On Windows 10, there’s also the option to install the update responsible for fixing this issue via MUC (Microsoft Update Catalog).

To treat this issue, install every pending Windows update (including feature & cumulative updates) until you bring your Windows version up to date.

The hotfix is not installed – As it turns out, Microsoft has already released a series of hotfixes aimed at eradicating this issue on both Windows 10 and Windows 11.

Other users dealing with the same issue confirmed that it was entirely fixed once they ran the Microsoft Safety Scanner and applied the recommended fix.

Missing security infrastructure – As it turns out, this particular issue can also occur due to a missing security infrastructure that your Windows installation is missing.

In more serious circumstances, you’ll need a clean or repair install. Other Windows users reported similar issues with the Windows Defender component, but they were fixed as soon as SFC and DISM scans were run.

System file corruption – Some impacted users claim that a certain kind of system file corruption may cause this problem.

Other users suffering from this same problem have managed to fix the issue by running CCleaner to clear any registry inconsistency.

Remnant registry data – Another scenario that could be the root cause of this issue is when your Registry contains remnants of a previous 3rd party AV that is tricking Windows Defender into turning itself off.

In this case, achieving a clean boot state is the quickest way to confirm that you’re dealing with some kind of 3rd party AV interference. This typically happens with 3rd party AV scan suites that don’t have a real-time AV protection feature.

3rd party interference – As it turns out, there is quite a large number of 3rd party applications that might ‘trick’ Windows Defender into turning your Antivirus suite.

Safety scanner windows 10