How To Fix Windows Defender Not Turning On [Solved]

Is Windows Defender not running on your device and showing you to restart your system and as soon as you press on the restart button it gives you an error.

So the reason for this error could be a third party antivirus. Antivirus sometimes disables your Windows Defender, due to which Defender does not run in your Windows.

Don't worry just follow these steps to get your Windows Defender working again.

Before following these steps, you should open the service app from the start menu and check whether Windows Defender service is on or not. If it is not running then turn that service on, and if you get error while doing service on then follow the steps given below.

1. Click on the start menu and search for regedit.

2. After opening regedit, you will get many files and sub-directories, among them, click on the HKYEY_Local_MACHINE file.

3. Open the software file from the local sub-folder.

4. Then click on the policies file.

5. And from policies file, select micrsoft, and from that select microsoft defender file.

6. After clicking on the defender's file, you will see a disable antispyware option. Click on it and set its value to 0; see if its value is already 0 then don't change it.

After following these steps, open Windows Defender to if it is working or not.