Defender 'turned off' and 'does not exist' Win7-64

[soxxboxx]

After all-in-one successfully solved a turned off & blocked windows firewall,  I noticed that Defender was absent

Defender is nowhere to be found in the control panel's Action Center.   A Search in the control panel for 'defender' finds the program, and when double clicked, an info window reports "The program is turned off"  When I click on "click here to turn it on", a red-X info window reports "The specified service does not exist as an installed service.  (Error Code:  0x80070424).
 
Microsoft offers more goose chases, none that work.  Any help welcome.
 
Win7-64, HP DV6 laptop, w/malwarebytes, mcafee & superantispy

[Willy2]

If you have an AV program installed then you don't need Defender. That is probably the reason why Defender has been switched off/removed.

You don't need to install multiple AV programs. It will slow down your system more. One AV suffices. I have AVAST installed and Malwarebytes. AVAST is protecting my system in real-time and I run Malwarebytes (free version) every 2 weeks.

Does your AV program have a firewall as well ? Then you can switch off Microsoft Firewall as well.

[Shane]

Correct, you dont need defender if you have an AV already installed.

At the same time though it wouldn't just disappear. Normally a virus will remove it.

Have you ran the malwarebytes anti rootkit tool yet? It is different than their normal scanner.

Shane

[Willy2]

@SoxxBoxx:
- How many files does the folder "c:\program files\windefender" and/or "c:\program files (x86)\windefender" contain ? And which files ?
- Unzip the folder in the attachment and place the files in the "files" subfolder of WR. Run the *.bat file. Perhaps it will repair WinDefender.

If this helps you then it give us a good indication how WR can be improved.

[Shane]

I found a fix for this, do you still need help?

Shane

[Willy2]

@SoxxBoxx: did you try the latest WR version (v1.9.16) ?  It can solve a number of WinDefender problems. Your experiences with the latest version would help to improve WR even more.