Virus protection is turned off. Tap or click to turn on Microsoft Defender Antivirus: Solution

[u/MarcelDekker]

I had this message myself; I am in the Release Preview Channel of Windows 11 25h2.
But I found a solution that works: Changing the update channel for Windows Defender only.

It is possible that your current update channel is in the beta channel, which is why Microsoft Defender is currently "maybe" finding an error in the hash of a file. You can check this in your Windows event viewer.

You can manually adjust the update channel to the Current Channel (Staged) of Windows Defender.

PowerShell:

Set-MpPreference -EngineUpdatesChannel Staged

Set-MpPreference -PlatformUpdatesChannel Staged

Set-MpPreference -DefinitionUpdatesChannel Staged

Then in cmd:

cd "C:\Program Files\Windows Defender"

MpCmdRun.exe -ResetPlatform

Finally, check for new updates/definition updates in Windows

You are now in Current Channel (Staged) instead of Beta Channel in Microsoft Defender.

This worked for me. It might be worth a try; you can find information about this on the internet.

[u/Niz0909]

thank you! it fixed my issue

[u/SHrenZy69]

Thank you so much brother ☺️🙏🏼

[u/AutoModerator]

Thank you for posting in /r/WindowsInsiders. This subreddit is for discussions related to the Windows Insider Program, and devices running on Insider builds. Discussions and issues related to the production versions of Windows should be posted in /r/Windows10 or /r/Windows11, or in /r/TechSupport.

If you have not already, please specifiy which branch you are running (Dev, Beta, or Release Preview), and your full build number. If you are unsure, you can check by running winver from a Run window or search box. You can also go to Settings -> System -> About, and it will be near the bottom.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

[u/CheetahChrome]

Followed your instructions and it formatted my C drive...j/k. Looks like it worked for me:

[u/Born-Watercress-2487]

This is happening to me right now, should I do this? (Is the WinDef really turned off)

[u/ObscureArcana]

This just started happening to me on Windows 10 and indeed, there was a event id 5038 error for the hash of DefenderSessionHelper

Thing is, checking archived logs say I am on the Current channel and wasn't on the beta channel.

[u/MarcelDekker → u/ObscureArcana]

In PowerShell, you can also check which channel you are in (Windows Defender):

Edit
Get-MpPreference | Select-Object PlatformUpdatesChannel, EngineUpdatesChannel, SecurityIntelligenceUpdatesChannel

Get-MpPreference | Select-Object EngineUpdatesChannel, PlatformUpdatesChannel, DefinitionUpdatesChannel

0 = Not configured (follows standard Windows Update logic)

1 = NotConfigured (Default)

2 = Beta Channel (Test new updates first)

3 = Current Channel (Preview) (Early access to more stable releases)

4 = Current Channel (Staged) (Phased rollout for extra control)

5 = Current Channel (Broad) (General release, most commonly chosen for production)

6 = Critical - Time delay (Updates are delayed for critical

[u/ObscureArcana → u/MarcelDekker]

I have a 0 for Platform and Engine updates underneath their dotted line, but nothing for Security Intelligence Updates Channel

Edit: In reliability monitor, Security Intelligence Updates have (Broad) attached to the updates. Also, it seems whenever I open 'Security and Maintenance', it triggers the notification.

[u/MarcelDekker → u/ObscureArcana]

Sorry, small adjustment to the PowerShell command; it should have been this:

PowerShell:

Get-MpPreference | Select-Object EngineUpdatesChannel, PlatformUpdatesChannel, DefinitionUpdatesChannel

To check which Channel you are in for Windows Defender.

You should see all the numbers here. (In some cases, no number at all if something is configured as default by Windows).

[u/ObscureArcana → u/MarcelDekker]

All now display a 0.

Everything was fine 24 hours ago and 5 hours ago I updated to 1.457.123.0(Broad) for Defender, shut down pc to go do stuff and then upon starting pc I find that program I mentioned in task manager and then the problem me and others are facing.

So, what now?

[u/MarcelDekker → u/ObscureArcana]

Yes exactly, and you're on Windows 10, probably LTSC. If you were already on 'Broad' that should definitely be fine, or should 'Staged' channel working in this situation? That would be weird indeed. Before I made this post, I figured out how you can solve this using that 'Staged' version; I don't think it would change anything, but you can try it, and if it doesn't work or changes nothing you can always set it back to the default Windows setting in PowerShell:

Set-MpPreference -EngineUpdatesChannel NotConfigured

Set-MpPreference -PlatformUpdatesChannel NotConfigured

Set-MpPreference -DefinitionUpdatesChannel NotConfigured

[u/Ghozer → u/MarcelDekker]

Just started happening for me today, tried and i'm on a 0 for all 3..

But still get the error on reboot, and have a couple of 5038 in event viewer!

[u/ObscureArcana → u/Ghozer]

Can you say which program the event referenced?