Vista - Windows Defender fails to start, can't manually open

When the computer finishes booting up, and error message comes up that says

Application failed to initialize: 0x800106ba. A problem caused this
program's service to stop.

It says to restart the compuer, but this message still occurs after
restarting. It also appears if I try to open defender manually. Any help?

Error message when you run Windows Defender: "Error Code 0x800106ba"
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/931849

--

TaurArian [MVP] 2005-2008 - Update Services
http://taurarian.mvps.org
======================================
How to ask a question: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/555375
Computer Maintenance: Acronis / Diskeeper / Paragon / Raxco


"Phil" <Phil@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:15BE99C7-74B1-4139-829A-69606DBDD96A@xxxxxx
| When the computer finishes booting up, and error message comes up that says
|
| Application failed to initialize: 0x800106ba. A problem caused this
| program's service to stop.
|
| It says to restart the compuer, but this message still occurs after
| restarting. It also appears if I try to open defender manually. Any help?

I too have recently received this error message. I have tried to use the kb931849 that TuarArian provided, but I cannot find a way to uninstall Windows Defender, as it's not a listed program and is part of my current Vista Business 32bit SP2 installation. I can reinstall Vista but hate to go this route.

Any suggestions would be most appreciated -- thanks!

I was having the same problem. After countless hours of Google searching, I found no help. Even the windows support site had nothing. So I started to mess around and I figured how to fix this problem. Go to start and type in msconfig, click on the services tab and scroll till you find Windows Defender and check the box. And yes i reg. here just to post this.

Here's what I did:
Open task manager (ctrl+alt+del)
Click on the Services tab
Scroll down to the bottom
Right click WinDefend
Select Start Service

This should get Windows Defender running again.
I've since disabled the pesky little thing.

HTH

How to manually restart Windows Defender in Windows Vista 64:

Click Start, Control Panel, System and Maintenance, Administrative Tools, double click on Services inside the box, click on continue when a box pops up, scroll down to Windows Defender. Check the Startup Type Column, it should be set to Automatic. If not, check the Status Column, it should be set to Started, if neither of these are correct, right click on Windows Defender in the box, and select Properties. Change the Startup Type to Automatic (Automatic only), then click Apply, then ok. Up in the top left of the box that is left after the other one closes, under Windows Defender, click on Start the Service. Once that is completed, you can exit everything and restart your computer. When your computer restarts, it may ask if you want to check for updates to Windows Defender. Just click yes and it will tell you if there are any updates. When you are finished, you have just manually restarted your Windows Defender....enjoy!!! Steve from KY