How do I onboard my device into MDE without the MDE service and SENSE service running?

Question

Hi all,

I was wondering if someone knew how I can install Defender for Endpoint on my device. I tried installing MDE using the onboarding package (local script for windows 10/11), but it keeps returning this to me:

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Starting Microsoft Defender for Endpoint onboarding process...

Testing administrator privileges

Script is running with sufficient privileges

Performing onboarding operations

Starting the service, if not already running

Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Service has not started yet

Waiting for the service to start

[Error Id: 15, Error Level: 1] Unable to start Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Service.

Error message: The service name is invalid. For more information, visit: https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/p/?linkid=822807

Press any key to continue . . .

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I have been trying to get the Microsoft Defender for Endpoint service running, but the service does not even exist for me. Same thing for the SENSE service. I use Windows 11 pro as OS.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Geert

Answer 1

@Geert _vdb Thank you for reaching out to us, would recommend to review this doc - https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/defender-endpoint/troubleshoot-onboarding & https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/defender-endpoint/troubleshoot-security-config-mgt which covers most of the scenarios for onboarding the device with a script.

Let me know if this helps to isolate your issue or if doesn't help feel free to post back.