Windows Defender - Can't Turn On

[drailing55]

For some reason, Windows isn't letting me activate Windows Defender even though I have no installed antivirus (as the below log reflects). I get a message that some program I've installed keeps me from doing it. If I try to go through the Action Center, hitting "Turn On Now" just opens system32 in Windows Explorer.

What could be causing this? My school requires us to have some "SafeConnect" program on our computer in order to connect to the internet there, but I uninstalled it as I'm home for the weekend and am trying to figure out why this is happening. Thanks.

Tech Support Guy System Info Utility version 1.0.0.2
OS Version: Microsoft Windows 8.1, 64 bit
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-4700HQ CPU @ 2.40GHz, Intel64 Family 6 Model 60 Stepping 3
Processor Count: 8
RAM: 12170 Mb
Graphics Card: Intel(R) HD Graphics 4600, -1984 Mb
Hard Drives: C: Total - 286159 MB, Free - 148293 MB; D: Total - 407623 MB, Free - 407476 MB;
Motherboard: ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC., G750JS
Antivirus: None

 

[etaf]

What firewall / security suite or anti-virus do you currently have on the PC - or you have ever had on the PC in the past - any trial ware - like Norton, kaspersky or Mcafee or any free security suites like zonealarm, AVG , Webroot etc

 

[drailing55]

I have had Kaspersky in the past so I got the Kaspersky Removal Tool and ran it but that hasn't helped at all.

 

[drailing55]

I've also tried to run the service in services.msc and msconfig but I always get error messages and trying to set it to run on startup is greyed out.