happen successfully. I am attaching screen grabs of the failed (and successful) updates. Hoping this is the root and can be fixed! Thanks again for your prompt attention. Chuck mb-cbs-log.txt query.txt

PS: When I try to manually stop and restart the Security Center service, it shows as "running", but the options to stop or restart are greyed out and I cannot manually cycle the service

Logs attached mbst-grab-results.zip

Hello: I installed the 14-day trial on December 31 in order to address a potential malware issue. When the trial ran out on the 14th, I started getting notifications that no AV program was enabled. I had been using Defender. This is on Windows 10 Home 64-bit. I followed the tests on https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/protect/forum/protect_defender-protect_start/problems-starting-windows-defender-in-windows/808253bb-db89-4db9-a4e5-1c91a86489e9, but still cannot start Defender again. It indicates the "Threat Service has stopped. Restart it Now", but after some time it comes back and says an undefined error. I tried removing MalWareBytes via the apps in setup, no better. I also tried running the MalWareBytes cleanup tool, again no improvement. I tried multiple times rebooting in between these various steps. I also tried looking for a restore point, but found none before the 12/31 install (this is a new computer). Are there known issues with MWB and Defender? I thought they worked OK together. How can I restore operation of Defender? Thanks Chuck