Defender Refuses to Stay On

Everytime I restart my machine I find that defender is off. I can turn it on fine, and it stays on for the remainder of the session.

Service is set to "Automatic (delayed start)". AVG resident shield is OFF (maybe AVG would turn it off since it has its own spyware). I already tried the steps in MS kb555962.

Any suggestions?!

richc46 said:

I suggest that you use Microsoft Security Essentials. It was made for windows. You definately would not need Defender. If you use MSE and also download Malwarebytes, you would have all the protectetion that you would need.

i might do that.... the antispyware in MSE is probably using the same engine as defender, but how does the AV in MSE compare to AVG? how does the memory and CPU footprint of MSE compare to AVG?

also, is it possible to disable MSE completely? I only use AV on demand to keep the machine running faster (have not had an infection of any kind in 9 years)

Thanks

E

severedsolo said:

AVG disables Defender, even if resident shield is off, it still has its own Anti spyware bits running

easy way to test this is to uninstall AVG see if Defender comes on, (does Windows warn you Defender is off? if it doesnt, AVG is doing defenders job)

didnt do the test, but I will just out of curiosity if I uninstall AVG.

BUT I was under the impression that AVG's "Resident Shield OFF" would disable all its scanning engines.... could it be that the AS still runs and only the AV is disabled?!

crashnet said:

i might do that.... the antispyware in MSE is probably using the same engine as defender, but how does the AV in MSE compare to AVG? how does the memory and CPU footprint of MSE compare to AVG?

also, is it possible to disable MSE completely? I only use AV on demand to keep the machine running faster (have not had an infection of any kind in 9 years)

Thanks

E

yes, You can turn off MSE's real-time protection

Tews said:

MSE turns Defender off by default as it is the anti-malware as well as the anti-virus application all in one...

thanks, but that wasnt one of the questions.

crashnet said:

thanks, but that wasnt one of the questions.

oh, I see.
ok, I haven't done it myself. Turning off all it's services and process is possible aswell.

Wilders Security Forums - View Single Post - Do I actually need an Antivirus on my netbook?

http://www.wilderssecurity.com/showpost.php?p=1605143&postcount=52 said:

This is what I've done on my system: as admin install MSE as normal, msconfig and uncheck MSE, in search box access system services with ' services.msc ' hit enter, disable the ' microsoft antimalware service '. There are still a couple of MSE startup items that will in startup that you can untick using autoruns ( http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/s.../bb963902.aspx)

After you reboot there will be no processes, services, or anything running from MSE. You can switch to your admin account when you want to run a scan, enable the MSE service, update MSE and run a scan whenever you want, then re-disable the service and untick the MSE entries in autoruns, reboot and its completely disabled. I like MSE's detection & removal capabilities and having at least an AV installed so I don't completely rely upon online scanners.

BTW, I previously used a similar process with AVG, but AVG had several services & startup items to disable, and had about 9 entries hidden in autoruns compared to 2 in MSE (one for MSE and on for the right click 'scan on contect feature), also MSE only requires 1 service to run, making it a very light light program even with its default configuration when compared to other scanners.

So, as you can see, according to this person he already did it.
I can't guarantee anything, But I suppose it will not cause any harm.

crashnet said:

Everytime I restart my machine I find that defender is off. I can turn it on fine, and it stays on for the remainder of the session.

crashnet said:

i might do that.... the antispyware in MSE is probably using the same engine as defender, but how does the AV in MSE compare to AVG? how does the memory and CPU footprint of MSE compare to AVG?

also, is it possible to disable MSE completely? I only use AV on demand to keep the machine running faster (have not had an infection of any kind in 9 years)

Thanks

E

The MSE anti-malware defs are the same as Windows Defender and the antivirus defs are the same as the Forfront.

You have me confused. From your first post which was about Windows Defender not on to your last which was asking about disabling MSE sounds like a contradiction to me.

MSE will not slow down your computer any more -- in fact less -- than AVG.