Windows Virus and Threat protection will not turn on

NutJob3869 · May 18, 2018

I have been having this problem for a while now but a recent hiccup (not virus related, just me being stupid related) in my PC made me more conscious of my PC's health and I remembered that windows Virus and Threat protection is borked on my PC, it happened after I uninstalled 360 security, a program I had installed on the recommendation of my brother but I got tiered of the pop-ups every time I started my PC and thought that whatever windows provides would be sufficient, so I uninstalled it. Since then whenever I start up my PC it reminds me to turn Virus and Threat protection on then when I do it goes on for about a minute then turns the virus protection off, I have checked my list of installed programs to check that there aren't any remnants of 360 security stopping it from working, at least that i can find, to be clear this is not an emergency as I rarely download anything that isn't from a trusted source eg. Steam, it's just for more piece of mind. What do?

Tabs · May 18, 2018

49 minutes ago, NutJob3869 said:

I have been having this problem for a while now but a recent hiccup (not virus related, just me being stupid related) in my PC made me more conscious of my PC's health and I remembered that windows Virus and Threat protection is borked on my PC, it happened after I uninstalled 360 security, a program I had installed on the recommendation of my brother but I got tiered of the pop-ups every time I started my PC and thought that whatever windows provides would be sufficient, so I uninstalled it. Since then whenever I start up my PC it reminds me to turn Virus and Threat protection on then when I do it goes on for about a minute then turns the virus protection off, I have checked my list of installed programs to check that there aren't any remnants of 360 security stopping it from working, at least that i can find, to be clear this is not an emergency as I rarely download anything that isn't from a trusted source eg. Steam, it's just for more piece of mind. What do?

It wouldn't surprise me if this is intended by the developers of that software. Why would you install an antivirus made by a no-name Chinese company?

You may have uninstalled it, but if it has left any remnants whatsoever, registry entries, loaded DLL's, injected processes, it could easily be preventing Windows Defender from starting up again. Windows Defender won't run if it detects another antivirus installed.

NutJob3869 · May 19, 2018

10 hours ago, Tabs said:

It wouldn't surprise me if this is intended by the developers of that software. Why would you install an antivirus made by a no-name Chinese company?

You may have uninstalled it, but if it has left any remnants whatsoever, registry entries, loaded DLL's, injected processes, it could easily be preventing Windows Defender from starting up again. Windows Defender won't run if it detects another antivirus installed.

The reason I installed it is because by brother recommended it to me and I trust him when it comes this kind of stuff, he still uses it, also the software is completely free so I doubt that the company cared much if I kept it on my system. The thing that confuses me is that when 360 security was installed I didn't get any of these alerts, so windows virus protection knows there is no antivirus installed now but if I am understanding what you are saying it can't start because it detects another antivirus, even though it knows there isn't one, that's why it's sending the alerts. Do you know where such remnants might be because my computer doesn't contain any file that is named '360 security' or anything like that so I'm not sure how I would find them.

Tabs · May 19, 2018

4 minutes ago, NutJob3869 said:

The reason I installed it is because by brother recommended it to me and I trust him when it comes this kind of stuff, he still uses it, also the software is completely free so I doubt that the company cared much if I kept it on my system. The thing that confuses me is that when 360 security was installed I didn't get any of these alerts, so windows virus protection knows there is no antivirus installed now but if I am understanding what you are saying it can't start because it detects another antivirus, even though it knows there isn't one, that's why it's sending the alerts. Do you know where such remnants might be because my computer doesn't contain any file that is named '360 security' or anything like that so I'm not sure how I would find them.

You could try running System Restore to back before you installed that antivirus. The remnants of it could be anywhere, and they could be named or registered as anything - without installing the program with tracing enabled it's impossible to know for sure where or what files it's placed on the system.

Alternatively, you could try running the Windows Update troubleshooter, as that apparently fixes issues with Defender too.