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• Windows Defender Offline Not Working Windows 10

Are you encountering Windows Defender not turning on issue? Looking for full solutions to get rid of the trouble? This post will show you how to repair Windows Defender in Windows 10/8/7 so as to use this utility to prevent your PC from viruses. Besides, professional backup software for PC protection will be introduced.

Feb 12, 2019  Windows Defender Offline is a powerful offline scanning tool that runs from a trusted environment, without starting your operating system. This topic describes how to use Windows Defender Offline in Windows 10, Windows 8.1, and Windows 7.

Windows Defender Will Not Turn on Windows 10/8/7

Windows Defender (also called Windows Defender Security Center in Windows 10 1703 or later), a fully integrated part of Windows, is an antivirus program. And it can offer real-time protection from various threats like spyware, malware, and viruses to your PC. Once it scans and finds potential threats, this program will stop them.

However, many users have reported that their Windows Defender can't turn on in Windows 10/8/7 when they try to run this program for virus defense by clicking Turn on button.

One Windows 10 user from tomsguide said:

'A few days back I turned it off completely using group edit policy, but now when I try to put on the real-time protection slider, it asks for permission but then nothing happens..'tomsguide

In addition to the case Windows Defender turned off by group policy, some users said they failed to open Windows Defender with an unexpected error or Windows Defender can't open after uninstalling Avast, Bitdefender, McAfee, AVG.

To put it simply, this issue is possibly caused by the installation of third-party antivirus software, a corrupted registry, software conflicts, and so on. For Windows 7, Windows 8 and Windows 10 users, it is fairly common.

Well then, what if you are troubled by Windows Defender not working? How to turn on Windows Defender in Windows 8/10/7 successfully? Take it easy! Get the full solutions from the following part to help you out.

Further tip: If your Windows Defender can work normally, but you have a need to disable it, you can watch the following video.

How to Repair Windows Defender Windows 10/8/7

Way 1: Uninstall Third-party Antivirus Software

If you have installed any third-party software on your computer, Windows operating system will automatically detect it and turn itself down. Thus, the first thing you can try is to disable your other security programs.

If that is not working, the best way is to completely remove them. To do this, go to Control Panel > Programs and Features in Windows 7 or navigate to Control Panel > Programs > Uninstall a program in Windows 10/8.

Then find your third-party program, right-click on it and choose Uninstall or Uninstall/Change to remove it to get rid of Windows Defender not turning on issue.

Or you can use a professional removal tool to uninstall your security applications as well as remove all files (including undetected files) and registry entries associated with the application that may still prevent you from running Windows Defender.

Finally, restart your PC and try launching Windows Defender again to see if it can be turned on for virus, spyware and other threats protection.

Way 2: Restart the Security Center Service

In order to let Windows Defender work properly, you need to enable certain services. If those services aren't running well, Windows Defender not turning on issue will happen on Windows 10/8/7. So, follow the instructions to restart necessary services, and here we will show you enabling Security Center service.

Step 1: Click Win and R keys on your keyboard to launch the Run box.

Step 2: Input services.msc in the box and press Enter.

Step 3: In Services interface, search for Security Center service and right-click on it to choose Restart option.

Once this service is restarted, you can check if Windows Defender not starting issue is solved.

Way 3: Run an SFC Scan

If Windows Defender will not turn on Windows 10/8/7 with an unexpected error, perhaps there is something wrong with your system files. So, you can perform an SFC scan.

SFC, known as System File Checker, is a utility in Windows, allowing you to scan for corruptions in Windows system files and restore them. How to scan your system files and repair missing or corrupted files? Here are the steps.

Step 1: Type cmd in the search box of Windows 7/8/10 and right-click on it to run this program as administrator.

Step 2: In the Command Prompt window, type sfc /scannow command line and press the Enter key.

Then, this utility will begin a system scan. This process will take some time, so please wait patiently until verification reaches 100%.

Step 3: Later, exit the CMD window to check whether Windows Defender unexpected error is resolved.

In order to fix Windows Defender Antivirus not turning on, you can try using DISM scan instead. To do that, follow the guide:

Step 1: Run Command Prompt as administrator.

Step 2: In the pop-up window, enter DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth and hit Enter to execute this command line. Similarly, this scan will take some time, just wait and don't interrupt it.

Way 4: Install the Latest Update

An outdated Windows operating system may cause Windows Defender not turning on issue. Some reported that they had been able to fix the issue simply by installing the latest Windows update since latest signature updates are necessary for Windows Defender to keep your PC secure.

You must be eager to know the way to recover lost files after Windows update if you find needed files disappear after the update is finished.

Windows Defender Offline Not Working Windows 10

Back up Files or Windows OS before an Update

To back up crucial files, you can choose the professional backup software for Windows 10/8/7, MiniTool ShadowMaker since it allows you to back up files into an image and sync files or folders to other safe locations. Now, get MiniTool ShadowMaker Trial Edition on your computer and then install it for file backup.

Step 1: Run MiniTool ShadowMaker Trial, then click Keep Trial and the Connect button in the This Computer section.

Step 2: In Backup page, go to Source > Folders and Files to choose important files that you want to back up.

Then go to Destination to choose the place where you need to save the backup. Here an external hard drive, USB drive, NAS and network can be available.

Step 3: After finishing all the selections, click Back up Now button to start the backup operation.

In addition, you can take full advantage of the Sync feature to synchronize your important files. This help tutorial How to Sync Files shows you detailed operating steps.

Upgrade Windows OS

Now, it is time for you to install the latest Windows operating system. How to perform a Windows update? Here is the guide:

Step 1: In Windows 7, go to Control Panel and click Windows Update. In Windows 8, go to Control Panel > System and Security > Windows Update. In Windows 10, navigate to Settings > Update & security to enter Windows Update interface.

Step 2: Click Check for updates. If there are available updates, install them and restart your PC.

After completing Windows updates, Windows Defender not turning on problem may be disappeared.

Way 5: Change Your Group Policy

Sometimes, Windows Defender won't turn on in Windows 10/8/7 because it is turned off by your group policy. This can be a problem but you are able to fix it simply by changing the group policy.

To do that, follow the step-by-step guide:

Step 1: Open the Run dialog by clicking Win + R keys on the keyboard.

Step 2: Type gpedit.msc and press the OK button.

Step 3: In Local Group Policy Editor interface, go to the left pane and navigate to Computer Configuration > Administrative Template > Windows Components > Windows Defender Antivirus.

Step 4: In the right pane, double-click on Turn off Windows Defender Antivurs.

Step 5: In the pop-up window, choose Not Configured, click Apply and OK button.

After these changes are brought into effect, Windows Defender not working issue caused by the turned off group policy won't occur and you can run it to protect your PC.

Way 6: Modify Windows Registry

When you fail to enable Windows Defender in Windows 10/8/7, the problem may be related to your registry. Then, you can change it to fix this issue.

Step 1: Input regedit in the text box of the Run window.

Step 2: In the Registry Editor interface, go to

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREPoliciesMicrosoftWindows Defender

Step 3: Find DisableAntiSpyware key. If this key is not listed, please right-click the blank, choose New and DWORD (32-bit) Value to create it.

Step 4: Right-click on it and set its Value data to 0.

After you have changed Windows Defender using Registry Editor, you can check if Windows Defender Antivirus not turning on is solved.

Way 7: Perform a Clean Boot

If you start the Windows system in normal start-up operation, perhaps there are many third-party applications running in the background. These applications can cause software conflicts and interfere with Windows. As a result, you can't turn on Windows Defender in Windows 10/8/7.

To repair Windows Defender issue, you can perform a clean boot. This way is quite simple and you can do by following these instructions:

Step 1: You also need to launch the Run window, and enter msconfig in the textbox.

Step 2: In the System Configuration interface, go to the General tab, choose Selective startup and uncheck Load startup items.

Step 3: Under the Services tab, tick Hide all Microsoft services and click Disable all button.

Step 4: Click OK and Restart button to reboot your PC.

Now, all of the possible ways to fix Windows Defender not turning on are told to you. Just try them one by one to repair Windows Defender in Windows 10/8/7. If you think these ways are helpful, you can also share them on Twitter to let more persons know.

Use MiniTool ShadowMaker to Protect Your PC from Viruses and Other Threats

In order to protect your computer against spyware, ransomware, adware, viruses and other threats, you can try another way that is to use MiniTool ShadowMaker to back up your computer.

MiniTool ShadowMaker, one of the best backup software for Windows 10/8/7 users, is really worthy of being recommended. In addition to backing up your important files (as mentioned above), it can help you easily and effectively back up your Windows operating system, disk, and partition. Once your system goes wrong, you can use the backup to restore it to a normal state.

Besides, it supports disk cloning, helping to transfer all the content on a disk to another for the entire disk data backup. For system disk cloning, the cloned drive can be used to boot the PC in case of system crash.

Be interested in this backup software? Now get MiniTool ShadowMaker Trial Edition (30 days trial) from the following button.

Step 1: Run this free backup software, continue to use the Trial Edition and choose the local backup mode.

Step 2: After entering the Backup page, you can see this program will back up your Windows system by default since the system partitions and destination path are chosen. Of course, you can click the Source and Destination module to decide what you want to back up and where you need to save the image.

Next, just click Back up Now button to execute the operation in Manage page.

In addition, you can choose the entire system disk to create a hard drive image. Or go to Tools page to use its Clone Disk feature to perform a disk cloning for backup.

Related article:How to Clone a Hard Drive to SSD in Windows 10/8/7?

Bottom Line

Can't turn on Windows Defender Windows 10/8/7? How to turn on Windows Defender in Windows 10/8/7? We have shown you solutions to fix Windows Defender not turning on issue and just try them one by one.

To keep your PC safe, you had better use professional and reliable PC backup software, MiniTool ShadowMaker to back up the important files or Windows system automatically.

If you have any other solution to repair Windows Defender or any question related to MiniTool software, please contact us via [email protected] or leave your idea in the comment part below.

I had a client the other day whose PC was practically dead because they clicked on one of those pop up ads while on some sketchy website.

Something got downloaded and their computer was infected with malware and wouldn’t load properly. When trying to log into Windows, they kept getting some error like the one below:

Who knows what that means. Anyway, they could no longer get into their Windows machine and because of that there was no way to remove the spyware from the computer. They could not even log into Safe Mode to run an antivirus program.

So the only options were to delete everything, reinstall and start fresh or try to use some offline spyware scanning tool to remove the malware before Windows even got a chance to boot up.

Luckily, Microsoft released a cool offline version of Windows Defender that scans your system outside of Windows and removes any infections. Then you can start up your computer and the malware will be gone and hopefully your system will start up normally!

That’s pretty cool and definitely better than having to reinstall everything.

Offline Virus Scan

To get started, go ahead and download the Windows Defender Offline tool here:

The way it works is that you download a program that will help you create a CD/DVD or USB bootable media that runs Windows Defender. You’ll create the media and then boot your computer from the CD or USB drive, which will then scan your system and fix any problems.

Once you download the 32 or 64-bit version, run the program and you’ll see the welcome screen:

Go ahead and click Next to get started creating the offline media. Once you accept the license agreement, you’ll be given the option to install Windows Defender Offline on a CD/DVD, USB flash drive, or to download an ISO file.

I installed it on a flash drive, which will have to be reformatted in order to install Windows Defender Offline. You only need about 250 MB of free space on the flash drive, but it will still format the entire thing.

Click Next and the process will start. It will download, then process the files, then format the USB drive and then install the files.

Once it’s complete, you will see the instructions for how to use the new media:

Now you can boot up using the media and you’ll get the familiar Windows Defender screen. If your computer doesn’t automatically boot to the USB drive, you’ll need to change the boot order in the BIOS first.

Note that all the definition files are downloaded when you use the install tool. You don’t need an Internet connection or anything in order to update the definition files.

If you need to run the tool again at a later time, you need to create the media again because it will download the latest files and then create the bootable media.

Hopefully, the next time you have a problem with your computer and you know it’s spyware or malware, you can use the offline tool to disinfect your system. If you have any questions or problems using the tool, feel free to post a comment! Enjoy!