Antivirus :: Defender Becomes A Hidden Icon And Stays
Nov 12, 2015
I have Windows Defender set to not show on the taskbar and it normally doesn't show in any form however when I launch the program or do a scan, the "show hidden icon" arrow will appear on the taskbar and if I click it, the Windows defender icon is there.
Once I'm done with Windows defender and have closed it, the hidden icon arrow remains along with the defender icon that can be accessed by clicking it.
How can i make this hidden icon arrow either never show when I do a win defender scan or at least go away once done with my use of Win defender - like the way it was before I clicked it? Restarting the computer btw does remove it until I launch it again.
So in another thread I questioned why on boot up my desktop icons were a bit slow in drawing themselves. They take a few seconds to fully draw with a number of them showing as white generic paper icons. I then found folders with a large number of exe files were also slow to display the icons. Increasing icon cache, rebuilding it didn't make a difference. I was also noticing that the folders slow to draw the icons once finished gave no further grief if I subsequently opened them. Until the next reboot!
Finally i I know why, it's Windows defender. The antimalware service is kicking in causing the slow icon draw. I suppose it's doing its thing but the slow draw of the icons on the desktop when I log in annoys me. It's only a few seconds but running SSD and given the cost of the system I expect it to be a bit more instant. I am sure it's not as bad as this on my Windows 7 laptop which runs security essentials. I turned off real time protection temporarily and can confirm that the folders were then drawing the exe icons instantly. So definitely defender the culprit.
i am also considering trying another paid anti virus. Kaspersky sounds like it has good rep and is lightweight - I was only going to go for the anti virus / real time protection aspect as I am happy with Windows in built firewall. Does it play nice with Windows 10? I just want something light on resources, nag free and something that won't interfere with the drawing of the icons. I thought defender being integrated and an MS product would give the littlest grief but I guess I'm wrong. Unless something can be set to prevent it real time scanning the desktop icons.
For instance: Edge downloads a program which has a setup dialog. On hitting run, the setup dialog appears on the taskbar, but Edge remains in front. Once you bring the setup screen is in focus, you don't realise that it will not respond because, again, behind Edge, another dialog has opened saying "another instance of setup is already running".
This behavior seems to happen with other error messages, and property sheets etc. which ought to be brought to front, but open in the background.
Currently, my OneDrive icon is sitting in the 'hidden icons' section. I have seen pictures of the icon sitting on the taskbar next to Edge, the store, and all the other taskbar icons... how do you get that icon on the taskbar? I have tried all the normal ways I can think of (click and drag onto taskbar, going into taskbar settings, etc) but I can't get it to be removed from the hidden icons area.
Few days ago I believe I installed some updates, since then when I hover over a icon it stays highlighted and its incredibly annoying. I have tried right click and shift+right click, it doesn't work, don't know what to do.
After doing the second upgrade for Windows 10 on one of my machines, when clicking on Windows 10, it says it cannot open. Everything else is working fine. there is no other antivirus program on this computer and it worked fine prior to the original upgrade to windows 10
Defender won't update its virus definition file. It tries, and the green bar gets almost to the end then stops. After quite a while, the update fails with an error message saying that the update failed. This has been going on for a week or two!
In my attempt to add security to my Lenovo Laptop Z50, and after having updated successfully to W10 from 8.1 last Autumn, I thought I'd install Panda for additional protection, not realising W10 Defender would close down. It has indeed done so, and now when I locate the Windows Defender icon via the search (bottom left of Window), and click on it, the message, 'This application has been turned off and is not monitoring your application'. Panda security is installed, but in fact, I have been happy (and felt confident) with Windows Defender, so after further thought I would like to revert back to Windows Defender, and un-install Panda.
What can I do to be able to get Windows Defender to open again?
As I use a proprietary antirvirus, and on a whim, I just thought to check my Windows Defender setting, only to find to find that it was turned on*. (I could swear I turned it off, sometime in the past. I was further surprised to find that the On/Off button is disabled--so I CAN'T turn it off!
I'm further surprised to find the notice, under Settings/Windows Defender, which says "You can turn this off temporarily, but if we find that it is turned off for a while we'll turn it back on again, automatically." (One mystery solved*)
As I understand it, Windows Defender is merely Microsoft's own notion of free antivirus software--so when Windows turns Defender on again, this means I not only have two antivirus packages running (and possibly interfering with each other--involuntarily) but also that I now seem to have no choice in the matter--unless, of course, I permanently uninstall the antivirus software that I paid good money for.
Questions: How do I re-enable the Windows Defender On/Off button; and How do I DISable Windows ability to turn it on again?
Just some background information, I was tired of Windows Defender taking up 100% disk usage at startup with Antimalware Service Executable so I installed BitDefender in its place so I could get myself set up when I start up my computer without having to wait half an hour to an hour for anything (Even Task Manager or Ctrl+Alt+Delete Security Screen) to be running.Today I just turned on my computer and noticed that it froze after logging in. After about an hour of waiting, I shut it down using the power button and turning it back on, which is usually my last-resort method. I logged into my computer again and opened the Task Manager up to find that Antimalware Service Executable was taking up 100% disk usage again, which then enabled Windows to inform me that both of my AntiVirus programs had been turned off for whatever reason. I clicked on the notification and noticed Windows Defender had turned itself back on when I never disabled Bitdefender to begin with.
Right now I'm running a Malwarebytes scan and will run a system scan with Bitdefender as well, but I'm pretty sure that's not what caused the problem with my computer because I hadn't downloaded anything since my last scan which was around a week ago.My computer is running Windows 10 Home Edition x64 on an Intel i7-4500U Dual-Core clocked at 1.8+2.4GHz with 8GB DDR3 RAM and an Intel HD Graphics (4400) GPU.
Windows Defemder will intermittently fail to start after my HP laptop awakes from sleep mode. This does not occur every time. When it does occur, I get a message that Windows Defender is turned off and I need to turn it on again. When I attempt to turn it on, it eventually times out. I must then reboot the laptop. After rebooting, Windows Defender does not automatically turn on. However, I am able to turn it on manually.
Did windows defender perform auto update and auto scan daily? Since i noticed it is quite often that the definition is outdated and i need to updated it manually.
There does not seem to be a way to schedule an automatic daily scan with Windows Defender. I got a action center notification to run a Defender scan. Is that something I can expect regularly? Having to do a regular manual scan will be difficult.
I believe it's called adding it to the context menu.. I saw a registry hack for Windows 8 but i'm not sure how to do it in Windows 10.. I got used to using MSE in Windows 7 so now i'm lost not being able to right click a file to scan it immediately.. how to enable this in W10 Defender?
or should I just dump Defender totally for another Free antivirus? I was using Avast for awhile but MSE was less heavy on the resources so I went with that..
but I did a manual update just now and did not get any error message and windows update says it is up to date nevertheless, WD reports it is out of date. but it shows green bar at top.
and after a restart, when I go to WD settings it says that cloud and sample submission is off. This is despite the fact that I turned it on.
I run a scan but as soon as I have rebooted and within an hour or so it asks me again? I receive the notification in the taskbar and Windows Defender turns orange and states I am unprotected. So far I have completed 3 clean scans today but after a reboot it is as if it does not remember that I have run a scan. I am running the latest Windows 10 pro.
I'm on build 10074 of Windows 10 and cannot find a way to permanently disable Windows Defender. When I go to Control Panel > Windows Defender > Settings, it brings up the new Windows 10 System Settings app which gives an option to turn "Real-time protection" off. However, the description on that states:
Real-tim protection find and stop malware form installing or running on your PC. You can turn it off temporarily, but if it's off for a while, we'll turn it back on automatically.
After about 15 minutes, it turns itself back on. How can I disable this permanently?
So, earlier today (after having been gone for the last week on a trip) I installed a update for my Windows 10 computer. After the update (and it seemed like a doosy) the system worked fine for about 5-10 minutes and so I set about doing the usual disk cleanup. During this though Windows Defender turned itself off. Attempts to open the program either result in a window that just reads that the app is 'turned off' and isn't monitoring the computer.
Following the tabs on the 'action center' pull out seem to open up the Defender tab properly and allows me to turn it on...but then it turns itself off again after a couple of seconds.
I'm not currently running any other kind of virus scan/spyware protection software on the machine atm. Aside from just installing new anti-virus software.
I'm presently using (running) Avast Pro and Malwarebytes Anti-Exploit-Free, with weekly running of CCleaner, Malwarebytes Anti-Malware, and AdwCleaner. I do a lot of browsing and haven't had any problems with this approach. However, I got the hankering to also keep Windows Defender up-to-date and to occasionally run its scan just to see see if anything comes up.
So, I go to WD with the expectation that it is turned off and find that it may not be. I would go to update&security>windows defender and find, to my surprise, that real-time protection and cloud based protection are turned on, but grayed out. Furthermore, when scrolling to the bottom of the screen and clicking Open Windows Defender, I get the message that "WD is turned off and not monitoring the computer." I then went to Brink's WD tutorial (Windows Defender - Turn On or Off in Windows 10 - Windows 10 Forums)
I disabled Defender, and installed Trend Micro. I now want to let the Trend expire and reinstall Defender, but can't figure out how to do it. I've tried Control Pane, but get message that says "Defender Disabled" but no "Enable" button.
I am currently using Windows 10 Pro 64 Bit. Is Windows Defender enough for my PC protection, or would I have to install any other one? I regularly take all the upgrades Microsoft provide me for the PC.
