I cannot access Defender Virus Protection page

FrankW · Jan 14, 2024

Hi,
Just got a new Acer Swift X SFX14-51G-7003 laptop with Window11 Home 23H2 (fully updated) and uninstalled all bloatware and Norton AV in Programs and Apps. Now I can't run a Defender Quick Scan and Core Isolation is blocked by some policy (I suspect). I tried to reset Security/Defender and all Microsoft hints to check the registry for Defender rogue policies but found zilch. Security is working OK as I get periodically notifications that no malware or viruses were detected after Windows Maintenance scanning, but I see that little yellow triangle on my Security icon taskbar (recommend actions) that I hate. Secure Boot, DEP and Virtualization, etc. are all activated. The only alternative I see is to do a complete system reset (refresh) but nor sure that will reinstall Windows Defender. I hate to do a Clean Install of Windows11 for a brand-new system. My BIOS is the latest, no yellow exclamations or greyed out devices in Device Manager but 100s of Event errors (attached). Running Norton uninstaller is probably too late now as there are no AV remnants left in the registry, I checked that too. Anyone can comment? Thanks
Frank

Fabler2 · Jan 14, 2024

Could be Norton not removed correctly. Try running the Norton Remove and Reinstall tool to see if it fixes Defender.

Uninstall your Norton device security product on Windows

Learn how to uninstall Norton security products from your computer. This article contains steps to uninstall Norton device security from Window 10, Windows 8, and Windows 7.

support.norton.com

FrankW · Jan 14, 2024

Fabler2 said:
Could be Norton not removed correctly. Try running the Norton Remove and Reinstall tool to see if it fixes Defender.

Uninstall your Norton device security product on Windows

Learn how to uninstall Norton security products from your computer. This article contains steps to uninstall Norton device security from Window 10, Windows 8, and Windows 7.

support.norton.com

I ran the Norton uninstaller and rebooted, same old same, cannot quick virus scan and Device Security is unavailable, so it must be some policy set by Acer or an Intel Virtual issue, maybe I will just ignore it.

jimbo45 · Jan 16, 2024

FrankW said:
I ran the Norton uninstaller and rebooted, same old same, cannot quick virus scan and Device Security is unavailable, so it must be some policy set by Acer or an Intel Virtual issue, maybe I will just ignore it.

Hi there

In Windows defender settings have you enabled or are there any settings enabled in "allowed exclusions" -- who knows there could be some program in there inhibiting WD from working properly. I found out that one of those cheap Office 2019 packages had stuck something in that section -- Since uninstalled that Office 2019 -- that office product obviously had some mechanism in there to "poodlefake" activation - so if you use any of those cheap licenses check to see if they've added any exclusions. If you see something like kms in there then that office version is a pirate one. Same with any other "cheap license" including Windows itself.

Cheers.
jimbo

FrankW · Jan 16, 2024

jimbo45 said:
Hi there

In Windows defender settings have you enabled or are there any settings enabled in "allowed exclusions" -- who knows there could be some program in there inhibiting WD from working properly. I found out that one of those cheap Office 2019 packages had stuck something in that section -- Since uninstalled that Office 2019 -- that office product obviously had some mechanism in there to "poodlefake" activation - so if you use any of those cheap licenses check to see if they've added any exclusions. If you see something like kms in there then that office version is a pirate one. Same with any other "cheap license" including Windows itself.

Cheers.
jimbo

Hi Jimbo,
I cannot get into Virus and Threat protection to check "Exclusions" I get "Page not available" (see attached). I can get to the programs allowed or not allowed through the Firewall but that is not what you are referring to? I think either someone has put a rogue policy in Defender with Gpedit that I don't have (W11 Home) or Windows was badly installed. I am the Administrator.
Frank

Fabler2 · Jan 16, 2024

Use Voidtools' Everything and search for Norton. See what leftovers there are.
Had a similar issue with pre-installed McAfee. It messed up a part of Defender for me and I used Everything to remove all I could of McAfee after uninstalling it. Rebooted and Defender worked ok.

Downloads - voidtools

www.voidtools.com

ThrashZone · Jan 16, 2024

FrankW said:
Hi,
Just got a new Acer Swift X SFX14-51G-7003 laptop with Window11 Home 23H2 (fully updated) and uninstalled all bloatware and Norton AV in Programs and Apps. Now I can't run a Defender Quick Scan and Core Isolation is blocked by some policy (I suspect). I tried to reset Security/Defender and all Microsoft hints to check the registry for Defender rogue policies but found zilch. Security is working OK as I get periodically notifications that no malware or viruses were detected after Windows Maintenance scanning, but I see that little yellow triangle on my Security icon taskbar (recommend actions) that I hate. Secure Boot, DEP and Virtualization, etc. are all activated. The only alternative I see is to do a complete system reset (refresh) but nor sure that will reinstall Windows Defender. I hate to do a Clean Install of Windows11 for a brand-new system. My BIOS is the latest, no yellow exclamations or greyed out devices in Device Manager but 100s of Event errors (attached). Running Norton uninstaller is probably too late now as there are no AV remnants left in the registry, I checked that too. Anyone can comment? Thanks
Frank

Hi,
Best to refresh install then just keep personal files
Keeping apps you can try that to the refresh may recognize the uninstalled ones and clean them off.
You will need to download a win-11 iso and run it using keep files and apps.

FrankW · Jan 16, 2024

Fabler2 said:
Use Voidtools' Everything and search for Norton. See what leftovers there are.
Had a similar issue with pre-installed McAfee. It messed up a part of Defender for me and I used Everything to remove all I could of McAfee after uninstalling it. Rebooted and Defender worked ok.

Downloads - voidtools

www.voidtools.com

There is nothing with "Norton" named anywhere in my registry or on my C:/drive. I deleted all that manually and there was a lot of junk left behind. I have a new Asus that had McAfee and I did the same with good results. Will VOIDtools reset rogue policies or just look at uninstalled orphans/links? I hate apps like PC Cleaner and CCleaner as they made a mess of the registry in the past.

Fabler2 · Jan 17, 2024

FrankW said:
There is nothing with "Norton" named anywhere in my registry or on my C:/drive. I deleted all that manually and there was a lot of junk left behind. I have a new Asus that had McAfee and I did the same with good results. Will VOIDtools reset rogue policies or just look at uninstalled orphans/links? I hate apps like PC Cleaner and CCleaner as they made a mess of the registry in the past.

I think the next thing to try is a repair install although I don't know if it will fix Defender.
Also see what you can do with DefenderUI first. It might get you to the real-time protection window to turn off Tamper protection then do a repair install.

DefenderUI

www.defenderui.com

Repair Install Windows 11 with an In-place Upgrade Tutorial

This tutorial will show you how to do a repair install of Windows 11 by performing an in-place upgrade without losing anything. If you need to repair or create a new recovery partition or having problems with the Windows 11 operating system on your PC, and the usual solutions will not fix it...

www.elevenforum.com

If all that fails it's looking as a Clean install of Windows is on the cards unless someone else has a better suggestion.

FrankW · Jan 17, 2024

Tried to enable some Defender options but there are no policies in any Windows Defender hive, just Default. I cannot access Defender Virus Protection page, get "Your IT administrator has limited access to some areas of this app and the item you tried to access is not available. Contact IT helpdesk for more information" but automatically scanning with maintenance works OK and all other Security features I can access, just not Virus checking and Device protection. This is a brand-new laptop pre-loaded with Windows11 Home, It had Norton that I uninstalled. Defender Access permission has a huge string of values (see attached) but I don't know the meaning. I now believe that Acer implemented Group Policy administrative templates (ADMX policies) on this laptop that blocks users/administrators from full Microsoft Defender access. The registry key attached contains the policies. If that is the case I just forget about the issue and let Maintenance do the malware scanning.
Any comments welcome.
Frank
Update April 16 2024. The issue is gone after some Windows updates, everything has green tick marks now.