Disabled Windows Defender Firewall won't turn on; SFC /scannow and Microsoft Updates won't complete

  • Thread starter Thread starter Jeffrey Van Duyne
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Jeffrey Van Duyne

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During the past week (4/5 - 4/12), I've noticed some conflicting information regarding Windows Defender/Security as well as problems with new Windows Updates installing on their own. Other than Microsoft updates and Microsoft 365 Office, no new software has been loaded on the machine in months. I last did a clean build of the system 10/31/19 when a similar issue appeared and now I'm worried the error is in the ISO image itself.


Windows Security has started notifying me that the Defender Firewall is off. Clicking the notice to turn on the firewall has no effect.

Under Services, Windows Defender Firewall startup conditions are at automatic, but the Service status is Stopped. Clicking Start results in:

"Windows could not start the Windows Defender Firewall service on Local Computer. Error 1068: The dependency service or group failed to start."


Running sfc /scannow in admin mode results in the scan halting at 29% with the following error:

"Windows Resource Protection could not perform the requested operation."

No further information is provided.


Running >Dism.exe /online /Cleanup-Image /StartComponentCleanup results in no warnings.

Running > DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /CheckHealth results in No component store corruption detected.

Running > DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /ScanHealth results in

Image Version: 10.0.18362.657

---- 31.9%

Error: 605


The specified buffer contains ill-formed data.


I scanned the SSD windows host drive via CHKDSK and wmic diskdrive get status and the status was OK.


Reverting to an earlier Restore Point (4/6) resulted in an unstable system where I could not open Chrome and Edge was unstable.


Additional concerns, that may be related:

Virus & Threat detection states that the last scan was 4/11/20 with no threats found. Yet it will also say on different screens that Windows antivirus is off. Services shows Defender Antivirus Service is Running, but Antivirus Network Inspection Service is Stopped and has the same error as Firewall when Start is clicked.

Defender Advanced Threat Protection Service is set to Stopped, and can be Started, resulting in a notice that "service on Local Computer started and then stopped."


Windows Updates also have begun to have problems installing.


I have Windows Updates automatically installing, with the latest installs being:

Update for Windows Defender Antivirus antimalware platform - KB4052623 (Version 4.18.2001.10)

and

2020-02 Cumulative Update for .NET Framework 3.5 and 4.8 for Windows 10 Version 1903 for x64 (KB4537572)


2020-03 Cumulative Update for Windows 10 Version 1903 for x64-based Systems (KB4551762) installed failed with 0x8007025d error

Update for Windows 10, version 1909 also failed with the same error.


Any thoughts on the status of the system? I really don't want to have to wipe the drive.

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