Windows Defender + Avast Free Antivirus

Doug8765

Posts: 275   +8
Hi -
Microsoft came along and made a major upgrade of my Windows 10 (thank you Microsoft). After the upgrade, I had Windows Defender in addition to my longstanding Avast Free Antivirus. Isn't it redundant to have both?
 
Yes it's redundant and may actually be counter productive. There's nothing wrong with multiple tools being installed - - however ONLY autostart the one you consider to be primary. You can always manually scan later w/o problems.
 
Hi JOBeard -
Thanks for the reply.

How do I autostart either one? I've been using Avast for a long time, so that's the one I'll autostart. I can tell that the Microsoft Defender is also autostarted since it's the first thing that shows up in the tray after I boot the computer.

Thanks again.
Doug
 
Hi JOBeard -
Thanks. Found that services panel. For the line entitled "Windows Defender Security Center Service", the entry for "running" and "automatic" are grayed out when I right click on them. How do I turn it off?

Doug
 
You have to boot into Safe Mode & log in as Admin.
Set Autostart to MANUAL.
 
Hi JOBeard -
I went into Safe Mode. My computer only has one account, so I did not see any way to become the administrator in Safe Mode. In regular mode I got to services.msc by typing it in Cortana. That did not work in Safe Mode. I was able to bring up a 3-panel Services.msc application (in regular mode I had added it to the Start panel) and the middle panel had all the services, of which Windows Defender Security Center was one of the them, but it also had all the buttons of interest grayed out, except for the Start button.

So when I get into Safe Mode, how do I become an administrator and put the word Manual somewhere in services.msc?

One of the help sites I visited wrote that an Administrator account "is not a path you want to go down", that using one "will attach your account" to it.

If having two antivirus apps is not too much of a problem, I'm OK with leaving it alone. The cure should not be worse for me than the illness.

Please advise. Much appreciate the help.

Doug
 
I got into safe mode with the administrator account, but Windows wouldn't do anything when I searched for services.msc.

I only have one computer and this is getting too close to danger. I flew too close to the sun once before and hosed my Windows installation. Safe mode used to be far simpler.

Thanks for helping me get this far.

I did remember to disable the administrator account when I was finished.

Again my thanks.
Doug
 
Boot safe mode, login as admin. Run CMD. In that new window, type services.msc and hit enter.
 
Boot safe mode, login as admin. Run CMD. In that new window, type services.msc and hit enter.

Hi JOBeard -
You are proving to be a patient person.

I did everything you said: Created the admin account. Booted into safe mode, with the administrator account. Ran cmd - it said it would be opened as administrator and indeed the subdirectory that CMD opened in had the title Administrator. I typed in services.msc and indeed services.msc opened. Went and found Windows Defender Security Service Center (there are two other Windows Defender entries, but both are already labeled Manual) and its Status is "Running" and its Startup Type is Automatic. There's no place to type in "Manual" and the right click gets me a menu with the following all grayed out: stop, pause, resume, restart. Only Start is not grayed out, but how could that be useful since it's already started?

I'm getting faster and more fluid with these instructions. If you've got another step to tell me about how to stop this dang redundant antivirus then I'd be grateful. Just don't ask me to muck with the registry.

Thanks.

Doug
 
Went and found Windows Defender Security Service Center (there are two other Windows Defender entries, but both are already labeled Manual) and its Status is "Running" and its Startup Type is Automatic. There's no place to type in "Manual" and the right click gets me a menu with the following all grayed out: stop, pause, resume, restart. Only Start is not grayed out, but how could that be useful since it's already started?

That's all correct. Notice just above Service Status is
  • Startup type: Automatic
click on the Auto and the choices {auto, manual, disable} will appear. I've chosen Manual, but Disable works too.

I'm getting faster and more fluid with these instructions. If you've got another step to tell me about how to stop this dang redundant antivirus then I'd be grateful. Just don't ask me to muck with the registry.
GOOD FOR YOU - - fear is a protection from acting stupidly :grin:
 
That's all correct. Notice just above Service Status is
  • Startup type: Automatic
click on the Auto and the choices {auto, manual, disable} will appear. I've chosen Manual, but Disable works too.


GOOD FOR YOU - - fear is a protection from acting stupidly :grin:

Hi JOBeard -
Is that a right click on the Automatic or a left click? That's where I got the grayed out menu choices of stop, pause, resume, restart.

Doug
 
That's all correct. Notice just above Service Status is
  • Startup type: Automatic
click on the Auto and the choices {auto, manual, disable} will appear. I've chosen Manual, but Disable works too.


GOOD FOR YOU - - fear is a protection from acting stupidly :grin:

Hi JOBeard -
I went back again to Safe Mode and looked again.
Going through the options as I see them:
If I right click on the Startup Type header then services.msc sorts all the entries by startup type. Not what we want.
If I left click on the Startup Type header then nothing.
If I right click on the Automatic that's in the Startup Type column and is the startup type for Windows Defender then nothing.
If I left click on the Automatic that's in the Startup Type column and is the startup type for Windows Defender then I get the menu start | stop | pause | resume | restart, etc. (which are grayed out, except for Start, but the service is already started so starting does not seem useful) which sure does not look like I want to stop this Windows Defender Service Center from running.

Doug
 
I have to take you at your word, but that's entirely wrong on win/7,8,8,1 and I can't verify win/10.
 
Hi JOBeard -
There was something that looked similar to your picture. I did not see any way of telling it how to start. See the picture below. Maybe someone else knows what to do with this in safe mode.

It would not be the first time that something was right in front of my eyes and I could not see it.

I also uploaded this picture as a file. The granularity is better.

Doug


upload_2017-7-25_14-49-50.png
 

Attachments

  • Services panel in safe-mode 25Jul2017.png
    Services panel in safe-mode 25Jul2017.png
    78.1 KB · Views: 0
Clearly we're accessing TWO DIFFERENT services - - even the descriptions are different
Protection vs Security Center. Even the PATH to the program is different. If you have no other service like "Defender", then win/10 changes are significant.

upload_2017-7-25_12-25-41.png
 
Clearly we're accessing TWO DIFFERENT services - - even the descriptions are different
Protection vs Security Center. Even the PATH to the program is different. If you have no other service like "Defender", then win/10 changes are significant.

View attachment 82534

Hi JOBeard -
There are 3 Windows Defender services, but only one is listed as running - Windows Defender Security Center Service. (See below.) The one titled Windows Defender Antivirus Service sounds perfect, but it's already Manual. Doesn't that mean it's not running? When I look in my tray there's an icon for Windows Defender that I can open. When I open it the title bar contains the name Windows Defender Security Center. So does that mean that I'm only running an interface for Window Defender antivirus, but not the actual antivirus?

upload_2017-7-25_22-14-47.png

Doug
 
I think you're good. The Security Center is NOT the Defender itself - - just the nanny that whines when there is NO antivirus installed and running.
 
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