Overview
- Microsoft confirmed on its Windows release health dashboard that recent Microsoft Defender updates can display false “Microsoft Defender Antivirus is turned off” notifications even though real-time protection remains active.
- The company says the misleading alerts can appear at startup and pop up intermittently afterward, and they may persist even if a user disables notification settings.
- Microsoft lists many affected builds across Windows 10, Windows 11, and several Windows Server releases, meaning both consumer and business systems can see the warnings.
- The vendor is developing a fix to be delivered in a future Microsoft Defender Antivirus update but has not given an estimated release date and is advising users to check the Windows Security app for the true protection status.
- The bug was reported earlier in Insider Release Preview channels and on forums, and it follows prior post-update notification issues that have caused user confusion and extra work for IT teams.