Really sorry this happened, Family.
It's what you call a "learning experience."

I provided family with a link to open Settings in Windows 8, but she never answered if she tried it. It gave 3 options to get to the Security Settings.

I think making sure her Security is on before she uses Internet is the critical thing right now.
Hopefully she can at least get the Security back on, even if not the WMI.
Maybe she will just have to learn a different way to get to the Security Center than using the Taskbar. The Taskbar is convenient but not absolutely necessary.

I agree, but I've not had a lot of luck with giving her directions and having them work for her. And we can't post pictures here.

Hopefully she can use one of the 3 ways detailed - with pictures - in the link I provided to get to the Security Center.

What type of security does she have? I can access Norton form various places without having to check it through the Security Center. Or am I just totally not understanding this at all? Wouldn't be the first time!

We're not exactly sure what's going on. She may have turned off her anti-virus and then tried to use this WMI Toggle Big Fish told her to do. For some reason she can no longer turn her antivirus back on. But we're just guessing at this point.

window defender on, as network access protection.

Does that mean you managed to turn the antivirus on again?
If so, are you able to toggle WMI ?


She's using the Microsoft default, not Norton or any other 3rd party security suite.


And can you access from those places with WMI toggled off?
One thing for sure, I would NOT recommend turning off WMI to find out, considering the mess it made.

You can find descriptions on the Internet saying WMI is "part of Windows."
But it's hard to find any description of what might happen if you turn it off, other than that turning it off might get rid of a conflict.

Unfortunately turning WMI off means some things you may depend on may no longer be accessible in the usual way.
That was the problem -- WMI being toggled off meant Family couldn't access her antivirus the way she usually did to make sure it was on. The Big Fish tech said...

In the case of Defender, "your security's interface" would be the Windows Security Center.
And there was no "actual security will still remain running" because apparently it had already been turned off before WMI was toggled off.

I don't know Jenny (if I'd be able to access Norton with WMI toggled off but am only assuming I would be able to) and I almost posted right at the beginning that the question I would have asked before trying to use that WMI tool, was can you go back to normal and how. This is why I don't fiddle around hardly ever.

Anyway, it sounds like her antivirus is on but the Windows Security Center is alerting her that THAT is not working.

Not being a techie, I'm finished now.

It "should" go back to normal the same way you turned it off.
It's a toggle.
It sounded simple enough.

However the toggle apparently didn't work as intended for turning it back on, possibly because the Security Center had been turned off.

This kind of "fix" can be very simple when it works right.
But when it doesn't, it can be a mess for a non-technical person.

The main thing is that Family's antivirus is back on.
(at least I think it is, if I understood her right)
But if she wants her Taskbar working back the way it did, I think she'll have to turn WMI back on.
If it was my computer, I'd want the Taskbar working as normal.


Well, that's no way to learn anything.
Suppose it had worked perfectly, with no problems at all.
We'd have another potential fix for misbehaving Big Fish games in our arsenal.

What we've learned:
If you want to try this fix, make doubly sure your Security Software is on before toggling WMI off.

I'd sure like to know what family did to get her Defender turned back on - assuming that's what happened. I wish she would tell us what is going on and what she did.

it never was off, just my Windows security center, my action center is acting like the robot in lost in space, tellling me 1 important message, turn it on, network access protection was off turn it on.

Did you get your Security Center back on?

no, waiting for big fish, do not use it, or you will be sorry.

Family,

In the future, be sure to try the demo before buying a game from Big Fish.
It's not 100% accurate, but usually if there is a problem with the demo, there will be a problem with the purchased game, and you'll know to avoid it.

Don't ever do "weird stuff" to get a game or demo running.
Even I don't do that, and I can usually fix the stuff I break.
I just say "I'm not going to mess with this" and uninstall the demo.

I'll allow the Big Fish installer to download DirectX files or some version of C++ that I don't have, but I won't go beyond that.
Those programs and files come from Microsoft and won't hurt anything.

I've never had to turn off the Windows antivirus for a Big Fish game.
I don't see why any recent Big Fish game would require that.

I hope you can get your computer back to normal soon.
I think it's only the reporting that toggling WMI messed up, rather than the Security Center itself.
But most people won't know the difference, and it is certainly disconcerting to see things that usually work not work anymore.

family, this sounds like the only thing that is turned off is your Network Access Protection... which you likely don't need as it is part of Server 2008.

So, Defender is turned on, right?
Did you go to your Security Center using the link I provided in an earlier post?
Can you go to your hidden icons in the lower right, open it, right click on the icon and select the dashboard?

This time, PLEASE, PLEASE answer these questions exactly as I've asked them. We are just doing guess work right now.

We REALLY, REALLY need to move on from this and let it go. But we do want to be sure your Defender is working properly first. So please answer my questions clearly.

Good advice, Jenny. Better to just move on from a game that won’t work and no good explanation than to continue fiddling until the problem becomes worse.

window defender is working properly

OK. You didn't answer my questions as I asked you to do. But the bottom line is it's working, so let's move on. I consider this subject closed.

sorry i upset you, but window defender is working.

I'm not upset, family. It's just that you never answer our questions and it gets frustrating trying to help you. But if Defender is working that's all we wanted to make sure happened. The subject is closed, so let's move on. We've already taken up WAY too much time, energy and forum space on this.

okay thank you very much.

i finally turn Windows security center back on myself, i google it took til 4pm to turn it back on.

Don't ever turn it off again.
It's too much trouble to get it back.

tell me about it, i google window security center will not start.