Windows 10 Defender has been Turned Off – How to Turn it ON

Can Not Turn On Windows 10 Defender: Displays Message “This App has been Turned Off and isn’t Monitoring Your Computer”

Windows Defender is an integral part of Windows 10, which we are going to discuss in this article. Therefore, We will conveniently call it windows 10 defender.

Many times, while operating the computer, it happens that Windows Defender does not turn ON of its own. Usually, this happens when you install any third party antivirus or security applications on your computer. But some times it may happen otherwise also.

When you try to manually turn ON the Windows 10 Defender, it does not turn on, and display the message “This app has been turned off and isn’t monitoring your computer”. So What to do in such scenarios.

I faced such problems recently and found a solution after trying various resources from the internet for two days. Therefore I am sharing my experience with you guys for the benefit of all concerned.

Try to turn ON Windows 10 Defender Service

In all probabilities, the above-mentioned service for Windows 10 Defender might have stopped on your computer, Therefore try to turn it on and see that the problem is resolved. For this perform the following steps.

Press Window Key + R

Type services.msc and Enter.

Find out ‘Windows Defender Service’ in the services window and click on Start.

If above service is started smoothly try to start the ‘Windows Defender Network Inspection Service’ also. and check that Windows Defender is turned ON on your system.

If the above service can not be started then try out to perform a clean boot on the system and check that the problem is resolved.

How to perform a Clean Boot on your Computer?

Press Window Key + R

Type msconfig and Enter.

Click on Services tab and check ‘Hide all Microsoft Services’ box.

Click OK and opt for ‘Don’t Restart’ when prompted with this option.

Now go to Startup tab

Disable all the suspected services particularly those related to security and antivirus applications.

Restart the system.

Now Check whether Windows 10 Defender is turned ON on your computer. If still it has not been turned on, then perform to Restart the ‘Windows Defender Service’ as deliberated above.

You can try to force restart windows 10 defender by typing in command prompt the following command. Alternatively, press Win+R to open run window and type:-

sc start WinDefend enable

When you are checking windows 10 defender, It is possible that in spite of performing all the above-mentioned task, your system may still respond the message “This app has been turned off and isn’t monitoring your computer.”

This is possible because the third party software for security services e.g. Antivirus or Anti spyware, which you have loaded onto your system, has changed or corrupted some parts of the Windows Operating System.

If everything fails, you can try to uninstall the third party Antivirus or Antispyware from your computer to start the windows 10 defender.

You can attempt to check the system by going to ‘Security and Maintenance’ option of the control panel and use the Recovery option to restore the software corruption.

With these steps, Hope windows 10 defender will be turned On your system.

All the Best 🙂