Hello,
I sent this message to Windows Help Center as well, because I have no idea which is at fault.
My issue has been here for at least a week, and went as follows:
- downloaded viruses
- launched several scans with W(indows)D(efender): found 1 adware, then nothing, then 1 malware, then nothing again
- wanted a more thourough, deep search; so installed B(it)D(efender) as an extra help
- with it, did 1 system scan which found around 20ish issues (mostly malwares)
- did another deep scan, plus a quick scan and found nothing more
- uninstalled BD to avoid antiviruses clashing one against the other
- rebooted my computer
- got a screen reading my "Antivirus actions were being completed", then few seconds later it told me it was, and went on with the usual W password screen.
- wanted to use Windows Defender to do the thourough, offline scan that reboots my computer
- no WD icon on bottom right of my taskbar?
- tried to get to WD through W Security Center, but it's gone
- since then, haven't ever seen the WD again, nor have had my WSC back
- reinstalled BD as I had no AV nor FW anymore
- did several things after having met this issue, including (I did all of that 7 days+ ago so non-exhaustive): checking in services, rebooting, using CMD, downloading WD through W store (but it's a paid for version), checked for W updates (none were found)
After reinstalling BD, I did some more deep scans, no issues were found. It did want me to install a "Windows Security update" though, and considered staying the way i was a "Grave threat". So I clicked yes (all i wanted was to get it back anyways), but went nowhere else than that as it simply made the sofware crash, only for it to never talk about this update ever again.
Did another BD scan two days later and found few more issues that all got solved (aka disposed of).
I've been using BD for a week and found no more issue with scans, but no WSC update either, whether I checked through BD or the W update service.
I had used BD alongside WD for years on my previous computer and never went through this issue, which I find astonishingly grave. It's literaly the first time I went through this, and couldn't get back the way i was even with the help of a cybersecurity student I know.
TLDR; BitDefender helped me get rid of malwares, but also wiped my entire Windows Security Center and Windows Defender in the process, which currently forces me to pay to have a firewall. Would like to recover both my WSC and WD but none of what I tried and found online worked.
Thanks for hearing me out. I don't think this is the right thread but I didn't find any that fit my issue.
Regards,
Wise.