Unable to turn on Window Defender on Windows 8

[Kharbanda]

I need some help to fix issue with Windows Defender. I am not having any antivirus in my PC. So it is the only thing I have to keep my system protected from virus. It is not turning on at all. I enabled it a number of time but it does not looks like working properly. I tried to test all the settings, verified update also but still it is not working. I need some help here. Till yet there are no virus in the system. The system was just formatted a month ago. So there must be no issue at all. But Defender here fails to work.

[Clarice]

Try to run system restore. There can be some issue. And what is wrong with using a free antivirus. There are ample of them are available and many of them are free. Just download any popular free antivirus in your system and install the same. That will be more appropriate I think.

[Loveyboo]

Yes you must keep a antivirus in your system. Or else your system is not secure at all. You cannot just depend on Windows Defender here. Instead of messing with that download and install Microsoft Security Essential in your system. This is a free antivirus by Microsoft which has its own integrated defender. It is powerful enough to scan and protect your system from different kinds of threats. You must simply download and update it. Along with this you can use a separate antivirus also. MSE works fine here with different security applications. In my system I am having MSE with AVG. I had installed a free edition of AVG 2013 which offers a single pc protection and is also quiet reliable. So you simply get a kind of dual protection here. It is essential that you must get a good antivirus in your system. Here free are limited in features while compare to that full version are more better and has everything in it. There are lots of cheaper antivirus in the market. As per my experience Eset Nod32 is best among them. I had used Trend Micro also. But it freezes the system lot. It is not good for old pc, and compare to that ESET works fine. It is light weight and has ample of cleaning options to keep your system secure. I hope you can get a good set of security tools and you can just ignore the defender issue.

[Ticod]

The issue can be with some updates. Try to run fresh windows update and test back. I think that will allow you to fix the problem. System restore can give you temporary relief here. But that is not the proper solution. Just check for updates and then test back.

[Vitel]

As per my experience if you have any third party security application in your pc then it conflicts with Defender. I got this issue on Vista. I am not sure about the new version. When you remove it the system works fine. While the above guys says confidently that Defender works well with third party security application. I do not agree with the same. It is essential that you must clean your system and wipe out all security applications in your pc. You can then go with manual setup which will help you more. Manual setup overwrites the setup of damage files and works really fine. In my pc when I was facing the issue, McAfee was installed at that time. I cannot remove the same at any condition because that is the only system protection I was having. It was a full internet security pack with 1 year subscription. I ignored defender settings and there was no issue. McAfee is a good antivirus capable of keeping the system protected from different kind of internet security threats. There is no actual reason available on the web about this issue. I had seen ample of threads based on this on Microsoft forums also.

[Iquau]

Yes there is no exact cause what conflict is causing defender to fail. I had installed Vista on my system back again and on start it looks to be working. But it is more safer to go with a third party internet security pack to stay on the safer side. I do not think this is the only solution.

[Sitia]

I had upgraded from Vista to Windows 7 long ago. I was getting the same issue. I was using a free edition of AVG after when Defender simply failed to work properly. Defender just turns of automatically with some reason. First I found the issue associated with updates. But even after installing them manually it was not resolved. The last thing I did is simply installed Windows 7 and then installed MSE. MSE is lightweight and more better than defender here. I had also added a separate free antivirus. It is avira. Now there is no problem at all. The scanning here goes well. Keeping a third party antivirus help you to keep your system more secure. I do not think MSE is completely upto the mark to protect the system. Threats are getting advance day by day and getting a new version of antivirus is also important here to protect the files.