Windows Defender is a software program that Microsoft has developed to make Internet browsing safe for Windows XP and Windows Vista users. The software helps in preventing, detecting, and removing spyware and other troublesome and harmful programs from your computer.
Windows Defender helps you protect your computer against undesirable pop-up ads displayed by adware programs, slow system performance due to unwanted spyware programs running in the background, and other security threats caused by spyware and adware infections. The tool works by scanning your entire computer for spyware information and then completely eliminating it from the system. The tool provides Real-Time protection for your computer and prevents spyware from infiltrating and installing itself on your system. With each alert, the tool gives relevant information about the detected threat and helps you make the removal decisions. In brief, the Windows Defender tool has been designed to keep your system secure and free from malicious spyware and adware programs.
To ensure that your computer stays secure against the latest spyware, Microsoft releases regular Windows Defender updates. These updates are installed when Windows Update is run on your system. You may encounter the following error message while Windows Defender is being updated on your Windows Vista computer.
Error Message:
Error found: Code 0x80240029 Issue
Cause of the Error
The error occurs usually due to one of the following conditions:
- There is problem with Windows Update
- The SoftwareDefender folder on your computer is corrupt
Resolution Methods
You can resolve the error by using one of the following methods. To perform these tasks, you need to log on to your Windows Vista computer with a user account that has administrative rights to the system.
Method 1: Install Windows Defender Update Definitions Manually
Because Windows Defender definitions are updated by Windows Updates, the error is displayed if the downloaded updates are not related to Windows Defender.
To solve this problem the first step is to try and manually install the Windows Defender definitions on your computer. To do this, click here to download and then manually install the latest updates.
Method 2: Rename the Corrupt SoftwareDefender Folder.
To rename the SoftwareDefender folder, perform the following steps:
- Close all programs currently running on the system.
- Open the Start menu, select Run, type CMD and then press Enter to display the Command Prompt window.
- Run the following commands at the prompt to first stop related services, rename the SoftwareDefender folder, and then restart the services you stopped earlier. In order to run the commands, type them at Command Prompt and then press Enter.
net stop wuauserv
net stop bits
ren %systemroot%\SoftwareDistribution SoftwareDistribution.old
net start wuauserv
net start bits
Method 3: Ensure that there are no problems with Microsoft Windows Update, Automatic Updates and Windows Server Update Service (WSUS)
To verify this, you need to check the Windowsupdate.log file for error messages. To view this file on your Windows Vista computer, do the following:
- Open the Start menu.
- Type %\windowsupdate.log in the Start Search dialog box and then press Enter.
- Go through the Windowsupdate.log file and search it for error messages. You can refer to the 902093 Windows Knowledgebase article on information to read the log file.
After you find the error messages, you can search for their resolution methods on the Microsoft Knowledgebase Website.
If you are unable to resolve the errors by either of these methods, you may need to contact a support executive for a solution.