Windows Defender Failed to Initialize

Running Vista Home Premium. When starting the OS, I get an error message
from Windows Defender:

"Application failed to initialize: 0x800106ba. A problem caused Windows
Defender service to stop. To start the service, restart your computer or
search
Help and Support on how to start the service manually."

Attempting to manually start the service brought up another error:

"Windows could not start the Windows Defender service on Local Computer.
Error 0x80092003: An error occurred while reading or writing to a file."

I have uninstalled my third-party (McAfee) security suite so Defender is all
I have on this machine.

I found similar reports on various newsgroups but no solution, workaround or
fix offered.

Any suggestions?

Error message when you run Windows Defender: "Error Code 0x800106ba

Try this
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=931849

This looked right, but doesn’t seem to apply to Vista.
Running appwiz.cpl, Windows Defender doesn't even show up on the list of
installed Program and Features, nor under Windows features to turn on or off.
It is also not listed in the Windows Installer CleanUp utility
(http://support.microsoft.com/kb/290301/). And when I try to reinstall from
http://www.microsoft.com/athome/secu...yware/software, as the KB article
instructs, I get the message “You do not need to install this software
because Windows Defender is included in Windows Vista. You can access
Windows Defender from the Security section of the Windows Control Panel.�

Windows Security Center shows (under “Malware protection�) that Windows
Defender is turned off. “Turn on now� churns for a while, then says,
“Security Center can’t turn on Windows Defender. Please try again later.�

Any other ideas?

I'm not sure about this--but it looks promising--
http://support.microsoft.com/default...b/935511/en-us

You might try this. Go to the main Windows Update window and
click on "Installed Updates" (on the left-hand side of the window, at the
bottom), and then remove "Update for Microsoft Windows (KB931099)" (only).
Reboot. Reboot again. Go back to Windows Update, and re-install the same
update, by clicking on the Check for Updates button.

This should essentially re-install Windows Defender on Vista.

[mano]

I am having the same problems and was wondering if you figure out
the solution. i have try all the suggestion with no luck.

I have a dell studio 15 that I just got new in February. I have experienced a lot of problems with it; mouse pad malfunction, the media controls don't work, and yesterday, I had to do a Image Factory Restore due to a blue screen loop I was caught it. The tech "support" at dell was useless and despite paying for all the "warranties" they insisted that I pay an additional 179.00 before they would even connect me to someone who could help.

After doing the Image Restore yesterday, I turned on my computer this morning and got the Windows Defender Error. I followed the steps and that seems to have stopped that glitch.

Is anyone else experiencing problems with their Dell studios?

I've been having this problem intermittently after automatic updates. This is the first thing to fix it without a ton of work.

You could try this.

Go to Control Panel (Classic View) > Windows Update. Click on Change
Settings. Choose "Never check for updates (not recommended)". Un-check the
box under "Recommended updates". Click on Okay. Close Windows Update.

Go to Control Panel (Classic View) > Windows Firewall. Click on Change
Settings. Choose "Off (not recommended)". (Apply, OK). Close Windows
Firewall.

Try starting Windows Defender (Start Menu\Programs). If it starts, click on
the down-arrow to the right of the Help icon, and choose "Check for
updates". Let Defender check and download the update.

If Defender does not open, or if it opens, but doesn't download the update,
go to http://www.microsoft.com/security/portal/

Under "Latest Definition Updates", choose your operating system type, 32-bit
or 64-bit, and try the manual download. Note here the instructions
pertinent to Vista: http://www.microsoft.com/security/portal/ADL.aspx#top

Hoping this works, but either way, re-enable Windows Firewall and put your
Windows Update settings back the way they were.

vista settings for windows defender.

In Control Pannel you will see 1 cog wheel this is the Administrative Tools pannel once in this pannel then look for the 2 cogs icon this is the services then open this and then look down the list to find the windows defender select this in the list then to the left you can see stop service and restart service select restart service then use right mouse button and select properties from list and in the startup type use the drop down box and select Automatic. then cilck apply then restart pc or laptop.

I tried the regcure, but you have to pay for it and I believe that this
is a Windows Vista Problem that should be fixed by Microsoft. However,
try the following steps and do it yourself without paying for it.

1 Go to control Panel and click on Administrative tools.
2 Click on services and a new windows will appear.
3 Look up for windows defender and right click on it, click on
properties and select automatic, it should be on manual, change it to
automatic and click apply then o.k. and will take you back to the
services windows.
4 Windows Defender should be highlighted and on the left hand side of
the services windows, should be 2 links, click restart.
5 Close all windows and open Windows Defender, it should work without a
problem and your popup window at start up will not be display any
longer.

1) Open the Run command by pressing win + r and type in services.msc
2) In services windows scroll down to look for windows defender
3) Right click on windows defender and change the start up type to
Automatic and click on apply
4) Click on the start service button as well
5) Restart the system & issue should be resolved.

Copy paste each of the following, one after the other in Vista's start menu search bar and hit Enter.

regsvr32 wuaueng.dll
regsvr32 wucltui.dll
regsvr32 softpub.dll
regsvr32 wintrust.dll
regsvr32 initpki.dll
regsvr32 wups.dll
regsvr32 wuweb.dll
regsvr32 atl.dll
regsvr32 mssip32.dll

[brentski]

As many have found out recently,that there's a fake virus pop-ups going around claiming you need "Microsoft Security Service" to fix all the fake pop-up viruses it states your PC has (mine said I had over 25)for a mewre $89.

I found out quite by accident, that my windows defender wasn't working(never thought to check it) as I have Cox and their "McAfee Security Suite" of products that comes with Cox's service.

Again,and quite by accident while checking the services running under 'Task Mgr'. that 'windows defender' was 'stopped'.

I rt. clicked it,turned it on,ran a scan thast found the virus,deleted it,and I haven't had a problem with any of the virus pop-ups since.(used to have them constantly all day)

However, every time I rebooted my PC I found that Windows defender was turned off for some reason.

The fix up above resolved this problem so I don't have to go in and manually turn on defender every time I reboot.

[Jamiendarrell]

Ok mine also failed. I get error code 0x80072efe? Anyone know what to do?