I have a laptop and a desktop both running N360 on Windows 8 Pro x64 (clean installations).
It all started when I uninstalled N360 v20.4 from my laptop to try the beta (v.21). I removed it through the control panel. After restarting and before installing the beta, I thought to try and see how Windows Defender works, since I had never actually used it. I couldn't turn it on through the Action Center. When I pressed "turn on" in the security warning, the "system32" folder popped up. I tried running the Norton Removal Tool to remove any leftovers and restart. Nothing changed. I searched the internet about the problem and started digging deeper. There are more users with the same issue, some of them have Norton, others have different 3rd party AV products. Apparently there is no solution. But the frightening part is that when I run the Windows Resource Protection (admin command prompt, sfc /scannow), it took forever and it found corrupted Windows files unable to repair them. I even tried running this command during boot (from the installation disc) but the results where the same. Finally, I tried the program Windows Repair (tweaking.com) which is supposed to restore almost any problem with Windows. It failed as well.
I went back to my desktop to run the sfc /scannow command to search for corrupted files. It did find and they where also unrepairable. The Windows installation on my desktop is recent (less than a month). My laptop has Windows 8 since they where available.
In conclusion:
- Windows Defender won't turn on
- Clicking "turn on" on the Action center notification launches the system32 folder
- Corrupted files are on both systems - unfixable even on boot
- Searching for Windows Defender on the startscreen and clicking on it displays a message that the program is turned off without giving the option to turn back on
- The Windows Defender service will not launch through services and the startup type (manual, automatic) is grayed out as disabled.
Extra problems:
- Norton antitheft wont install. It was removed from my laptop when running the removal tool I suspect. (I'll probably create another thread about it)
Is this a Microsoft problem or Norton related? I suspect Norton, having in mind the fact that there was a problem in communication with the Action Center going on for months.
I'm also deeply concerned about security, since the integrity of the system files was compromised and I had to find that out incidentally.
I would appreciate any help
Thanks,
John