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Question

windows firewall disabled

Mar 17, 2015 1:09AM PDT

My windows 8.1 firewall has been disabled, possibly by some malware that has since been removed. nothing that I've tried seems to be able to turn it back on. I'm really frustrated because this in turn seems to effect new apps using or loading as well as other things. Does anyone have any suggestions to turn it back on. I've tried all the standard ways as well as other suggestions.

Discussion is locked

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Clarification Request
Some antivirus suites turn it off too.
Mar 17, 2015 1:13AM PDT

There are so many prior discussions on topic that to reduce the causes we need more detail. What malware did you remove and what antivirus/other software is installed?
Bob

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PS. Always list your standard ways.
Mar 17, 2015 1:47AM PDT
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Sharmon5 - Clarification request
Mar 18, 2015 1:07AM PDT

My Windows 8.1 Firewall has been disabled by what I think might have been some malware installed at one time.All of which have been removed. I have ran many malware removal programs, all show to be infection free, including Microsoft security tool. My webroot antivirus full system scans show nothing there either. In my control panel, add/remove programs, show nothing there that shouldn't be. I've went too run / "Services.msc" and set windows firewall properties to automatic, as well as "Base filter engine" set to automatic as well as service status running. I've reset browser settings. I've cleared all history & cookies from both browsers - Internet explorer & Google Chrome. I've cleared any managed add-ons and search providers from Internet Explorer that aren't supposed to be there. I can't think of anything else to try, yet I can't even manually turn on windows firewall.

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Webroot appears to have a firewall.
Mar 18, 2015 1:27AM PDT

So my bet is they turned it off.

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Windows 8.1 Firewall turned off
Mar 18, 2015 4:31AM PDT

I thought of that too. So I uninstalled Webroot, tried to turn back on the Windows Firewall, it still wouldn't turn back on, so then I reinstalled Webroot. Besides this happened long after I installed Webroot anyway.

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Since it's damaged.
Mar 18, 2015 4:49AM PDT

And we can't tell by what. Ask Microsoft how to avoid reinstall. For now, use Webroot's own firewall offering. You only need one.
Bob

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Windows 8.1 firewall turned off
Mar 18, 2015 6:10AM PDT

Bob, I judt tried to run Windows Defender. About half way through it stopped and an error box popped up saying My signature has been replaced. What does that tell you ?

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Is that the exact wording of the error message?
Mar 18, 2015 6:40AM PDT