Solved Windows Defender wont turn on. Conflict perhaps?

Greetings,

My name is Caleb, and i'm having some issues regarding my Windows Defender. When I go into Action Center and try to turn on Windows Defender and Windows Firewall, it doesn't want to turn on.

When I click on "Take Action", and click on "Turn on Windows Defender", User Account Control then prompts me if I want to run this application. I click yes, after doing so, Windows Defender still doesn't become enabled.

I do have malwarebytes installed on my PC, is this causing some sort of conflict between Windows Defender and malwarebytes since its a AV?

Do you have now or ever had any other antivirus installed ?

If you are running the free version of Malwarebytes, this wouldn't be a an issue as it is an "on demand" scanner. If you are running the pro version, then there shouldn't be a conflict. (Source)

This action could be caused by 1) As CountMike pointed out, another AV being installed which would by default, disable Defender & the MS Firewall or 2) You have malware which is preventing the initialization of these item.

If in the past you had an AV installed, it my not have uninstalled cleanly. If this is the case, go to this site & choose your AV uninstaller & run it.

Uninstallers (removal tools) for common Windows antivirus software - ESET Knowledgebase

Note: If you believe you are malware free, have had no prior AV or have run the uninstaller & are still having problems, you may wish to run a SFC /SCANNOW. Be sure to run it 3X as it doesn't always fix everything the 1st or 2nd time around.

If SFC could not fix something, then run the command again to see if it may be able to the next time. Sometimes it may take running the sfc /scannow command 3 times restarting the PC after each time to completely fix everything that it's able to.

Click to expand...

http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/3047-sfc-scannow-command-run-windows-8-a.html

CountMike, No, I never had any other antivirus installed. The only antivirus i've ever installed specifically on this PC is Malwarebytes the free version. Borg 386, Thank you for the information, i'll most certainly keep what you said in mind.

Also, I do have the situation solved. It turns out that Malwarebytes was causing conflict with the Windows Defender, all I did was uninstall Malwarebytes and reinstalled it to fix the issue. My Windows Defender is on and so is my firewall.

Thank you, CountMike & Borg 386, you're answers most certainly helped me resolving this simple issue. I'm sorry I didn't reply to this in a timely manner, i've been extremely busy with school!

Glad you got it sorted. I'm must admit I'm somewhat surprised though, usually Malwarebytes plays well with other software.