Defender error message

  • Thread starter Thread starter Dave Horne
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Dave Horne

I posted here before I went to bed but the post does not appear and this is
six hours later. This could be a double post, if so, sorry.

I saw that the icon for Windows Defender was different so I looked as it. I
see the following message when I open Windows Defender:

The program can't check for definition updates. Error found: Code
0x80240029.

I googled this and tried a few things but am going in circles. I did update
WinZip from 11 to 11.1 and that was displayed in Defender's History until I
deleted it from History. This might have nothing to do with this but that
was the last change I made on this computer (Vista Home Premium) before I
rec'd this error.

Suggestions? Thanks, DH
 
Dave Horne said:
I posted here before I went to bed but the post does not appear and this is
six hours later. This could be a double post, if so, sorry.

I saw that the icon for Windows Defender was different so I looked as it.
I see the following message when I open Windows Defender:

The program can't check for definition updates. Error found: Code
0x80240029.

I googled this and tried a few things but am going in circles. I did
update WinZip from 11 to 11.1 and that was displayed in Defender's History
until I deleted it from History. This might have nothing to do with this
but that was the last change I made on this computer (Vista Home Premium)
before I rec'd this error.

Suggestions? Thanks, DH
Click to expand...

The good news is that you can fix this very easily. I had exactly this
problem and found the solution somewhere in one of the forums.

The bad news is that I cannot remember how I did it. It is something like
disabling Defender, removing all updates and then reactivating it.

You will find the answer if you search all the relevant forums diligently.
(I thought I had kept a note of the answer but now can't find it, must be a
sign of old age!)
 
Malcolm, I did a google search and came up with a solution that I have also
used when I had Windows Update issues.

I simply renamed the Windows \ SoftwareDistribution folder. (Actually you
could also just delete that entire folder.)

That did the trick. I could not rename it though unless I was in SafeMode
(F8 on reboot).
 
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