Fix Virus and Threat Protection Engine Unavailable Error Easily

Solve the problem of Windows Defender virus and threat protection engine unavailability

Windows Defender on your Windows computer is the main antivirus application. However, sometimes you may encounter the error message "Virus and Threat Protection Engine Not Available". This article will provide solutions provided by MiniTool to fix this error.

Windows Defender protects your system from malware by scanning files and repairing threats. But sometimes Windows Defender virus and threat protection do not work properly for various reasons, such as the Windows Defender engine is not available in Windows 11/10. This is not a rare problem. Searching on Google, you will find that many users are troubled by this.

Here is how to solve the problem of engine unavailability:

Repair method one: Restart the security center service

When the Security Center service is disabled, Windows Defender may encounter an error and fail to work. You can restart the Security Center service by following the steps below:

Step 1. Press the Windows R key combination to open the run window.

Step 2. Type services.msc in the input box and press Enter on the keyboard.

Step 3. Scroll down to find, right-click on the Security Center , and select Restart from the context menu.

Now you can open Windows Defender to check if the engine is unavailable error has disappeared.

Repair method 2: Run SFC scan

As mentioned earlier, corrupt system files can also be the cause of the engine's unavailable error message. To scan and repair corrupt files and restore the full functionality of Windows Defender, you can try performing a System File Checker (SFC) scan. (The specific steps of SFC scanning should be added here)

Repair method three: Modify the registry key

An engine unavailability error may also occur when some registries associated with Windows Defender (such as DisableAntiVirus and DisableAntiSpyware) are disabled. In this case, you need to enable these registries using the Windows Registry Editor.

Notice:

Step 1. Press the Windows R keyboard shortcut to open the run window.

Step 2. Type regedit in the text box and press Enter . Select Yes in the User Account Control window.

Step 3. In the top address bar, navigate to the following location:

Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows Defender

Step 4. In the right panel, double-click DisableAntiVirus and set its value data to 0. After that, click OK to save the changes.

Step 5. Refer to the same steps above, change the value data of DisableAntiSpyware to 0.

Fix method 4: Delete other third-party applications

Some third-party applications may conflict with Windows Defender, resulting in virus and threat protection engine unavailability errors. Therefore, to resolve this issue, you can delete applications that block Windows Defender from updating or running properly.

If none of the above methods solve the problem of engine unavailability, you can try resetting Windows Defender. (The specific steps to reset Windows Defender should be added here)

Fix method 5: Use data recovery software to recover files lost due to virus attacks

When virus and threat protection fail to work, your computer may be infected with viruses. Viral attacks can lead to data loss. To recover files deleted by viruses, you can use MiniTool Power Data Recovery , a free data recovery software. (The functions and usage methods of MiniTool Power Data Recovery should be briefly introduced here, and the pictures should be retained)

Important suggestions

To avoid data loss, it is highly recommended that you back up files regularly. There are many ways to back up files. Here we recommend that you use the data backup software - MiniTool ShadowMaker for data backup. (This part of the content can be considered here because it has little to do with the main problem)

Summarize

By reading this article, you should know how to fix virus and threat protection engine unavailability issues in Windows 11/10.

If you have found other effective solutions to this error, please leave a message below to share with us. Thanks in advance!

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