Defender error message

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" <> wrote in message
news:...
>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
>

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).



"Malcolm H" <> wrote in message
news:...
>
> "Dave Horne" <> wrote in message
> news:...
>>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
>>
>
> 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!)
>