Windows Defender turned off??

I've been searching this forum for a question like mine, but no luck, so here goes.....

when I search for defender on the start screen, I get the defender icon, but when I click it, I get the message "Windows Defender has been turned off and isn't monitoring your computer. If you're using another app to check for malicious or unwanted software,

use Action Center to check that app's status." I bought this dell from dell directly, I did find on this forum where 3rd party vendors are allowed to disable defender to install their software - in this case mcafee. But I also saw one person say they uninstalled

mcafee and they still cant get defender working.

I have a dell inspiron 5720 laptop, running w8 64bit. the services tab shows all kinds of mcafee stuff running, but no mention of defender at all - I have nothing to even start or config.

I tried to download defender, and in the middle of install, it interrupted and said that defender is already avail to "vista" and no need to download then aborted the install.

Where do I go from here? I went to the dell support page, and after weaving my way down thru their support links, they sent me back to Microsoft for help.

Thanks

April

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