[ RESOLVED ] Windows defender will not work after MBAM trial ended.

[Kodiak]

As the title suggests. This issue is happening on my laptop that had a trial version of premium that expired. I have a desktop with a lifetime license that doesnt have this problem whenever i deactivate it. The services app on the problem laptop seems to say that defender is working and task manager shows some defender processes, but the windows security centre keeps telling me that defender is disabled and i cannot reenable it. Trying to restart it throws up an error that says "unexpected error. Sorry, we ran into a problem. Please try again". No amount of restarting anf sfc scannow commands seem to fix it.

Transferring me license to this computer, windows security centre recognises MBAM but still wont reactivate defender after i have disabled it. MBAM scans detect no malware, so im not sure what the cause might be. Any help would be appreciated.

[Malwarebytes]

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[Kodiak]

Update: I managed to resolve the issue, you may close this thread.

To anyone that stumbles across this thread in the future, what i did to fix it was install the Microsoft Security Scanner and run a quick scan. The scanner will detect something called VirTool:Win32/DefenderTamperingRestore

It is not a virus. More information can be found on this microsoft link https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/wdsi/threats/malware-encyclopedia-description?name=VirTool%3AWin32%2FDefenderTamperingRestore&product=13
After removal, it will restore itself and windows defender should work after a restart.

[Porthos]

1 hour ago, Kodiak said:

Update: I managed to resolve the issue, you may close this thread.

Thanks for the update and your solution.

[Porthos]

Closing this topic as it's been resolved.