Windows Firewall is turned off.

Thank you for the response Ratandeep.  I apologize for taking this long to reply, things got worse before getting better and I was reluctant to get online.

The first I knew there was an issue was when I saw an Action Center notification to "Turn on Windows Firewall (Important)."  When I would click on that message, I would then receive:  "Action Center can't turn on Windows Firewall.  Turn on Windows Firewall manually."  It was not until after I read your response that I learned that meant to do so through the Services function.

Instead of doing as I should, I tried to turn the firewall on through Control Panel.  During numerous attempts I eventually clicked on Advanced Settings, which is when I saw the program had changed to Windows Firewall with Advanced Security.  Once I read that particular firewall was for a network, I knew it was time to get some help.

I had made no changes, hardware, software, nor settings, to my system prior to receiving the Action Center notification.  The notification was not there when I turned my computer off on 11/01 but was when I first went to the desktop on 11/02.

I'm afraid neither of your suggestions were directly successful Ratandeep.  However, your explanation of how to start a program in Services proved invaluable.

Because I take computer security seriously, this situation made me pretty nervous.  So, when following your directions didn't work, I tried a number of things until I stumbled upon a solution.  I also discovered, at some point, Windows Defender could not update (error code 0x50240022 and possible causes; a missing system file, incorrect System setting, or a problem with a registry file). 

During this frantic activity, I found myself once again staring at the various components within Control Panel when I decided to try Performance Information and Tools.  Advanced Tools?  Why not.  And finally, might as well see what happens clicking Generate System Health Report.  The health report showed eight services were not running and/or had been stopped.

Armed with that information and your directions for starting, or restarting, the services I was eventually able to restart Windows Firewall.  I know at least one other person has experienced this problem so I want to be sure to mention that some services have to be started in a particular order due to interconnected dependencies.

I also managed to get Windows Defender to complete an update but only after I manually ran and installed a Windows Update.

Thanks again for your help, Ratandeep.