Security Centre missing from Services

I recently accidentally ran a "Standard Installation (Reccommended)" instead of a "Custom Installation (ADVANCED USERS ONLY)", so of course I got some free malware.

It's all gone now, but it hit the Windows Security Centre in an odd way. I booted my computer this morning to the message "Windows Security Centre is turned off". When I tried to turn it on, I recieved the standard error that it cannot be started.

When I tried to manually start it through Services, I found the service entirely absent. It should be between Security Accounts Manager and Server, but it isn't. A quick google told me that this is typically caused by a missing registry entry, specifically HKEY_LoCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\wscsvc

However, that particular entry is present, so I'm assuming it's not correct. Is it possible for me to manually reinstall Windows Security Centre itself, or to otherwise repair the registry?

 

Hi my friend , welcome to MG's :major

What is your Operating System ? You can read this article :wave

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2519899

 

Sorry, I tried to edit it in, but got a message saying I couldn't.

I'm running Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit).

That article shows me how to enable Security Centre through services - I can't do that, because it doesn't appear in Services. The "Microsoft FixIt" at the bottom says that it doesn't apply to my operating system or application version, despite the fact that the link to it was under the "For Windows 7" dialogue.

 

Go to this thread http://geekdrop.com/content/windows-security-center-service-is-missing-and-wont-start-solved
and read the post by Ki113R.
I'm reluctant to have you download registry fixes from strangers. He does a nice job of explaining that the entries are there, you can see them but they have been altered so they don't work.
The two downloads he mentions are very safe: AutoRuns and MS Security Essentials.
There are download links here that will download directly from MS
http://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/microsoft_autoruns.html
http://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/microsoft_security_essentials_for_windows.html

 

First you would want to do a malware cleanup.

Most of the time, these services get disabled and removed when you get a ZeroAccess Rootkit and/or the Internet Security 2014 Fake Anti-Virus.

Your easiest option would be to clean your PC first, and then run the Tweaking.com Repair Tool. It has the options built into it to restore the missing services.

The services it usually will disable (depending which one you have) is Background Intelligent Transfer Service (BITS), Base Filtering Engine (BFE), Security Center, Windows Defender, Windows Firewall, Windows Update.

Manually restoring all of these is a pain, trust me I have had to do it many times. The process involves doing the items in a specific pattern in order to restore them. If the services are missing all together, then you will need to re-create the service, add the correct registry entrys, add the correct registry permissions and of course reboot for the changes. You may need to do this several times, and unless you are familiar with each service and understand the dependent services, not to mention how to fix each one, your best bet is to let the repair tool handle it

On top of that, your system restore points may have been wiped and disabled as well plus a few other minor items.

 

I followed the instructions in Ki113R's post, and everything was going fine until it came to installing MSE.

No entry was to be found for me to delete; I can't install MSE. I get the error 8007643.

I'm pretty sure this particular malware was of the Internet Security 2014 variety. According to Malwarebytes, Avast, and any other tool I run (and my own meanderings through my drives), my computer is clean. I'll close my browser and run the repair tool. BITS, BFE, and Windows Update are intact: Defender and Firewall have been destroyed, along with the Security Centre (I assumed they were a part of the same program).

 

Thanks to both of you, the repair tool fixed my issues perfectly, and I have successfully reinstalled MSE. Got a few default settings to put back to my preferred state, but otherwise no further maintenence required.

It's thread locking time.

 

You are welcome.

Yes, if you had the IS2014 Fake AV, that particular one usually only removes Msspvc parts, which would explain why you couldn't installl MSE again as it trys to interact with a broken firewall!
That one also tinkers with the virtualizion client, wipes your system restore point and turns it off. It also removes several registry settings that disable notifying any protection being turned off....

I have reverse-engineered a script that should revert any of the other changes it has done as well. I will send it to you if interested.

 

Thank you, but I don't think I'll need it. Everything feels clean and new, like I've been set back to factory settings (well, a few things have), and I haven't run into any problems since the repair tool fixed the Security Centre and any other issues I may not have noticed.

I appreciate the offer, though.