Removing Windows Defender

B

BarkingPup

Member
If I need it to run with Microsoft Security Essentials I'll reinstall but right now I can't even get it to open. This is what happens:

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Upon clicking 'turn on and open' (and giving it permission) this comes up:

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It didn't used to do this. It started as Windows Defender not being able to scan and popping up an error message in the middle. I could use everything else just fine. But then updates stopped working (again, an error message). Soon, no matter what I did Windows Defender would continually shut itself off. I would open, the notification that it was off would pop up, I would turn it on, use it but as soon as it closed I would have to repeat the whole process again. Now Defender won't even open and I need to get it off my computer somehow!

It doesn't show up on removable programs and without being able to open it I'm not sure how to completely remove it from my computer. I can reinstall if needed but how do I get it off?
 
Ah, crap, so it will be there forever, not working... I'm pretty sure I don't need it with what I have now.

I'll reinstall and see if I can at least open it and disable it the easy way. If not, I'll disable it and still have a broken Defender. Thanks for the links ^^

EDIT: I tried to uninstall and can't find a way to do that. Went to go disable it the hard way and the 'disabled' in services.msc won't stick. It keeps going back to Automatic. I can't even find Defender in msconfig. Without uninstalling I can't reinstall (just gives me a popup saying that Defender is already there so I have no need to install it).

I have no idea where to go from there. I'm perusing the windows help forums to see if anyone has an answer... Even if Security Essentials turns it off automatically, I should be able to open Defender anyhow.... right? (I think...)
 
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