A mysterious problem… FIXED!
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 I had a problem where I could not open a command prompt, could not turn on my Windows Defender, and could not access a lot of websites (including this one) unless I used a VPN. I ran the FREE version of Malware Bytes (it's actually a 14 day trial, but you don't have to give them a credit card or even email address.) 
 That found a ton of crap and removed it.. I ran it 3 times until it coudn't remove any more garbage.I think that fixed the problems.. but I also did an SFC /scannnow 
 And then did a Windows Inplace upgrade from an 8gb thumb drive.That fixed everything! no more vpn required now. I suspect my ISP (spectrum) did something to my computer when my firewall was down.