Solved: Windows Defender is Turned off and is Currently Managed by your Systems Administrator

Windows Defender is Turned off – How to Turn on?

Nowadays many users are reporting that Windows defender is turned off for some reason. Now sure why? However, due to this, we are not securing Windows 10 or Windows 11.

Windows Defender is a built-in security software capable enough to protect your Microsoft Windows. Also, known as Windows Security.

If you are using a Windows 10 or 11 desktop or laptop then you may not be required to install any third party security on your Windows PC.

For better security of Windows computers, after the Fall Creators update, Microsoft enhanced Windows Security and added Ransomware protection to it.

Make sure you keep updating Windows Security from time to time.

Sometimes, due to certain changes in Windows, Windows Security applications stop working. Then, it will show you the message below:

Windows Defender Antivirus is Turned off and is Currently being Managed by Your System Administrator

You will see it in the Control Panel items under Security and Maintenance (Image 1) or in the Windows Defender application itself.

Also, it shows you that Virus & threat protection service has stopped (Image 2) and clicking on Restart now won’t help

This makes your Windows computer unprotected.

Fix Error Windows Defender is Turned off and is Currently Managed by your Systems Administrator

This usually happens due to modifications and changes to Group Policies or in Windows Registry unknowingly.

In this article, we will show you how you can solve the issue for error “Windows defender turned off and is currently managed by your system administrator”.

Follow the steps given below or watch this video carefully:

To be safe, it is best that you take the backup of your Registry before you start doing the given steps. To learn how to back up your registry editor, click the link below:

[Read: How to Backup and Restore Windows Registry?]

Step 1. Press Win + R to open the Run Dialog box. Type regedit and click the OK button to open Windows Registry Editor.

Step 2. Registry Editor is on your screen now, follow the below given path:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows Defender

Step 3. Now go to the right-side and locate REG_DWORD key DisableAntiSpyware. Then, right-click and select Modify…

Step 4. Edit DWORD window will open, change the value from 1 to 0 and click OK to close.

Now close the registry editor and you just need to restart your Windows computer.

Once your Windows is restarted and returned, you will see that Windows defender is functional and all of its services are working and won’t show you an error message Windows defender turned off and is currently managed by your system administrator.

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