Hi all I am having a strange problem with Windows Action Center in Windows 8. When I first installed Windows 8 everything worked fine, but I've since tried a few different security products. I've had Avast 7 free on the computer, and Norton Security Suite (Norton 360 basically) on the computer not at the same time of course, but have decided to go back to default Windows defender that comes with Windows 8 even though I know it doesn't offer the best protection out there. Like I said I had Avast 7 free on the computer and when I uninstalled it I used the awsclear.exe file in safe mode to uninstall it. Then I chose to install Norton Security Suite because I get it free through Comcast. Didn't really have a problem with it, but want to go back to the default that came with Windows 8. So I uninstalled the Suite via Control Panel, restarted the computer then downloaded and ran the Norton Removal tool. Here is what is wrong. The windows action center reports that my antivirus protection is turned off which is correct because Norton turned off Defender like it is supposed to. The problem is that when I click Turn On Antivirus protection it doesn't turn it on, but instead opens the Windows\System32 folder. I am at a loss as to why it is doing this.
Things I have tried:
ran sfc /scannow via command prompt - no errors found
ran malwarebytes anti-rootkit - nothing found
ran tdss killer - nothing found
ran full scan of emsisoft antimalware - nothing found
ran full scan of eset online scanner - nothing found
tried the net stop mgmt command via command prompt to no avail
currently i'm running a scan with kaspersky rescue disk, but it would seem this isn't a virus issue (didn't think it was to begin with, but you never know). Anyone have any ideas or had something similar happen? I really don't want to have to reinstall Windows just to get Defender to work again. One thing I should note that is kind of odd is that every time I run Norton Removal tool it asks me to restart the computer. Does this mean it continues to find things and I should run it until it doesn't ask me to restart or is that normal behavior? I'm pretty much open to any and all suggestions at this point. Thanks for sticking with me and reading this.
Things I have tried:
ran sfc /scannow via command prompt - no errors found
ran malwarebytes anti-rootkit - nothing found
ran tdss killer - nothing found
ran full scan of emsisoft antimalware - nothing found
ran full scan of eset online scanner - nothing found
tried the net stop mgmt command via command prompt to no avail
currently i'm running a scan with kaspersky rescue disk, but it would seem this isn't a virus issue (didn't think it was to begin with, but you never know). Anyone have any ideas or had something similar happen? I really don't want to have to reinstall Windows just to get Defender to work again. One thing I should note that is kind of odd is that every time I run Norton Removal tool it asks me to restart the computer. Does this mean it continues to find things and I should run it until it doesn't ask me to restart or is that normal behavior? I'm pretty much open to any and all suggestions at this point. Thanks for sticking with me and reading this.
