Windows Defender Advanced Threat Protection Service won't start and unable to change Startup Type from Manual

Solution 1:

Why is it that the Windows Defender Advanced Threat Protection Service is turned off and unable to be started manually? It quickly fails after trying to start it with this error message:

This appears to be normal behavior of the Threat Protection Service in Windows 11 (more so than Windows 10). I have two Windows 11 Pro machines here and 1 Windows 10 Pro.

The threat protection service in Windows 11 is normally OFF and is off (stopped automatically) if not in use. There are other Local Group Policies (gpedit.msc) that affect the operation.

I know Windows 11 Defender is working because it quarantined some apps I use (unlocker 1.92) that I had to whitelist.

There are numerous articles about this, not all conclusive. Here is a good and fairly recent Microsoft Article that is somewhat helpful

Windows Defender

So at this point, situation normal for Services. Of course it may change as Defender changes to adapt to new threats.

Windows Defender Security center shows Windows Defender working properly in Windows 11 and in Windows 10.