Windows Defender question

[Broccoli]

I've been having an issue lately that I don't know quite how to fix. In addition to my regular anti-virus, I've been using Windows Defender on my computer. The program works great; and I have not had any problems whatsoever on my relatively new computer.

However, over the last month or two, I've noticed that anytime I restart my computer, Windows Defender doesn't automatically go on. I am pretty sure it use to do this (and it does on my older, still working laptop). I have to then turn it on manually. That isn't that big of a problem, but more of a pain to do.

I guess my question is, how do I get Windows Defender to click on automatically after a restart? I checked out the "tools" window on Defender and the options in the Security Center, but I cannot find the answer to my question. Any ideas?

 

[Deks]

What you might try is in the search field typing 'services', then clicking on 'Services (local)', scroll down to Windows Defender in the middle portion of the screen, right mouse click on it selecting 'Properties' and making sure the startup type has been set to 'Automatic'

 

[Broccoli]

^ I checked that out and it says that it is automatic. The program seems to "start", but it just isn't turned "on" anytime I reboot.

 

[LaxScrutiny]

A lot of antivirus will turn Windows Defender off. If your antivirus has it's own spyware detector, then it is probably doing doing that. I know Norton will, and the new Microsoft Securtity Essentials. They are doing the same thing as Defender.

I'm not happy that it's so easy for Defender to be turned off by a third party application. You're probably better off with the protection of your antivirus suite then anyway.

The one thing I need from Defender on occasion is to check out startup programs, it will start manually if you need it for things like that.

 

[Deks]

Yes ... usually, plenty of antivirus applications will turn off Windows Defender and the Windows Firewall because programs in question already exist in them.

Nod32 for example (even the Smart Security) doesn't do that.
Others on the other hand do.

If you are that concerned over having Windows Defender active, you might want to switch to a free antivirus such as Avira or Avast (avoid AVG for now), and also use Microsoft Security Essentials together.
Resource use is very light, and those will be on par with numerous paid solutions in terms of protection.

But if your A/V program is a security suit, then I wouldn't worry about Win Defender.

 

[Broccoli]

I currently use AVG as my virus protection program and I've never had this issue before with it. Strange.

 

[Deks]

I would recommend that you replace AVG with Avast or Avira since both of them have a much higher detection rate in comparison to AVG.

One more thing ... after you remove AVG and before you replace it, make sure to run latest Ccleaner on your system (it wouldn't hurt anyway).

 

[Broccoli]

I hear that AVG isn't all that good, but it has always worked great for me.

Forgive my ignorance, but what is Ccleaner?

 

[Deks]

AVG was ok before, but it's detection rate ended up below other programs.
Avira and Avast are on par with most high end paid programs when it comes to rate of detection (comparable to Nod32), so I would recommend you switch to either one of those two (Avira being top rated among free antivirus programs ... though it's update servers take their sweet time to update it sometime due to high demand I think).

Ccleaner is a small and free utility for cleaning up the OS.
You can easily remove temporary files, cookies and all the piled up garbage from your computer, thus freeing up space.
It can also clean the registry ... perfectly safe, but it won't really affect performance in most cases (though I like to use it to have some clean order in my OS core).

And you can also use it to remove programs from starting up with the computer, and thus speed up boot time.
Apart from having windows defender, the antivirus program (and perhaps the touchpad ... if you use it), nothing else needs to start up with the system (unless you really need it).