Windows Defender error

20 years ago

I downloaded and installed Windows Defender several days ago on my XP Media Edition computer. I did an initial scan and have kept it updated. I just tried to do a scan and got the following error:

"Windows Defender encountered an error 0x80004002. Invalid pointer"

What is this and how do I fix it so that I can scan my computer?

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Comments (3)

grownupgeek
20 years ago
Try going to "Windows Update" and seeing if any updates are available for your computer.
see if that helps

Here is a link that might be useful: Windows Update Website
grandms
Original Author
20 years ago
My computer is fully updated. I did Google the error, which, by the way is 0x80004003 (not 2) and found one suggestion which must have been before the beta2 version. I did find that if I opened the program from the Start menu I could run the scan with no problem. So I guess this is just a bug. Did find quite a few entries for this error. I may just uninstall the program and later try a re-download and install.
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tgrey
19 years ago
So it looks like Microsoft requires you to have "Automatic Updates" enable. Right click on My Computer, click on Properties and click on the "Automatic Updates" tab. Then turn on Automatic Updates. After doing this, Windows Defender seems to update fine even after I later decided to disable Automatic Updates again.

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Windows Defender error

Comments (3)

grownupgeek

grandms
Original Author

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tgrey

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Windows Defender error

Comments (3)

grownupgeek

grandmsOriginal Author

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tgrey

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grandms
Original Author