Windows Defender shuts itself off

[Shellshell]

Hi, I'm running vista home basic 32 bit on my laptop and desktop. My windows defender is shutting itself off (only on my laptop, but not on my desktop). I recently had a virus (laptop), which I got rid of, but now my icons have disappeared. I started task manager, selected applications> file> new task (run...), then typed in explorer.exe: this brought back my icons, but after the laptop went to sleep, and I woke it, guess what: no icons. Do I have to save it or something? Also anyone know about windows defender shutting itself off? I have seen many posts about this topic, from people running different o/s, different antispyware, etc. I have been using AVG, Spybot, and Spywareblaster for a year or so, and have not had any problems like this. Is it possible I still have a virus that is going undetected by my security programs?

Thanks, Shelly

 

[richc46]

Hi, I'm running vista home basic 32 bit on my laptop and desktop. My windows defender is shutting itself off (only on my laptop, but not on my desktop). I recently had a virus (laptop), which I got rid of, but now my icons have disappeared. I started task manager, selected applications> file> new task (run...), then typed in explorer.exe: this brought back my icons, but after the laptop went to sleep, and I woke it, guess what: no icons. Do I have to save it or something? Also anyone know about windows defender shutting itself off? I have seen many posts about this topic, from people running different o/s, different antispyware, etc. I have been using AVG, Spybot, and Spywareblaster for a year or so, and have not had any problems like this. Is it possible I still have a virus that is going undetected by my security programs?

Thanks, Shelly

If you downloaded MSE, it will shut off the defender by default.

Run malwarbytes and see what it shows.

http://www.malwarebytes.org/mbam.php

Once you get rid of a virus, the damage remains. Check to make sure the virus or malware is gone and then we will fix each problem one at a time.