Reinstall Windows Defender??

Vista Home Premium. I uninstalled Windows Defender and now cannot reinstall
it as the installer says "Vista already includes Defender"

Is there a work around to my dumb mistake???

Perhaps you were told the truth and don't need it.

Yes I get the joke..however Vista places a red security icon in the tray
when defender is not running.

Im intrigued 'how' you managed to uninstall it ?

Also in windows alerts, do you not have the tick box, I already have and
will monitor myself ?

Thanks for reviving a dead 2 year old post.

Hey, I too was victim to this situation, and was reluctant to do a clean install just to regain the functionality of Windows defender built in to Vista (unknown to me), as with all prior versions you were able to uninstall and reinstall as a stand alone program. After finishing the Vista premium upgrade my anti-virus program recommended to turn it off (as it has spyware scanning built in) so I figured why not uninstall....right! Wrong! I should have done some research first, but to make a long story shorter, all you have to do is set 3 hours aside, when you have the time and run the setup off of the Vista installation DvD from the Vista desktop (do not boot from the DvD or a clean install is your only option), this way the program installer will let you repeat an upgrade retaining all your info you have as it did in the original upgrade. The only down side is like I said earlier you have to wait out the rather long installation process again. It worked like a charm for me.

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Do you think this might work with Silverlight too, as I seem to have misplaced Windows Defender AND Silverlight

hehe...sorry, didn't notice that~

I don't think you uninstalled it. It's impossible on Vista. It doesn't show up on the add and remove program menu but if you look in your programs folder in your c drive you'll find out. If it is not working try restarting the service under administrative tools.

thanks rick

It is possible to uninstall Windows Defender if the installation was an
upgrade from XP. It is not possible to uninstall it from a clean install of
Vista. Once removed though, as the OP now knows, you cannot reinstall it.

I uninstalled windows defender inadvertently when trying to get the Green AV virus off my vista machine. I have malewarebyte's anti-virus running now but was thinking about re-installing windows defender. Question: if I run windows defender do also need MacAfee or something similiar? I got the green AV virus because I was tricked into clicking install, even tho windows defender asked me if I really wanted to proceed....

Thx
Pete

Just install AvastAV ( free) .