Windows 7 - Win defender - real-time protection

In win defender I have 'use real-time protection' ticked
yet on the home page at bottom in 'Status' it states that:
"real-time protection: Off"

anyone throw some light on this discreptancy.

Are you using Microsoft Security Essentials as antivirus?

no. Zone Alarm

ZoneAlarm is a firewall. I don't know if it's added a defense function, like Comodo, but I've read in several posts that ZoneAlarm doesn't play well with Win 7 and causes BSOD's.

If you're running Defender, you might want to consider installing MSE which incorporates Defender functions along with active AV functions.

Since malware may be turning off Defender, try running Malwarebytes and see what it finds.

Malwarebytes

Both Zone Alarm Internet Security, and Zone Alarm Extreme Security (the paid for suites, NOT the free firewall) disable Defender, as it has it's own Anti-Spyware (Assuming your using the full suite of course)

I'll echo Borg's comment's though, I am a long time ZA user and fan, and had to ditch it with 7 after numerous unexplained BSOD's which seemed to point to a corrupted HDD. Turned out that ZA was ripping up the file system everytime it scanned. Coincidentally my ZA was also for some reason not stealthing ports, and when I uninstalled it, the BSOD's went away. 3 months I spent trying to figure that out

Of course this was back when 7 was still new, so thing's might have changed since then, but "once bitten, twice shy" and all that.

Yeah severedsolo, I used ZoneAlarm for a long time on XP, but once I got Win 7, I heard it didn't play well and went with Comodo.

I haven't seen anything on ZoneAlarm in a while, so I wonder if they sorted the problem?

No idea, I'm quite happy with MSE though at the moment, wouldn't mind going back to ZA but if they haven't fixed it then it's a lot of money to pay for a BSOD frankly.

Back on topic here, nithig I believe that the settings to disable Defender can be switched off somewhere in ZA's settings, but can't remember where. (It's been a long time since I used ZA, and the menu was always frankly a little confusing.) Anti-Virus settings would be a good place to start, although knowing Checkpoint it could be somewhere really obscure. (Ever try opening a port with ZA? 3 different menu's all in different places....)

Agree severedsolo, even though I haven't used ZA in a while, it might be shutting off Defender, I don't know how much functionality they've added to it recently though. They might be trying to compete with Comodo (Defense+).

Either that, or there's some kind of malware/virus that's shutting it off. Wouldn't hurt to run a scan with Malwarebytes, or MS Malicious Software Removal tool to see what it finds. Anytime your Security programs go off without you authorizing it, it's definitely time to start looking into the cause of that.

Download details: Microsoft® Windows® Malicious Software Removal Tool (KB890830) x64

And yes, Comodo has quite an array of settings too, much more complex then I saw on ZoneAlarm, the manual you can d/l is over 350 pages long.

It's a mystery. Win.Defender has high trust and everything ticked in Zone Alarm program control.

Yes Malwarebytes ... use it regularly and it's showing system is clear.

Can use Win Defender to scan so it's not totally useless as is.

Have already d/loaded MSE and will switch onto that when current paid period expires.

Must say Zone Alarm has been good. No problems at all with it and it seems to pick up
everything nasty. It's pop-up warnings can be confusing sometimes when I haven't a clue
whether to give permission or deny ... and there's no explanation. But it hasn't ever stopped
a program from operating.

thanks for all yr comment

You could try disabling ZA, then reboot and see if the same problem is present.

Or, you could try removing, then re-installing Defender. Just a couple possible things to try out if you want.