Solved Restoring Windows Security

OK, I messed up ... I ran a third-party app to supposedly Disable Defender because it was causing my file migration tasks to slow to a crawl since it appeared to be scanning every .exe file -- and since I was doing a yearly offline backup, this amounted to TB of files.

But apparently, the app Removed it, instead, and maybe Windows Security as well.

Now that I am done with the backups, I want to get Defender and Windows Security back.

I looked in Settings and while Windows Security is not under Installed Apps, it is under Windows Components. So I opened the Advanced page and did both a Repair and Reset. But when I reopened Settings, Privacy and Security, Windows Security is not shown at the top right of the window.

So I found the tutorial here on using Powershell and ran that command, and restarted. But once again, when I checked Settings, Windows Security is not listed.

So, I did a Repair-Install of 22631.2715 but when I finally restarted, Windows Security is still not shown in Settings.

This is the PC I use as a local file and system backup server and the one that the December security update corrupted, so I have it running on build 2715 and have the Windows Update services disabled -- so clearly, I do not want to run Windows Update on this.

Don't know what else I can do.

Sounds like a reset or reinstall, that or contact the developer of the app and ask what it does to "disable defender".

Mark Phelps said:

Now that I am done with the backups, I want to get Defender and Windows Security back.

Click to expand...

Do you still have a backup from before you ran the 3rd party tool?
If so... it might be easier to just restore that.

Mark Phelps said:

I ran a third-party app

Click to expand...

Could you expand on this a bit and say what 3rd party app you used to disable defender? Where did you obtain this app? Was it from a reliable source?
Do you currently have any 3rd party AV installed or did you have a 3rd party AV installed?If so, what AV?
A repair install will only fix Windows files, registry, processes, and services. It will not affect, repair, or override anything caused by installed application nor anything in a user account. That said, since a repair install did not fix the issue, IMO it points to something left behind by a third party app. That could be the rogue app you used OR third party AV.

glasskuter said:

Could you expand on this a bit and say what 3rd party app you used to disable defender? Where did you obtain this app? Was it from a reliable source?
Do you currently have any 3rd party AV installed or did you have a 3rd party AV installed?If so, what AV?
A repair install will only fix Windows files, registry, processes, and services. It will not affect, repair, or override anything caused by installed application nor anything in a user account. That said, since a repair install did not fix the issue, IMO it points to something left behind by a third party app. That could be the rogue app you used OR third party AV.

Click to expand...

The tool is Windows Defender Remover and it is from:
GitHub - ionuttbara/windows-defender-remover: A tool which is uses to remove Windows Defender in Windows 8.x, Windows 10 (every version) and Windows 11.

I don't have any third-party AV product installed.

I have not tried removing that app -- that is the next thing to do.

I have been using this since September -- but only do complete system archives the end of the year, so I did not notice any problems before.

I can't do a clean-install because the PC is using a one-time activation key.

Ghot said:

Do you still have a backup from before you ran the 3rd party tool?
If so... it might be easier to just restore that.

Click to expand...

I do, but that was MONTHS ago, and I would have to get stuff ready to make recent updates if I do that.

But ... that is something to think about. Thanks

Did you run the developer’s command to enable Defender?

pseymour said:

Did you run the developer’s command to enable Defender?

Click to expand...

The screen puts up a menu with options to restore Defender and/or Windows Security. I selected each of the two -- but have not seen any changes.

I don't see any information regarding any developer commands.

Update: I got fed up with the issues and replaced the install with Tiny11 -- and that works great. Able to do Defender exclusions without any issues. Marking this as solved.

I had a similar experience. I worked with Microsoft Support and was told many users developed similar issues and a fix is in work and will be part of some future Windows update.