Problem with ENS on a specific machine

[vandreytrindade]

Hi!

I'm facing a weird problem with ENS on my work machine.

I installed the first July update and when I checked that it had problems, I didn't release it to the rest of the company.

Now that the second July update is out (10.6.1.1340.1), I've installed it on other machines. It is working well. But my machine continues to have problems...

It started by Windows 10 1903 (full updated) saying that McAfee had stopped working and then changing to Windows Defender. So I uninstalled McAfee ENS and tried to reinstall it again.

Same problem.

So I used the ENS Removal Tool (19.5.0.17) to removed all products from McAfee from my PC.

Finished, restarted the PC, and installed first the Agent from ePO and then ENS, from ePO too.

Then ePO stayed for one week without not being able to get information from my machine and not receiving the policies correctly and Windows Defender is the main antivirus for my PC since then.

I also tried to install using the standalone installer.

Here are some screenshots of what I have:

Since there is no way to stop ENS services like we did with VirusScan, how can I fix this and make sure that Windows Defender will not be the main AV solution on my machine?

[vandreytrindade]

Update:

I have stopped Windows Defender and so I was able to start ENS again...

Will restart my machine to check if Windows Defender won't get back anymore...

[vandreytrindade]

Yup... Once again, after rebooting the PC, Windows Defender took control again...

[rzajiccelgene]

Hello

windows Defender is being suppressed during ENS installation. Unfortunately your GPO settings has higher priority then the ENS has. So in case that you will enable the defender after ENS installation, then ENS isnt able to stop it itself.

https://www.prajwaldesai.com/how-to-turn-off-windows-defender-using-group-policy/

Should be set to not configured. Then the ENS installation will be able to disable it

[vandreytrindade]

Sorry, but who said that there is any GPO configured in my environment?

[rzajiccelgene]

I am not saying that GPO is defined in your environment on domain level, but could be enabled locally on your machine. As i have mentioned, the service is being disabled during the ENS installation. Logical is that something is enabling it after re-log.

[vandreytrindade]

There is no GPO configured locally on my machine.

[vandreytrindade]

I read this article:

https://kc.mcafee.com/agent/index?page=content&id=KB91830

I've subscribed to it now.

But, after 1 month, McAfee wasn't supposed to already fix it? This is not a free product.

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

It's being fixed as part of the next release. This is targeted for October.

[Former Member]

Hello @vandreytrindade ,

Thank you for your query.

As per your issue and the KB mentioned in the query the issue seems to be with "Windows Security Center reports that ENS is disabled. Windows Security Center can prompt to enable Windows Defender."

Please be advised that this issue is resolved in ENS 10.6.1 May Update.

See the related article for more information.

https://kc.mcafee.com/corporate/index?page=content&id=KB82450

https://kc.mcafee.com/corporate/index?page=content&id=KB91428