Solved! Windows Anti-Virus "Managed by Administrator" fix

Onehate

Member
Mar 25, 2011
79
2
71
Not sure if this was from a virus or what but I had malware bytes and spybot installed. I ran malware bytes and cleared out some infections and uninstalled wanting to move to defender strickley. I go into the Defender page and the Security page loads blank, when I go into the anti-protection every option has "managed by administrator" on it, and the option to turn it on is greyed out. I have tired logging into the admin account and it tells me the same thing. At this point I am trying to figure out what to do. I tired deleting the Defender keys and rebooting and that didnt do anything. I am at a loss how to recover this.

Was hoping someone could give me some helpful hints, as I really do not want to have to reformat to recover this. Why does windows have to be so broken sometimes?
 

UsandThem

Elite Member
May 4, 2000
16,068
7,380
146
If you've had some infections already, and it sounds like you still have some issues relating to malware / viruses, you should reinstall Windows to be sure.

BTW, Malwarebytes isn't the best at protection (although it is helpful for cleaning up some malware / viruses after-the-fact). Maybe try a true antivirus program like Norton, Bitdefender, Kaspersky, or even Windows Defender.

https://www.av-test.org/en/antiviru.../june-2019/malwarebytes-premium-3.7.1-192313/

https://www.av-test.org/en/antivirus/home-windows/
 

VirtualLarry

No Lifer
Aug 25, 2001
56,229
9,990
126
Note that Shutup10, if installed, and default settings chosen, will often cause many of the "Settings" app pages, to display, "This setting is managed by your administrator", too, btw.

It disables the built-in anti-virus reporting back to MS, that might be what you were seeing.