Microsoft has fixed a bug in Windows Security that incorrectly reported that the Microsoft Defender antivirus was disabled. The fix was included in the Defender platform update, version 4.18.26080.4, released on September 17. The update installs automatically and does not require user action unless mandatory security updates have been blocked through the group policy editor or the registry editor.
The false alert typically appeared during Windows startup and then occurred randomly, even with notifications turned off. Microsoft confirmed the issue on August 28, noting that it affected any supported versions of Windows or Windows Server with the latest Defender updates. However, the company did not specify which particular update caused the issue, as Defender updates are delivered daily and do not have a single KB to roll back to. Windows Insider users reportedly encountered similar warnings at least since June.
Noting that nearly three weeks passed between Microsoft's confirmation of the issue and its resolution, it can be said that this is quite a slow turnaround for such a noticeable bug. It is important to highlight that despite the frequency of Defender updates, the problem went unnoticed until it was mentioned by users. Each time users saw this warning, it simply opened the home tab of Windows Security, where everything was marked as active. Overall, Microsoft has long been working to improve the reliability of Windows Defender, and this update – is a step in the right direction.
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