Microsoft Security Essentials does not turn on at startup

Of late, MSE has stopped starting the real time protection on its own. I see the red icon in the tray.
I tried to start the real time protection myself but I get an error code: 0x800705b4.

I had a look at a similar problem here and I find that Microsoft AntiVirus Service is started even when the icon is red. I have even repaired my .NET from Control Panel. None of it seems to help.

A strange thing is that task manager's Services tab shows MSE as running. I decided to run a scan and then the icon updated to show Potentially Unprotected which is normal because I use CCleaner.

Can someone please tell me how to solve this?

enter image description here

Little Child

Posted 2013-09-03T11:34:20.847

Reputation: 448

1I have seen something like this before. The user had downloaded a "browser toolbar" that was actually malware... With the user's approval it walks right past the antivirus. I think we had to put an anti-virus program on a CD from another computer and run it. We had to go into task manager and find the malware and disable it first. – Don Nickel – 2013-09-03T12:41:55.453

1@DonNickel Sometimes at startup it does run. services.msc shows MSE as running always.. I checked my task manager and then there are no suspicious files – Little Child – 2013-09-03T14:19:26.650

In the situation I mentioned, there was a similar behavior. I don't know if the malware was spoofing MSE or if it was just blocking part of it. I remember we uninstalled MSE prior to the clean, and reinstalled it fresh after the clean. – Don Nickel – 2013-09-03T14:36:09.867

@LittleChild - Most malware can hide itself pretty well. So having no suspicious processes tells you pretty much nothing. The fact MSE is basically disable points to an infection or at the very least, the corruption of your system image. I am not sure why you repair the .NET Framework, MSE does not use that, at least to my knowlege. – Ramhound – 2013-09-03T15:10:03.643

@Ramhound Services shows MSE as running ... and ... if I scan and cancel the scan ... I get that usual MSE icon ... – Little Child – 2013-09-03T15:45:22.160

@LittleChild - Your screenshot says real-time protection could no be enabled. This indicates system intregity issues. – Ramhound – 2013-09-03T15:51:14.513

Have you tried simply reinstalling it? – Moses – 2013-09-03T22:49:39.760

Answers

To be sure, I would load MSCONFIG (START > RUN > MSCONFIG> OK) and check the Start Up tab.

You'll be able to see whats starting, and amend the things that you don't want on boot.

Check the ones you want, uncheck the ones that you don't. CCleaner (Piriform.com) also has a StartUp manager, which you might also like to check out.

In my experience, there's always a toolbar or some other unwanted thing there that runs before MSE and kills it.

Best / Crit

Critical

Posted 2013-09-03T11:34:20.847

Reputation: 21

There arent any toolbars. However, when my friend plugged in his flash drive, there was a YeltMinky.A in it. MSE deleted it however, I have these symptoms since then. I looked up how to clean that up and I see that I do not have it running in processes – Little Child – 2013-09-03T15:44:26.703

The error 0x800705b4 shows up if you have have disabled the Defender in the registry:

Press Win Key + R combination, type regedit.exe in Run dialog box and hit Enter to open the Registry Editor.
Navigate to the following location:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows Defender
change the value DisableAntiSpyware from 1 to 0.

enter image description here

Reboot and now Defender should work fine.

magicandre1981

Posted 2013-09-03T11:34:20.847

Reputation: 86 560

1It is Security Essentials. I could not find the registry u mentioned under Policies – Little Child – 2013-09-03T17:26:16.783

OS Win7 64 bit The "DisableAntiSpyware" Registry location was as follows: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Windows Defender , double clicked "DisableAntiSpyware", changed value from "1" to "0" now "real-time protection" working.

On the Registry editor file menu, entered Edit then Find then entered "DisableAntiSpyware" without quotes to find.

PDC

Posted 2013-09-03T11:34:20.847

Reputation: 21