New Acer Spin 5 Where is windows antivirus - seems to be off

I've just bought a new Acer Spin 5 and I am a little worried the antivirus hasn't been installed correctly. I was under the impression all windows pcs come with Windows defender antivirus. I have windows security which I understand is not antivirus but merely the app to view any antivirus on the computer. It seems to have a 1 month trial of Norton on it, but Windows defender antivirus and windows firewall appear to be off with no option to turn on. And when I search for the Windows defender it doesn't even seem to be on my computer at all. And norton seems to only be half protecting me, (no internet security just device) and in the online account it says even device isn't protected. Plus if its only a 1 month trial id rather stick with the standard windows approved antivirus to avoid any complications and also to avoid additional costs. Anyone else with the same computer have this problem? and able to shed light on exactly what is happening? is this right? and what antivirus you use?

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Athwart

Windows Defender will stay off as long as you have another anti-virus program running although you can set Windows Defender to also run periodically. You can do that through Windows Security - the Shield icon on the bottom right of the task bar or possibly in the hidden icons behind the ^ symbol. Select "Virus & threat protection" then "Microsoft Defender Anti-virus options".

If you have no interest in paying for Norton's anti-virus, simply uninstall it and Windows Defender will turn itself on. You can uninstall Norton's by pressing the Win+R keys then enter appwiz.cpl into the run window. This will open the "Uninstall or Change" program. Find Norton's, right click on it & select uninstall. You may need to re-boot.

There's no shortage of alternative anti-virus programs around - both paid & free. Just do a search & try out a few.

ronanski

Thank you. I decided to uninstal norton as it was all looking a bit complicated and the computer didn't seem to like it. I hope it's enough. I noticed however, under web protection, under manage providers, under settings, in windows security it says 'no providers'... does this not mean it is not protecting me online? It says antivirus and firewall are on, and everything seems to say no action needed, however I have also noticed 'app & browser control' seems to keep switching itself off... is this normal? Might this stop now I have uninstalled norton?

billsey

Yes, once you get Norton fully uninstalled you'll be running under the normal Defender that comes with Windows. If all of Norton is not removed it'll give you warnings like that though.

philgp721

I just wiped an Acer Swift 5 SF514-55TA-77WW and after uninstalling Norton, Windows/Microsoft Defender is not available. I logged in with a local account versus signing in with a Microsoft account, Windows Defender is no longer available to do a Virus and Threat Protection Scan. There is a message on the screen that reads, "Page not available." For years, we have used this native Virus and Threat Protection option. I saw many ratings that rated it quite well when we first decided to go that way.
I contacted Acer and from what they could find, Microsoft now requires you to have a Microsoft 365 account.

I have tried A LOT of the suggestions I found on YouTube, support pages, and Google.
I tried to call Microsoft. Yeah, I couldn't get to a person.
I attempted to:

I Reset the Windows Security Settings shown on this page
I tried all 4 options on the page - No luck -- (The included Norton Anti-virus had been removed when we first set up
Set-MpPreference -UILockdown 0 the computer
I also attempted Disable Windows Defender UI LockdownMethod 2: Using Regedit
I also tried Method 4: Reset the Windows Security App
I also tried Method 6: Perform Windows 11 Repair

All of these attempts have been after a 4th wipe/restore to try different flows. This most recent restore used the cloud download of Windows 11 Pro versus the local copy I had used for the first three attempts.
I am now at a loss for what to attempt next. Any ideas?