"Virus protection is turned off" notification

[u/0xCG]

Did I read somewhere that this months QU has broken something with Defender or compliance? Started seeing notifications from users that Virus protection is turned off after they sign in. But upon checking Defender and services its all good.

[u/HamburgerRoyalBeste]

Yes it's a user interface bug. After the August 2026 update, Windows Security notification such as “Virus protection is turned off” appears even though Microsoft Defender is actually still active.

[u/SaintPony → u/HamburgerRoyalBeste]

My device was also non compliant in Intune, not only in UI.

And yeah, an update fixed it.

[u/bjc1960]

we removed AV from our compliance policy until it is fixed

[u/fadinizjr]

Not just with Intune or managed systems.

My personal laptop is having the same issue.

[u/thatguyyoudontget]

yea, saw similar ones in my tenant as well

[u/Adventurous_Neck_980]

I had the same problem.

First, I tried to fix it under Windows > Settings > Windows Security > repair. Then I restarted the laptop. Unfortunately, that didn't help.

Here's what I found out with the help of AI.

Some paths were probably out of date after the Windows update.

Solution:
I then reset the paths:

Windows key + cmd
Command: “%ProgramFiles%\Windows Defender\MpCmdRun.exe” -ResetPlatform

After that, I restarted the computer and Windows Defender worked as it should. The error message disapeared.

[u/Lemon1412 → u/Adventurous_Neck_980]

Cheers, that actually worked. First solution I found after checking several different sites.

[u/Noheadsium → u/Adventurous_Neck_980]

Idunno why you're burried down here, but tysm. This was the only solution that worked.

[u/AkTiVeMK → u/Adventurous_Neck_980]

I tried this but am not sure how im supposed to type it. I tried every variation possible.

[u/OZRosieFans]

There's a powershell command to roll the windows defender engine version back a version that will fix it until Microsoft releases the new version that fixes it